water, energy (definately not *nix related)

[Henry Spencer]

On Sun, 26 Sep 2004, Byron L. Sonne wrote:
> Does anyone on the list know if there is any substance, preferably 
> liquid, that holds heat energy more readily and has a higher capacity 
> for heat storage than good ole H20?

Need to know more about the application.

As a general-purpose heat transfer and heat storage fluid, it is *really*
hard to beat water if you're working at a temperature it can handle.  For
quite fundamental reasons, its heat capacity is inordinately high compared
to most other materials.  There are excellent reasons why power plants use
water/steam and not something more exotic. 

For lower temperatures, typically people add antifreeze of one kind or
another -- glycols or salts -- to water.  For higher temperatures, often
they put water under pressure. 

If you want to store a lot of heat over a narrow temperature range, there
are phase-change salts which soak up a lot of heat when melting and
release it when freezing.  Water does that too, and does it better, but
has some annoying properties and only one choice of temperature.

                                                          Henry Spencer
                                                       henry-lqW1N6Cllo0sV2N9l4h3zg at public.gmane.org

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