Operational characteristics of solar-gas combined heating water system with phase change heat storage units for oilfield hot water stations

To achieve the low carbonization heating purpose of oilfield hot water stations, an innovative solar-gas combined heating water system with phase change heat storage (PCHS) units is proposed. The operating characteristics of the combined heating system utilizing PCHS and traditional water heat storage (WHS) are compared. The impact of the phase transition temperature of phase change materials (PCMs) on the operational characteristics is simultaneously investigated. The findings demonstrate that the utilization of PCHS can yield a reduction in gas consumption for the combined heating system by about 7.02 % compared to WHS. Moreover, the combined heating system achieves better energy savings when the phase transition temperature is slightly lower than the heat demand temperature at the load end. The heating demand of gas boilers is reduced by about 75.60 GJ during the summer and autumn when the phase change temperature changes from 80 degrees C to 62 degrees C. This study provides theoretical guidance and references for the industrial application of solar heating systems (SHSs) that utilize PCHS units.