Latent Heat Storage for Energy-Efficient Buildings and Zero-Carbon Communities

Yuekuan Zhou is an Assistant Professor of Sustainable Energy and Environment at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), China. His research aims at achieving smart zero-energy and zero-carbon district energy systems for carbon neutrality and climate change mitigation, via cleaner power production, energy-efficient system design and operation, innovation in smart energy integration, multi-objective optimization on nonlinear dynamic behaviours with artificial intelligence. Asst. Prof. Zhou has published more than 80 papers on these topics in international, peer-reviewed journals. His current research interests include latent thermal storage, electrochemical battery, hydrogen and pumped hydro storages in zero-energy buildings, life-cycle carbon-neutral buildings, peer-to-peer energy trading and inter-city energy migration energy network with a hydrogen economy. Dr. Liu currently works as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at Delft University of Technology. He is also the Assistant Dean of the Institute for Sustainable Urbanization and Construction Innovation at Hunan University. In 2019, he obtained a joint PhD from Hunan University (China) and the University of Lyon-ENTPE (France). In 2022, he won the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowships and was honored with a Vebleo Fellowship, which recognizes researchers or scientists who have prominence and leadership in the field of science, engineering, and technology. His research interests include energy storage, zero-carbon buildings, district heating/cooling, energy system modeling, low-carbon energy transition, green construction and management. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Housing and the Built Environment (Springer) and the Editor of the International Journal of Architectural Engineering Technology (Avanti Publishers).Dr. Zheng is a full-time post-doc researcher at City University of Hong Kong. Her areas of expertise include green sustainability, district energy systems, energy storage, energy sharing and trading, ESG. Prof. Zhang was the national candidate of the New Century Talents project, an innovative promotion plan of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. His areas of expertise include indoor air quality, district energy systems, and high-quality, sustainable construction, and his work has received recognition at a national and international level. Prof. Zhang is the founding scientist of the China Construction 4.0 – Sustainable Urbanization and Construction Innovation Platform, but also serves as Dean of the Institute of Sustainable Urbanization and Construction Innovation at Hunan University and as Director of the National Center for International Research Collaboration in Building Safety and Environment of the People’s Republic of China.

• Part I. Fundamentals and Properties1. Introduction to Latent Heat Storage Technologies for Energy-efficient Buildings and Zero-carbon Communities2. Fundamentals of PCMs and Thermo-physical Properties in Energy-efficient Buildings and Zero-carbon Communities3. Classification, Manufacture, and Selection of PCMs for Energy-efficient Buildings4. Micro- and Macro-encapsulation Techniques for Advanced PCM Systems5. Enhancing Heat Transfer in PCM Systems for Energy-efficient Buildings6. Nanoscale Thermal Transport Mechanisms in PCM Systems: Advances and ApplicationsPart II. PCM Integration7. PCM Integration in Building Envelopes: Mathematical Models and Performance Analysis8. PCM Integration in Radiative Cooling/Heating Systems for Energy Efficiency9. PCM Integration in Ground Source Heat Pumps for District Heating/Cooling: Models and Analysis10. PCM Integration in Building Integrated Solar Photovoltaics (PV): Performance Assessment and Optimization11. PCM Integration in Centralized Thermal Energy Storage Systems for Net-zero CommunitiesPart III. Applications12. Thermal Management of PCMs in Building Envelopes and Solar PV Systems13. Advanced Control Strategies for Thermal Energy Management with PCMs in Energy-efficient Buildings14. Model Predictive Control of Latent Heat Storage for Renewable Self-Consumption and Grid Response15. Metaheuristic Optimization for Design and Operation of PCM Systems in Energy-efficient Buildings16. Machine Learning-empowered Intelligence for Stochastic Uncertainty-based Optimization in PCM Systems17. Climate-adaptive PCM Integrated Systems: Techno-economic-environmental Performance Analysis18. PCM-based Waste Heat Recovery for Decarbonization in Net-zero CommunitiesPart IV. Challenges and Future Directions19. Prospects and Challenges in Advancing Latent Heat Storage for Energy-efficient Buildings20. Future Directions and Emerging Research Areas in Latent Heat Storage for Zero-carbon Communities