Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Compressed air energy storage with liquid air capacity extension

Kantharaj, Bharath; Garvey, Seamus D.; Pimm, Andrew James

Authors

Andrew James Pimm



Abstract

As renewable electricity generation capacity increases, energy storage will be required at larger scales. Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) at large scales, with effective management of heat, is recognised to have potential to provide affordable grid-scale energy storage. Where suitable geologies are unavailable, compressed air could be stored in pressurised steel tanks above ground, but this would incur significant storage costs. Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES), on the other hand, does not need a pressurised storage vessel, can be located almost anywhere, has a relatively large volumetric exergy density at ambient pressure, and has relatively low marginal cost of energy storage capacity even at modest scales. However, it has lower roundtrip efficiency than compressed air energy storage technologies. This paper carries out thermodynamic analyses for an energy storage installation comprising a compressed air component supplemented with a liquid air store, and additional machinery to transform between gaseous air at ambient temperature and high pressure, and liquid air at ambient pressure. A roundtrip efficiency of 42% is obtained for the conversion of compressed air at 50 bar to liquid air, and back. The proposed system is more economical than pure LAES and more economical than a pure CAES installation if the storage duration is sufficiently long and if the high-pressure air store cannot exploit some large-scale geological feature.

Citation

Kantharaj, B., Garvey, S. D., & Pimm, A. J. (2015). Compressed air energy storage with liquid air capacity extension. Applied Energy, 157, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.07.076

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 29, 2015
Online Publication Date Aug 22, 2015
Publication Date Nov 1, 2015
Deposit Date Aug 22, 2017
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Applied Energy
Print ISSN 0306-2619
Electronic ISSN 0306-2619
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 157
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.07.076
Keywords Energy storage, Compressed air energy storage, Liquid air energy storage, Multistream plate-fin heat exchanger, Exergy
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/762455
Publisher URL http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261915009435

Files





You might also like



Downloadable Citations