Abstract: Combined with the market demand and the actual capacity of domestic industrial production units, the experimental study on the use of petroleum wax as raw material of phase change wax was carried out, in order to improve the economic benefits of petroleum wax products. The results showed that when the purity (w) of main paraffin reached more than 99% for the liquid wax and the melting range was less than 15 ℃ for the low melting point wax, the mass fraction of normal paraffin was more than 90% for common wax, the phase change enthalpy could meet the application requirements. The applications of phase change materials in different fields were also investigated.

Key words: petroleum wax, phase change material, enthalpy, normal paraffin