Air tightness of compressed air storage energy caverns with polymer sealing layer subjected to various air pressures

During the operation of compressed air storage energy system,the rapid change of air pressure in a cavern will cause drastic changes in air density and permeability coefficient of sealing layer.To calculate and properly evaluate air tightness of polymer sealing caverns,the air-pressure-related air density and permeability must be considered.In this context,the high-pressure air penetration in the polymer sealing layer is studied in consideration of thermodynamic change of the cavern structure during the system operation.The air tightness model of compressed air storage energy caverns is then established.In the model,the permeability coefficient and air density of sealing layer vary with air pressure,and the effectiveness of the model is verified by field data in two test caverns.Finally,a compressed air storage energy cavern is taken as an example to understand the air tightness.The air leakage rate in the caverns is larger than that using air-pressure-independent permeability coefficient and air density,which is constant and small in the previous leakage rate calculation.Under the operating pressure of 4.5-10 MPa,the daily air leakage in the compressed air storage energy cavern of Yungang Mine with high polymer butyl rubber as the sealing material is 0.62%,which can meet the sealing requirements of compressed air storage energy caverns.The air tightness of the polymer sealing cavern is mainly affected by the cavern operating pressure,injected air temperature,cavern radius,and sealing layer thickness.The cavern air leakage rate will be decreased to reduce the cavern operating pressure the injection air temperature,or the cavern radius and sealing layer thickness will be increased.

Design and Development of Wind-Solar Hybrid Power System with Compressed Air Energy Storage for Voltage and Frequency Regulations

The intermittent nature of wind and solar photovoltaic energy systems leads to the fluctuation of power generated due to the fact that the power output is highly dependent upon local weather conditions, which results to the load shading issue that led to the voltage and frequency instability. In additional to that, the high proportions of erratic renewable energy sources can lead to erratic frequency changes which affect the grid stability. In order to reduce this effect, the energy storage system is commonly used in most wind-solar energy systems to balance the voltage and frequency instability during load variations. One of the innovative energy storage systems is the compressed air energy storage system (CAES) for wind and solar hybrid energy system and this technology is the key focus in this research study. The aim of this research was to examine the system configuration of the CAES system through modelling and experimental approach with PID controller design for regulating the voltage and frequency under different load conditions. The essential elements and the entire system have been presented in this work as thorough modelling in the MATLAB/Simulink environment for different load conditions. The developed model was tested through an experimental workbench using the developed prototype of the compressed air storage in the Siemens Lab at DeKUT and explored the consequence of the working parameters on the system proficiency and the model accuracy. The performance of the system for the developed prototype of CAES system was validated using results from an experimental workbench with MATLAB/Simulink R2022b simulation. The modeling and experimental results, shows that the frequency fluctuation and voltage drop of the developed CAES system during load variations was governed by the I/P converter using a PID_Compact controller programed in the TIA Portal V17 software and downloaded into PLC S7 1200. Based on these results, the model can be applied as a basis for the performance assessment of the compressed air energy storage system so as to be included in current technology of wind and solar hybrid energy systems.

A power plant for integrated waste energy recovery from liquid air energy storage and liquefied natural gas

Liquefied natural gas(LNG)is regarded as one of the cleanest fossil fuel and has experienced significant developments in recent years.The liquefaction process of natural gas is energy-intensive,while the regasification of LNG gives out a huge amount of waste energy since plenty of high grade cold energy(-160℃)from LNG is released to sea water directly in most cases,and also sometimes LNG is burned for regasification.On the other hand,liquid air energy storage(LAES)is an emerging energy storage technology for applications such as peak load shifting of power grids,which generates 30%-40%of compression heat(-200℃).Such heat could lead to energy waste if not recovered and used.The recovery of the compression heat is technically feasible but requires additional capital investment,which may not always be economically attractive.Therefore,we propose a power plant for recovering the waste cryogenic energy from LNG regasification and compression heat from the LAES.The challenge for such a power plant is the wide working temperature range between the low-temperature exergy source(-160℃)and heat source(-200℃).Nitrogen and argon are proposed as the working fluids to address the challenge.Thermodynamic analyses are carried out and the results show that the power plant could achieve a thermal efficiency of 27%and 19%and an exergy efficiency of 40%and 28%for nitrogen and argon,respectively.Here,with the nitrogen as working fluid undergoes a complete Brayton Cycle,while the argon based power plant goes through a combined Brayton and Rankine Cycle.Besides,the economic analysis shows that the payback period of this proposed system is only 2.2 years,utilizing the excess heat from a 5 MW/40 MWh LAES system.The findings suggest that the waste energy based power plant could be co-located with the LNG terminal and LAES plant,providing additional power output and reducing energy waste.

