Our technology
Cartesian offers a thermal energy storage technology with phase change materials – an effective and compact method for storing heating and cooling for building applications.
Did you know that more than half of the electricity used in the building sector is to produce heating and cooling?
Cooling is also the fastest growing end-use of electricity in the building sector. Storing of thermal energy is therefore the most attractive way to unlock the flexibility potential in buildings, reducing the peak power demand and the energy costs.
Cartesian’s solutions help you optimise your energy usage to balance your grid capacity and save surplus energy for later use.
Modular design to allow scaling for every use-case
Concept based on 10+ years
of R&D at SINTEF
Wide temperature range
(from -20°C to 120 °C), simply by adapting the PCM material
Robust, with lifetime expectancy of minimum 25 years
Integration of Thermal Box
The Thermal Box from Cartesian is designed to be easily integrated into heating or cooling systems in commercial buildings. Heating in these buildings is primarily provided by water circuits carrying the heat around the building from a centralised heating system, where either a heat pump, electric heater, gas boiler or district heating provides the heat. For cooling applications, the principle is the same, just by circulating cold water or glycol in the building
provided by a centralised refrigeration plant.
Our technology integrates seamlessly with these systems to reduce the required installed capacity of heating and cooling systems, reducing the dimensioning and investment costs for these systems. Get ready to realise unlock the flexibility by integrating Cartesian’s Thermal Box in your system and improve the operation of heat pumps and refrigeration systems.
Scalable
Cartesian offers scalable and cost-effective thermal energy storage systems for heating and cooling applications in buildings. We know that every building is different, and the heating and cooling profiles will therefore differ between buildings. Our thermal energy storage solution can be scaled by adding more modules together for increased storage capacity and thermal output. This gives the building owner flexibility with respect to placement of the Thermal Box, with easy transportation into the building during installation.
Cartesian’s Thermal Box can be placed in a technical room or other inside area, or if its more convenient, it can simply be placed outdoors. Cartesian’s scalable approach gives the
possibility to configure the modules according to both high and moderate thermal output, depending on the demand for heating or cooling onsite.
Phase change materials
The technology is based on the principle of absorbing and/or releasing thermal energy using the phase change of a material. When a solid material is heated to a temperature above its melting point, it absorbs heat and melts. Conversely, when a liquid is cooled below its freezing point, it releases heat and solidifies.
The process of phase change for the material requires a substantial amount of energy compared to heating up, which means that they can store large amounts of energy per unit volume. This is referred to as high energy density, where the higher the energy density is, the more compact the thermal energy storage will be.
Materials that are capable of storing large amounts of thermal energy through the phase change process between solid and liquid are often referred to as Phase Change Materials or PCMs.
Using ice as an example, it requires 80 times more energy to melt 1 kg of ice to water at 0°C compared to heating up 1 kg of liquid water from 0°C to 1°C. In addition to water, there are
hundreds of PCMs available on the marked with different phase change temperature. Cartesian will source the perfect PCM for each application from our catalogue of well-tested candidates.
