Battery Banks
The concept of a Battery Bank as a form of Energy storage that
saves energy within a "battery system" for release at a later time to be converted into electricity.
Common forms of battery storage include the Traditional
Chemical Battery,
and a newer approach of the
Flow Battery
along with the development of
Capacitor Banks.
Additional forms of
energy storage
may also be commonly referred to as batteries while others use a different name to classify the types of storage.
A typical Recovery 2.0 Waste Recovery system has the flexibility to designate modular vaults to house the individual battery types
or combination of batteries of desired choice. The modular battery banks may be expanded to meet the desired capacity
of storage required.
Chemical Battery
Traditional
Chemical Batteries
come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and flavors,
from the common consumer based alkaline household batteries to the familiar lead/acid automotive battery
on to the more exotic species of electronics batteries that contain lithium, nickel, cadmium or a wide variety of elements.
No matter what type of chemical battery used in a Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) the function is the same, to store
an electrical charge for retrieval at a later time.
Chemical Batteries tend to be compact in nature and therefore are ideal for portable or vehicle transportation use cases.
Lithium Ion Battery, Lithium Ferrophosphate LFP Battery, Lead/Acid Battery,
a variety of other combinations of content materials such as Sodium, Nickel, Zinc, Iron.
Bio-Battery
An Organic Bio-Battery may be constructed to extract energy from waste materials such as glucose based materials.
One additional alternative option is the configuration of an
electrolysis
system in the form of Microbial Fuel Cells to harvest energy from waste water.
Flow Battery
Exploring the field of
Redox flow
battery systems which are better suited for stationary storage applications,
where modular
electrolysis
units or electrolytic cells are located in proximity to storage tanks
for electrolyte medium that may be pumped threw the power conversion cell stacks.
These types of systems may be charged, discharged or recharged on a reversible cycle basis and may be easily expanded
by increasing the electrolyte storage capacity. Most Flow battery systems rely on a ion exchange membrane.
Flow Battery systems may be developed using a wide range of elements. Current ventures are pursuing applications based on
such materials as vanadium, zinc, manganese, carbon or iron electrolyte & electrolytic material combinations.
Capacitor Banks
As a part of a smart energy management system the use of a capacitor bank is one method to achieve an
interim dispatch or routing terminal.
Options for variable charge and discharge, with any combination of shallow or deep and slow or rapid cycles
maintains a longevity of infinite cycling with little or no degradation.
A Capacitor Bank provides an efficient method for the consolidation and interim storage of the energy accumulated
from any quantity of arrays of
Energy Harvesting Modules.
Ultimate Capacitors
Exploring the potential use of Capacitors as a storage buffer between generation and consumption presents some exciting options.
Storage of energy in the form of an electric charge may be extremely desirable, if a storage media or device can be devised.
Charge storage would eliminate the need for energy conversion and related conversion losses associated with other forms of storage.
Losses may be reduced or limited to the charge/discharge dispatch cycle which appear to be quite efficient.
If capacitors can hold or maintain a charge for a long duration of time without self discharge losses this would be ideal.
As an example, if a capacitor device could hold 100 kw hours of storage and if that energy could be distributed,
let's say at a rate of 1 kw per hour than you would have a storage device capable of storing 100 hours of dispatchable storage.
If this system could be scaled up to a megawatt or gigawatt scale then this would be an
Ultimate Capacitor energy storage system.
If energy can be scavenged or
harvested
at any
scale
and accumulated or
consolidated
into a storage
bank
then an effective solution may be developed as a part of our energy management future.
Energy Storage
- Battery Banks
- Thermal Energy Storage
- Compressed Air Storage
- Exothermic Element Storage
Short Cycle Regeneration
- Hydro Energy
- Wind Energy
- Gravity Energy
- Gradient Energy
Energy Sources
- Solar
- Electricity
- Waste Heat
- Optional Sidestreams
Understanding Energy & Recovery
- Energy as a Commodity
- Recovered Energy