Performance Analysis of Constant-Pressure Pumped Hydro Combined with Compressed Air Energy Storage System Considering Off-Design Model of Compressor

With the wide application of renewable energy, energy storage technology has become a research hotspot. In order to overcome the shortcomings of energy loss caused by compression heating in compressed air energy storage technology, a novel constant-pressure pumped hydro combined with compressed air energy storage system was proposed. To deepen the understanding of the system and make the analysis closer to reality, this paper adopted an off-design model of the compressor to calculate and analyze the effect of key parameters on system thermodynamics performance. In addition, the results of this paper were compared with previous research results, and it was found that the current efficiency considering the off-design model of compressor was generally 2% - 5% higher than the previous efficiency. With increased preset pressure or with decreased terminal pressure, both the previous efficiency and current efficiency of the system increased. The exergy destruction coefficient of the throttle valve reached 4%. System efficiency was more sensitive to changes in water pump efficiency and hydroturbine efficiency.

A novel nano-grade organosilicon polymer:Improving airtightness of compressed air energy storage in hard rock formations

Enhancing cavern sealing is crucial for improving the efficiency of compressed air energy storage(CAES)in hard rock formations.This study introduced a novel approach using a nano-grade organosilicon polymer(NOSP)as a sealant,coupled with an air seepage evaluation model that incorporates Knudsen diffusion.Moreover,the initial coating application methods were outlined,and the advantages of using NOSP compared to other sealing materials,particularly regarding cost and construction techniques,were also examined and discussed.Experimental results indicated a significant reduction in permeability of rock specimens coated with a 7–10μm thick NOSP layer.Specifically,under a 0.5 MPa pulse pressure,the permeability decreased to less than 1 n D,and under a 4 MPa pulse pressure,it ranged between4.5×10^(-6)–5.5×10^(-6)m D,marking a 75%–80%decrease in granite permeability.The sealing efficacy of NOSP surpasses concrete and is comparable to rubber materials.The optimal viscosity for application lies between 95 and 105 KU,and the coating thickness should ideally range from 7 to 10μm,applied to substrates with less than 3%porosity.This study provides new insights into air transport and sealing mechanisms at the pore level,proposing NOSP as a cost-effective and simplified solution for CAES applications.

Comparative analysis of thermodynamic and mechanical responses between underground hydrogen storage and compressed air energy storage in lined rock caverns

Underground hydrogen storage(UHS)and compressed air energy storage(CAES)are two viable largescale energy storage technologies for mitigating the intermittency of wind and solar power.Therefore,it is meaningful to compare the properties of hydrogen and air with typical thermodynamic storage processes.This study employs a multi-physical coupling model to compare the operations of CAES and UHS,integrating gas thermodynamics within caverns,thermal conduction,and mechanical deformation around rock caverns.Gas thermodynamic responses are validated using additional simulations and the field test data.Temperature and pressure variations of air and hydrogen within rock caverns exhibit similarities under both adiabatic and diabatic simulation modes.Hydrogen reaches higher temperature and pressure following gas charging stage compared to air,and the ideal gas assumption may lead to overestimation of gas temperature and pressure.Unlike steel lining of CAES,the sealing layer(fibre-reinforced plastic FRP)in UHS is prone to deformation but can effectively mitigates stress in the sealing layer.In CAES,the first principal stress on the surface of the sealing layer and concrete lining is tensile stress,whereas UHS exhibits compressive stress in the same areas.Our present research can provide references for the selection of energy storage methods.

