Application of phase change material in improving trombe wall efficiency: An up-to-date and comprehensive overview

Energy crises and environmental pollution are two of the cardinal obstacles that affect human life today. As part of the efforts to address the excessive energy demands in the last few decades is using renewable energy like solar. As the building sector continues to grow with the growing population, correspondingly, the demand for energy consumption required to heat and cool buildings for thermal comfort augments. To tackle this problem, techniques such as designing green buildings for sustainable architecture have been employed. One of these technologies is the Trombe wall which has been utilized as an avenue for heating buildings using renewable solar energy. Meanwhile, the practice of latent heat storage systems with phase change materials (PCM) is an efficient method to store energy. Substantial research has been carried out to assess the contribution of incorporation of latent heat storage and Trombe walls in buildings on their thermal energy performance. The present review paper communicates a summary of the recent advancements in this topic. The various designs of Trombe walls and different phase change materials types are presented. Research concerning the incorporation of PCM incorporation techniques is scrutinized. Finally, hitherto published literature regarding the applications of PCM in the Trombe wall is underscored and discussed.