Liquid air energy storage technology: a comprehensive review of research, development and deployment

Abstract

Liquid air energy storage (LAES) uses air as both the storage medium and working fluid, it falls into the broad category of thermo-mechanical energy storage technologies. Such a technology offers several advantages including high energy density and scalability, cost-competitiveness and non-geographical constraints, and hence has attracted a growing interest in recent years. As a result, several reviews have been published on the topic. However, these reviews covered little in the following aspects of LAES: dynamic simulation and optimisation, key components for LAES, LAES applications through integration, and unified economic model and cost models for LAES. This article provides a comprehensive review on the LAES technology and fills the above gaps. Apart from applications in electrical grids such as peak-shaving, load shifting, and dealing with intermittency of renewable generation, the review also shows a diverse range of other LAES applications through integration, including waste heat and cold energy recovery and utilisation, multi-energy-vector service provision, and sector coupling for chemical production and carbon capture. The review also led to the recommendation of several areas of LAES for future research and development, including dynamic characteristics of whole LAES system integrated with renewables and end users; thermo-economic and dynamic optimization of stand-alone LAES and integrated systems; and experimental study on commercial systems.

Comprehensive Thermodynamic Performance Evaluation of Various Gas Liquefaction Cycles for Cryogenic Energy Storage

“…The key parameters that influence the performance of the liquefaction process are the liquefaction cycle used, the heat exchanger effectiveness, the efficiency of the compressors and the turbines, the charging pressure, etc. [25]. In recent years, much research has been conducted to enhance CES conversion efficiency, which can be achieved by improving system configuration, optimizing thermal storage capabilities, and integrating the system with external heat sources [26].…”

Thermodynamic optimization of solar aided liquid air energy storage systems

“…The round-trip efficiency (𝑅𝑇𝐸) is predicted to be between 40 % and 67 % [4]. A way to increase the economic attractiveness of the system is integration with external hot or cold energy sources [6]. Coupling with concentrated solar power (CSP) is deemed especially beneficial for sun-rich regions.…”