Increasing Coal-Fired Power Plant Operational Flexibility by Integrating Solar Thermal Energy and Compressed Air Energy Storage System

This paper proposed a novel integrated system with solar energy,thermal energy storage(TES),coal-fired power plant(CFPP),and compressed air energy storage(CAES)system to improve the operational flexibility of the CFPP.A portion of the solar energy is adopted for preheating the boiler’s feedwater,and another portion is stored in the TES for the CAES discharging process.Condensate water from the CFPP condenser is used for cooling compressed air during the CAES charging process.The thermodynamic performance of the integrated system under different load conditions is studied.The system operations in a typical day are simulated with EBSILON software.The system enables daily coal saving of 9.88 t and reduces CO_(2)emission by 27.95 t compared with the original CFPP at 100%load.Under partial load conditions,the system enables maximum coal saving of 10.29 t and maximum CO_(2)emission reduction of 29.11 t at 75%load.The system has maximum peak shaving depth of 9.42%under 40%load condition.The potential of the system participating ancillary service is also discussed.It is found that the integration of solar thermal system and CAES system can bring significant ancillary service revenue to a conventional CFPP.

Efficiency Analysis of an Arrayed Liquid Piston Isothermal Air Compression System for Compressed Air Energy Storage

Compressed air energy storage(CAES)is an important technology in the development of renewable energy.The main advantages of CAES are its high energy capacity and environmental friendliness.One of the main challenges is its low energy density,meaning a natural cavern is required for air storage.High-pressure air compression can effectively solve the problem.A liquid piston gas compressor facilitates high-pressure compression,and efficient convective heat transfer can significantly reduce the compression energy consumption during air compression.In this paper,a near isothermal compression method is proposed to increase the surface area and heat exchange by using multiple tube bundles in parallel in the compression chamber in order to obtain high-pressure air using liquid-driven compression.Air compression with a compression ratio of 6.25:1 is achieved by reducing the tube diameter and increasing the parallel tube number while keeping the compression chamber cross-sectional area constant in order to obtain a high-pressure air of 5 MPa.The performances of this system are analyzed when different numbers of tubes are applied.A system compression efficiency of 93.0%and an expansion efficiency of 92.9%can be achieved when 1000 tubes are applied at a 1 minute period.A new approach is provided in this study to achieve high efficiency and high pressure compressed air energy storage.

Optimal dispatch of zero-carbon-emission micro Energy Internet integrated with non-supplementary fired compressed air energy storage system

To utilize heat and electricity in a clean and integrated manner,a zero-carbon-emission micro Energy Internet(ZCE-MEI) architecture is proposed by incorporating non-supplementary fired compressed air energy storage(NSF-CAES) hub.A typical ZCE-MEI combining power distribution network(PDN) and district heating network(DHN) with NSF-CAES is considered in this paper.NSF-CAES hub is formulated to take the thermal dynamic and pressure behavior into account to enhance dispatch flexibility.A modified Dist Flow model is utilized to allow several discrete and continuous reactive power compensators to maintain voltage quality of PDN.Optimal operation of the ZCE-MEI is firstly modeled as a mixed integer nonlinear programming(MINLP).Several transformations and simplifications are taken to convert the problem as a mixed integer linear programming(MILP)which can be effectively solved by CPLEX.A typical test system composed of a NSF-CAES hub,a 33-bus PDN,and an 8-node DHN is adopted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed ZCE-MEI in terms of reducing operation cost and wind curtailment.

Optimization of Operation Strategies for a Combined Cooling, Heating and Power System based on Adiabatic Compressed Air Energy Storage

The fluctuations of renewable energy and various energy demands are crucial issues for the optimal design and operation of combined cooling,heating and power(CCHP)system.In this paper,a novel CCHP system is simulated with advanced adiabatic compressed air energy storage(AA-CAES)technology as a join to connect with wind energy generation and an internal-combustion engine(ICE).The capital cost of utilities,energy cost,environmental protection cost and primary energy savings ratio(P E S R)are used as system performance indicators.To fulfill the cooling,heating and power requirements of a district and consider the thermal-electric coupling of ICE and AA-CAES in CCHP system,three operation strategies are established to schedule the dispatch of AA-CAES and ICE:ICE priority operation strategy,CAES priority operation strategy and simultaneous operation strategy.Each strategy leads the operation load of AA-CAES or ICE to improve the energy supply efficiency of the system.Moreover,to minimize comprehensive costs and maximize the P E S R,a novel optimization algorithm based on intelligent updating multi-objective differential evolution(MODE)is proposed to solve the optimization model.Considering the multi-interface characteristic and active management ability of the ICE and AA-CAES,the economic benefits and energy efficiency of the three operation strategies are compared by the simulation with the same system configuration.On a typical summer day,the simultaneous strategy is the best solution as the total cost is 3643 USD and the P E S R is 66.1%,while on a typical winter day,the ICE priority strategy is the best solution as the total cost is 4529 USD and the P E S R is 64.4%.The proposed methodology provides the CCHP based AA-CAES system with a better optimized operation.

