Thermal Energy Storage
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Storage media &
working fluid
Storage Media. Solid, Liquid or gas, storage
The system storage media must accommodate the rapid or extreme change of temperature effects of expansion & contraction.
Heat Sources
and the
Heat Ladder
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Thermal Energy Storage systems typically use a radiant heat storage medium as a carrier to hold temperature specific energy
for release at a later time or date.
Sensible Thermal storage refers a non phase changing medium and may include solid materials such as
to heated sand, brick, carbon or other minerals and also liquid or gas state fluids.
Latent energy storage refers to the storage of phase changed mediums such as molten salts, molten metals,
Thermal Battery Storage vaults, both hot and cold systems, and include a range of materials such as ice.
Energy may be extracted from Thermal Storage systems as desired (on demand) to
generate electricity
or provide heating or cooling.
Certain systems also possess the ability to capture luminescent light emissions that may be converted into electricity
through Thermal Photovoltaic cells.
Hot Bank
The Hot Bank of a thermal energy storage vault typically contains at least two distinct cells -
one designated as the Hot Side of a cycle and the other designated as the Warm Side.
The cells are connected by a heat exchange working fluid system and the hot/warm designations swap
as the cycle completes.
The storage bank is not limited to only two cells and may be expanded to meet the desired storage capacity.
Continuous Heat Source
Temperature classification
of high heat and low grade heat (in degrees Centigrade)
300 to 600 degrees - 1,000 degrees or greater ??? (define range better)
Cold Bank
A Cold Bank or Cold Side energy storage vault is designed to act as a continuous heat sink.
The Cold Bank of a thermal energy storage vault typically contains at least two distinct cells
one designated as the Cold Side of a cycle and the other designated as the Cool Side.
The cells are connected by a heat exchange working fluid system and the cold/cool designations swap
as the cycle completes.
The storage bank is not limited to only two cells and may be expanded to meet the desired storage capacity.
A Cold Bank may contain any combination of storage media materials and may be in a solid, liquid or gaseous state.
The choice of storage materials is flexible in an attempt to achieve optimum efficiency.
A single cell storage vault process may be used by performing the heat exchange internally within the cell
and may include a phase change in the storage medium.
Thermal Bank Deposits
Depositing thermal energy into a storage bank, either on the Hot side or Cold Side,
is equivalent to charging a thermal battery and results in the accumulation of potential energy.
Working Fluid Transfer Loop
By identifying a harvestable thermal source, a working fluid transfer loop may be established to transport the thermal energy
between a source and the storage bank.
Return Loop Harvesting
Once a deposit has been made and the transfer fluid is on route back to being recharged at the thermal source,
there exists an opportunity to spawn a sidestream energy harvesting loop.
This sidestream loop may consist of a smaller thermal gradient,
but that gradient may be within the strategic range that triggers a phase change within the sidestream harvest loop.
The resulting phase change has the potential to generate power in the form of electricity or to drive pumps.
Powering the Deposit Loops
The harvested energy generated in the sidestream loop may be adequate to offset the power required to drive the
entire heat exchanger transfer loops in the deposit process.
One novel method of circulating certain working fluids is by using Magneto Hydro Dynamic
(MHD)
pumps.
This method of fluid population is a low maintenance solid state approach.
Pumped Heat Energy Storage
Pump Heat apparently stands for - Performance Untapped Modulation for Power & Heat via energy accumulation technologies.
Different systems perform the compression & expansion of various types of
working fluids
to achieve heat exchange by using heat pumps & heat engines.
Duo use turbo machines may provide charging and discharging by simply reversing the flow.
Some typical Pumped Heat systems may range from 300 to 600 Degrees Celsius on the hot side and some systems sink down to
minus 10 to minus 160 degrees Celsius on the cold side.
Pumped Heat Energy Storage systems provide the opportunity to either harvest a source of either Hot or Cold or the ability to directly generate electricity.
The technical design and implementation of a Heat Exchanger system that facilitates the separation of temperature and pressure
into individual streams creates the principles of the Pumped Heat Energy Storage process.
The compression of a gas results in the creation of a high temperature, high pressure mixture.
If you run the high temp/high press gas through some sort of heat exchanger mechanism, you are able to extract the heat and
transfer that heat into a compatible medium or working fluid.
You are left with a high pressure compressed gas that has been stripped of its heat.
Expanding the high pressure gas creates a cold (cryogenic) environment effect.
By passing the expanding cold gas through an enclosed medium or a heat exchanger you may extract
any heat contained in the exposed medium and transfer that heat into the gas.
The warmed expanded gas may be exhausted or regenerated in the compression cycle and
the enclosed insulated media remains cold.
Insulation
Insulation efficiency - self discharge rate - temperature leakage loss -
refractory and insulating layers & inert gas barriers.
Storage system envelopes, with highly reflective surfaces, allow for temperature reabsorption as opposed to discharge losses.
Reflective Envelope
Surrounding any of the thermal working components with an insolating envelope may assist in reducing heat looses.
By incorporating a reflective surface to the insolating envelope the escaping energy may be reflected back internally into the
the thermal system in an attempt to reduce the dissipating energy from escaping to atmosphere.
This reflective envelope strategy may be adapted to multiple forms of energy including
light, sound, thermal radiation and various forms of electromagnetic waves.
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 & Recovey
- Energy as a Commodity
- Recovered Energy
