Sustainable phase change materials (PCMs): waste fat from cooking pork meat confined in polypropylene fibrous mat from waste surgical mask and porous bio-silica

In this article, waste fat deriving from the cooking process of pork sausages has been studied as a sustainable phase change material (PCM). The waste fat is composed of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids and presents melting point and melting enthalpy values of 32 & DEG;C and 20 J/g respectively. The BioPCM was confined in two different hosts, namely (i) biosilica (diatomite) and (ii) polypropylene nonwoven mat coming from surgical mask filter waste. Both hosts are effective in entrapping high quantity of BioPCM (i.e. 65-75%) maintaining its physical and thermal properties. A simplified analytical model has been developed to analyze the use of the BioPCM in building passive cooling application simulating the thermal behavior of a building wall containing the BioPCM confined in the hosts. A transmitted thermal power per unit area of 10.2 W/m2 was obtained. This value is 37% less of transmitted thermal power calculated for the wall without the BioPCM (16.2 W/m2), confirming that waste cooking fat can be an effective eco-sustainable solution in a good practice of circular economy.