Review and prospect of compressed air energy storage system

As an effective approach of implementing power load shifting,fostering the accommodation of renewable energy,such as the wind and solar generation,energy storage technique is playing an important role in the smart grid and energy internet.Compressed air energy storage(CAES) is a promising energy storage technology due to its cleanness,high efficiency,low cost,and long service life.This paper surveys state-of-the-art technologies of CAES,and makes endeavors to demonstrate the fundamental principles,classifications and operation modes of CAES.Critical subsystems of CAES are elaborated exhaustively.The application prospects and further research directions are summarized to promote the popularization of CAES in smart grid and energy internet.

The carbon dioxide removal potential of Liquid Air Energy Storage: A high-level technical and economic appraisal

Liquid Air Energy Storage(LAES)is at pilot scale.Air cooling and liquefaction stores energy;reheating revaporises the air at pressure,powering a turbine or engine(Ameel et al.,2013).Liquefaction requires water&CO2 removal,preventing ice fouling.This paper proposes subsequent geological storage of this CO2–offering a novel Carbon Dioxide Removal(CDR)by-product,for the energy storage industry.It additionally assesses the scale constraint and economic opportunity offered by implementing this CDR approach.Similarly,established Compressed Air Energy Storage(CAES)uses air compression and subsequent expansion.CAES could also add CO2 scrubbing and subsequent storage,at extra cost.CAES stores fewer joules per kilogram of air than LAES–potentially scrubbing more CO2 per joule stored.Operational LAES/CAES technologies cannot offer full-scale CDR this century(Stocker et al.,2014),yet they could offer around 4%of projected CO2 disposals for LAES and<25%for current-technology CAES.LAES CDR could reach trillion-dollar scale this century(20 billion USD/year,to first order).A larger,less certain commercial CDR opportunity exists for modified conventional CAES,due to additional equipment requirements.CDR may be commercially critical for LAES/CAES usage growth,and the necessary infrastructure may influence plant scaling and placement.A suggested design for low-pressure CAES theoretically offers global-scale CDR potential within a century(ignoring siting constraints)–but this must be costed against competing CDR and energy storage technologies.

Lowering the cost of large-scale energy storage:High temperature adiabatic compressed air energy storage

Compressed air energy storage is an energy storage technology with strong potential to play a significant role in balancing energy on transmission networks,owing to its use of mature technologies and low cost per unit of storage capacity.Adiabatic compressed air energy storage(A-CAES)systems typically compress air from ambient temperature in the charge phase and expand the air back to ambient temperature in the discharge phase.This papers explores the use of an innovative operating scheme for an A-CAES system aimed at lowering the total cost of the system for a given exergy storage capacity.The configuration proposed considers preheating of the air before compression which increases the fraction of the total exergy that is stored in the fom of high-grade heat in comparison to existing designs in which the main exergy storage medium is the compressed air itself.Storing a high fraction of the total exergy as heat allows reducing the capacity of costly pressure stores in the system and replacing it with cheaper thermal energy stores.Additionally,a configuration that integrates a system based on the aforementioned concept with solar thermal power or low-medium grade waste heat is introduced and thoroughly discussed.

Liquid Air Energy Storage for Decentralized Micro Energy Networks with Combined Cooling,Heating,Hot Water and Power Supply

