A single porous brick can store energy in three different ways at once, holding onto heat far longer than any battery.
April 25, 2026
Original Paper
Porous bulk composites enabling trimodal sensible-latent-thermochemical heat storage at high temperatures
SSRN · 6631925
The Takeaway
Renewable energy often goes to waste because we cannot store massive amounts of heat for industrial use without losing it to the environment. This new composite material combines liquid-to-solid changes, chemical reactions, and simple temperature increases in one structure. It acts like a thermal sponge that absorbs energy at high densities and releases it exactly when needed. This triple-threat approach solves the space problem for green energy storage by packing more power into a smaller volume. Factories could use these bricks to run on stored solar heat through the night without burning any fossil fuels.
From the abstract
With the accelerated global energy transition, the intermittency and instability of renewable energy have become the core bottleneck restricting their large-scale application. Thermal energy storage (TES) technology systems are the key to solving this problem. However, single-type TES materials are difficult to meet the comprehensive needs in complex scenarios, and multi-type composite TES materials are the core solution to this dilemma. In this study, for the first time, a porous structured bul