A cool storage system using a refrigerant gas hydrate as the storage medium and being direct-contact charged, direct-contact discharged is under development at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. A test facility has been built and was operated without any problem during either the charging or the discharging process. Some of the tests performed are described. At present, only refrigerant-12 has been used. Future plans include the use of other low-pressure refrigerants or mixtures of refrigerants that also form hydrates in order to reduce the total pressure in the system. A full-scale cool storage system is under design.

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