Liquid air energy storage(LAES)has been regarded as a large-scale electrical storage technology.In this paper,we first investigate the performance of the current LAES(termed as a baseline LAES)over a far wider range of charging pressure(1 to 21 MPa).Our analyses show that the baseline LAES could achieve an electrical round trip efficiency(e RTE)above 60%at a high charging pressure of 19 MPa.The baseline LAES,however,produces a large amount of excess heat particularly at low charging pressures with the maximum occurred at~1 MPa.Hence,the performance of the baseline LAES,especially at low charging pressures,is underestimated by only considering electrical energy in all the previous research.The performance of the baseline LAES with excess heat is then evaluated which gives a high e RTE even at lower charging pressures;the local maximum of 62%is achieved at~4 MPa.As a result of the above,a hybrid LAES system is proposed to provide cooling,heating,hot water and power.To evaluate the performance of the hybrid LAES system,three performance indicators are considered:nominal-electrical round trip efficiency(ne RTE),primary energy savings and avoided carbon dioxide emissions.Our results show that the hybrid LAES can achieve a high ne RTE between 52%and 76%,with the maximum at~5 MPa.For a given size of hybrid LAES(1 MW×8 h),the primary energy savings and avoided carbon dioxide emissions are up to 12.1 MWh and 2.3 ton,respectively.These new findings suggest,for the first time,that small-scale LAES systems could be best operated at lower charging pressures and the technologies have a great potential for applications in local decentralized micro energy networks.

Performance Assessment of Low-Temperature A-CAES(Adiabatic Compressed Air Energy Storage)Plants

The widespread diffusion of renewable energy sources calls for the development of high-capacity energy storage systems as the A-CAES(Adiabatic Compressed Air Energy Storage)systems.In this framework,low temperature(100℃–200℃)A-CAES(LT-ACAES)systems can assume a key role,avoiding some critical issues connected to the operation of high temperature ones.In this paper,two different LT-ACAES configurations are proposed.The two configurations are characterized by the same turbomachines and compressed air storage section,while differ in the TES section and its integration with the turbomachinery.In particular,the first configuration includes two separated cycles:the working fluid(air)cycle and the heat transfer fluid(HTF)cycle.Several heat exchangers connect the two cycles allowing to recover thermal energy from the compressors and to heat the compressed air at the turbine inlet.Two different HTFs were considered:air(case A)and thermal oil(case B).The second configuration is composed of only one cycle,where the operating fluid and the HTF are the same(air)and the TES section is composed of three different packed-bed thermal storage tanks(case C).The tanks directly recover the heat from the compressors and heat the air at each turbine inlet,avoiding the use of heat exchangers.The LT-ACAES systems were modelled and simulated using the ASPEN-Plus and the MATLAB-Simulink environments.The main aim of this study was the detailed analysis of the reciprocal influence between the turbomachinery and the TES system;furthermore,the performance evaluation of each plant was carried out assuming both on-design and off-design operating conditions.Finally,the different configurations were compared through the main performance parameters,such as the round-trip efficiency.A total power output of around 10 MW was set,leading to a TES tank volume ranging between 500 and 700 m^(3).The second configuration with three TES systems appears to be the most promising in terms of round-trip efficiency since the energy produced during the discharging phase is greater.In particular,the round-trip efficiency of the LT-ACAES ranges between 0.566(case A)to 0.674(case C).Although the second configuration assures the highest performance,the effect of operating at very high pressures inside the tanks should be carefully evaluated in terms of overall costs.

Design and Construction Challenges for a Hybrid Air and Thermal Energy Storage System Built in the Post-Mining Shaft

Compressed Air Energy Storage(CAES)is one of the methods that can solve the problems with intermittency and unpredictability of renewable energy sources.A side effect of air compression is a fact that a large amount of heat is generated which is usually wasted.In the development of CAES systems,the main challenge,apart from finding suitable places for storing compressed air,is to store this heat of compression process so that it can be used for heating the air directed to the expander at the discharging stage.The paper presents the concept of a hybrid compressed air and thermal energy storage(HCATES)system,which may be a beneficial solution in the context of the two mentioned challenges.Our novel concept assumes placing the thermal energy storage(TES)system based on the use of solid storage material in the volume of the post-mining shaft forms a sealed air pressure reservoir.Implementation of proposed systems within heavily industrialized agglomerations is a potential pathway for the revitalization of post-mine areas.The potential of energy capacity of such systems for the Upper Silesian region could exceed the value of 10 GWh.In the paper,the main construction challenges related to this concept are shown.The issues related to the possibility of storing air under high pressure in the shaft from the view of the rock mass strength are discussed.The overall concept of the TES system installation solution in the shaft barrel is presented.The basic problems related to heat storage in the cylindrical TES system with a non-standard structure of high slenderness are also discussed.The numerical calculations were based on the results of experiments performed on a laboratory stand,the geometry of which is to reflect the construction of a TES tank in a post-mining shaft.The article presents the results of numerical analysis showing the basic aspects related to difficulties that may occur at the construction stage and during the operation of the proposed HCATES system.The paper focuses on the methodology for determining the energy and exergy efficiency of a section of a Thermal Energy Storage tank,and presents the differences in the performance of this tank depending on its geometric dimensions,which are determined by the different sizes of mine shafts.

