High-Throughput Bayesian Optimization of Cement-Salt Hydrates Composites for Seasonal Thermochemical Energy Storage

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a high-throughput Bayesian optimization framework to design cement-salt composites for seasonal thermochemical energy storage, achieving significant improvements in energy density and cost-effectiveness.

Contribution

It introduces a Bayesian optimization approach to efficiently explore and optimize cement-salt composite materials for thermochemical energy storage.

Findings

Identified Pareto-optimal cement-salt composites with enhanced energy storage capacity.

Achieved up to fivefold improvement in specific energy over previous materials.

Highlighted cost-effective formulations based on CaCl₂ and Zn(NO₃)₂.

Abstract

Thermochemical energy storage (TCES) based on salt hydrates is a promising route for seasonal heat storage; however, the design of practical sorbent materials remains challenging due to a non-trivial coupling between composition, synthesis feasibility, performance, and cost. Here, focusing on salt-into-matrix cement-based composites, we demonstrate that a high-throughput experimental framework based on Bayesian optimization (BO) can be used to orchestrate the optimization process of composite materials for low-temperature TCES. The explored design space is defined by salt type, salt concentration, water-to-cement ratio, and additive-to-cement ratio, while two competing objectives are pursued in parallel, namely the specific energy and the specific energy cost. The BO-guided campaign identified Pareto-optimal composites based on CaCl$_2$, Zn(NO$_3$)$_2$, and LiCl, highlighting the promise of cement-salt combinations that have been only marginally explored, or not previously reported, in cement-based TCES systems. The best-performing formulation (LiCl-based), achieved an average specific energy of about $\SI{458}{\kilo\joule\per\kilo\gram}$, whereas CaCl$_2$- and Zn(NO$_3$)$_2$-based composites showed lower but still competitive specific energy values combined with more favorable specific energy cost. Overall, the optimized formulations improved the specific energy of previously developed cement-based materials by up to a factor of five, although it remains below that of state-of-the-art composites based on silica gel and expanded vermiculite. Nonetheless, the present materials, notably CaCl$_2$- and Zn(NO$_3$)$_2$-based composites, offer an attractive cost-to-performance balance, highlighting BO as an effective strategy for accelerated TCES materials discovery.