Resumen: A 46 l commercial tank with a helical coil heat exchanger and containing a low cost phase change material emulsion has been experimentally analyzed as a thermal energy storage system in terms of volumetric energy density and heat transfer rate, for its subsequent comparison with other thermal energy storage systems. This phase change material emulsion shows a phase change temperature range between 30 and 50°C, its solids content is about 60% with an average particle size of 1 µm. The low cost phase change material emulsion shows a thermal storage capacity by mass 50% higher than water and an increase in viscosity up to 2-5 orders of magnitude. The results have shown that the global heat transfer coefficient of the phase change material emulsion tank is around 2-6 times higher than for conventional latent systems previously analyzed in literature, although 5 times lower than if it contains water. The phase change material emulsion tank presents an energy density 34% higher than the water tank, which makes it a promising solution. Measures to improve its performance are also studied in this work. Idioma: Inglés DOI: 10.1016/j.enconman.2015.09.033 Año: 2015 Publicado en: ENERGY CONVERSION AND MANAGEMENT 106 (2015), 201-212 ISSN: 0196-8904 Factor impacto JCR: 4.801 (2015) Categ. JCR: ENERGY & FUELS rank: 12 / 88 = 0.136 (2015) - Q1 - T1 Categ. JCR: THERMODYNAMICS rank: 2 / 57 = 0.035 (2015) - Q1 - T1 Categ. JCR: PHYSICS, NUCLEAR rank: 3 / 21 = 0.143 (2015) - Q1 - T1 Categ. JCR: MECHANICS rank: 3 / 135 = 0.022 (2015) - Q1 - T1 Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 2.023 - Energy Engineering and Power Technology (Q1) - Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment (Q1) - Nuclear Energy and Engineering (Q1) - Fuel Technology (Q1)