Design Strategy of Diagonal Compressors in Compressed Air Energy Storage System

As a kind of large-scale physical energy storage,compressed air energy storage(CAES)plays an important role in the construction of more efficient energy system based on renewable energy in the future.Compared with traditional industrial compressors,the compressor of CAES has higher off-design performance requirements.From the perspective of design,it needs to pay attention not only to the performance of the design point,but also to the performance of all the stable working range.However,from the previous literature,no diagonal compressor was used in CAES which can meet the requirements,which also reflects the design program can be further improved.Therefore,this paper studies the design strategy of high efficient diagonal compressor for large-scale CAES,and gives the complete strategy algorithms used for different program modules.The pressure ratio,isentropic efficiency and stable working range are comprehensively considered.In the design process,the criteria for the key parameters of the diagonal flow angle of the diagonal compressor are given for the first time.The results show that the isentropic efficiency at the design point is 92.7%,the total pressure ratio is1.97,and the stable working range exceeds 20%,which meets the design requirements of the compressor for CAES and exceeds the overall performance of the previous compressors in the entire working range.

Simulation and analysis of a peak regulation gas power plant with advanced energy storage and cryogenic CO_(2) capture

Flexible gas power plants are subject to energy storage,peak regulations,and greenhouse gas emissions.This study proposes an integrated power generation system that combines liquid air energy storage(LAES),liquefied natural gas(LNG)cold energy utilization,gas power systems,and CO_(2) capture and storage(CCS)technologies,named the LAES-LNG-CCS system.The off-peak electricity can be stored in liquid air.During the peak period,air and gas turbines generate supplementary electricity.Both LNG chemical energy and cold energy were considered:the former was used for gas power plants,and the latter was used for LAES regasification and CCS processes.Based on the thermodynamic analysis,we evaluated the effects of the recovery pressure,CCS pressure,and combustion temperature on the system power consumption and efficiency.The results demonstrated that the system recovery pressure,CCS pressure,and combustion temperature had the greatest effects on system power generation.Round-trip efficiency(RTE)was significantly affected by combustion temperature.The largest exergy loss occurred in the gas power plant.The optimal system operating ranges of the system recovery pressure,CCS pressure,and combustion temperature were 6−10 MPa,0.53−0.8 MPa,and 1,503−1,773 K,where the RTEs and𝜂Ex,RS reached 55%−58.98%and 74.6%−76%,respectively.The proposed system can simultaneously achieve the synergistic functions of large-scale energy storage,multilevel energy utilization,peak regulation,and carbon emission reduction.It can also be widely used in advanced distributed energy storage applications in the future.

Large-Area Gravure-Printed AgNWs Electrode on Water/Oxygen Barrier Substrate for Long-Term Stable Large-Area Flexible Organic Solar Cells

Large-area AgNWs electrodes(25 cm×10 cm)were fabricated through roll-to-roll printing on the polyvinyl alcohol(PVA)modified water and oxygen barrier substrate.The modification of the barrier film with PVA improved the wettability of silver nanowires on the barrier films and led to the formation of homogenous large-area AgNWs networks.The mechanical flexibility,especially the adhesion force between the silver electrode and the barrier film substrate was dramatically improved through PVA modification.The efficiency of 13.51%for the flexible OSCs with an area of 0.64 cm2 was achieved based on the PET/barrier film/PVA/AgNWs electrode.The long-term stability showed the flexible OSCs based on the PET/barrier film/PVA/AgNWs electrode have a significantly improved stability relative to the device on PET/AgNWs electrode,and comparable air stability as the rigid device with glass/ITO device.The unencapsulated devices maintained nearly 50%of the original efficiency after storage for 600 h in air.After a simple top encapsulation,the flexible devices remained at 60%of the initial efficiency after 2000 h in the air.Therefore,the flexible AgNWs electrode based on the barrier film would have the potential to improve the air storage stability of organic flexible solar cells.