Energetical Analysis of Two Different Configurations of a Liquid-Gas Compressed Energy Storage

Abstract

In order to enhance the spreading of renewable energy sources in the Italian electric power market, as well as to promote self-production and to decrease the phase delay between energy production and consumption, energy storage solutions are catching on. Nowadays, in general, small size electric storage batteries represent a quite diffuse technology, while air liquid-compressed energy storage solutions are used for high size. The goal of this paper is the development of a numerical model for small size storage, environmentally sustainable, to exploit the higher efficiency of the liquid pumping to compress air. Two different solutions were analyzed, to improve the system efficiency and to exploit the heat produced by the compression phase of the gas. The study was performed with a numerical model implemented in Matlab, by analyzing the variation of thermodynamical parameters during the compression and the expansion phases, making an energetic assessment for the whole system. The results show a good global efficiency, thus making the system competitive with the smallest size storage batteries.

Selected Papers from the XI International Conference on Computational Heat, Mass and Momentum Transfer (ICCHMT 2018)

“…The novelty of this work emerges from the combination of a building simulation with a linear economic optimization of the energy system, to achieve the energy-plus house standard for a settlement. Vallati et al, [6] developed a numerical model for small size storage unit called GLES, environmentally sustainable, to exploit the higher efficiency of the liquid pumping to compress air. The GLES system with liquid spray atomization was proposed to improve the efficiency of the compressed-air energy storage system.…”

Current, Projected Performance and Costs of Thermal Energy Storage

“…Electrical, thermal, and thermochemical storage are the main types of storing energy, and each of them involves a wide range of technological systems [3][4][5][6]. In addition, a promising energy storage technology involves an electrolyzing process to produce hydrogen during a period of surplus energy and resupply it to microgrids [7,8].…”