Exergetic optimization of a solar thermochemical energy storage system subject to real constraints

An approach to the optimization of a solar energy conversion system which involves treating the system as a series of subsystems, each having a single cost determining variable, is proposed. Optimization techniques can be used to determine designs for each subsystem for constant values of the cost determining variable. Subsequently, the allocation of a financial resource amongst subsystems to achieve an optimal performance can be determined. The application to an ammonia-based thermochemical system with direct work output is discussed and possible subsystems are identified. The subsystem consisting of the exothermic reactor has been studied in detail. For this subsystem, the ratio of available catalyst volume to thermal power level is held constant whilst the exergetic efficiency is maximized. Results are presented from a determination of optimized reaction paths using dynamic programming techniques.     

Energy storage efficiency for the ammonia/hydrogen-nitrogen thermochemical energy transfer system

Energy storage efficiency is calculated for the solar thermochemical energy transfer system based on ammonia/hydrogen-nitrogen. the calculation for this system involves generation of thermodynamic data not available in the literature by a method in which use is made of the available phase equilibrium measurements together with application of the criterion that the correct value of separation work for a two-phase mixture must be generated internally by degradation of mixing heat. Energy storage efficiencies for ammonia/hydrogen-nitrogen are derived from the generated thermodynamic data and are shown to increase towards unity as the endothermic reaction approaches completion, with efficiencies greater than 0.90 being obtained for reaction extents exceeding 0.60. the validity of the analysis has been tested successfully by comparison between the thermodynamic predictions and experimental data in the form of measurements of the waste heat rejected from a counterflow heat exchanger operated with liquid ammonia feed and ammonia/hydrogen-nitrogen output.     

Life cycle analysis of a solar thermal system with thermochemical storage process

Solar energy itself is generally considered as environmentally friendly, nevertheless it is still important to take into consideration the environmental impacts caused by production of thousands of solar thermal systems. In this work the standard LCA methodology has been extended to analyse the total environmental impacts of a new more efficient solar thermal system SOLARSTORE during its whole life cycle. This system is being developed by a 5th Framework EC project. The LCA results show that to produce 1 GJ energy with SOLARSTORE system will result in global warming potential of 6.3–10 kg CO₂, acidification potential of 46.6–70 g SO₂, eutrophication of 2.1–3.1 g phosphate and photochemical oxidant of 0.99–1.5 g C₂H₄. The raw material acquisition and components manufacturing processes contribute 99% to the total environmental impacts. In comparison with traditional heating systems, SOLARSTORE system provides a considerably better solution for reduction of negative environmental impacts by using solar energy more efficiently.     

The use of boron for thermochemical storage and distribution of solar energy

Boron has been proposed as a candidate for hydrogen production. In this study a process is described in which boron is used as a means to store and transport solar energy from a production site to motor vehicles, where it is used to generate hydrogen and heat. The proposed multi-step fuel cycle includes no carbon as a reducing agent and, therefore, no release of CO₂ to the atmosphere. This process is safe, mostly involving harmless materials and well-understood technologies. It eliminates the distribution, storage, and pumping of hydrogen at the refueling station, and diminishes the amount of hydrogen stored on the vehicle to a minimum. It is shown that the boron reaction with water, performed on-board of a vehicle, has high hydrogen storage capacity based on both volume and mass, compared with other candidate technologies. An energy balance of the entire process predicts that the overall efficiency of converting solar energy to work by the vehicle engine can be about 11%.     

Integrated system of thermochemical cycle of ammonia,nitrogen production,and power generation

Ammonia (NH₃) is one of the most valuable chemicals due to its multipurpose utilization in many applications. Beside major application as fertilizer in agriculture, NH₃ is a promising hydrogen (H₂) carrier because it has a high content of H₂ and technically available storage and transportation systems. At present, most of NH₃ is synthesized from a series of steam reforming process to the feedstock of H₂ and nitrogen (N₂) production, followed with the catalytic Haber-Bosch reaction. In this study, an integrated system of N₂ production system, NH₃ synthesis system and a power generation process is proposed to produce NH₃ efficiently. Thermochemical cyclic process of an endothermic reaction of Al₂O₃ reduction by carbon in N₂ atmosphere, is coupled with oxidation/steam-hydrolysis of aluminum nitride (AlN) back to Al₂O₃, producing NH₃ without catalyst and the need of H₂ production system. The thermal energy required for reduction reaction is covered by the heat generated during exothermic reaction and combustion process, and the remaining heat is utilized in power generation. Heat circulation optimization is carried out by applying the enhanced process integration, resulting in a highly efficient system. The proposed system is analyzed through an adjustment of the main parameters: oxidation temperature, steam turbine inlet pressure, and temperature, to observe their effect on system performance and efficiency. The proposed system can reach a very high system efficiency of 69.3%. The oxidation reaction temperature is observed to play major role in determining the system performance due to temperature dependent NH₃ yield.     

Thermodynamic analysis of solar thermochemical energy absorption

Thermochemical energy conversion is analysed on a thermodynamic basis with particular interest in obtaining guidance as to solar thermochemical absorber design at an early stage of development when technical and cost information is often unreliable. An earlier-used thermodynamic equivalence technique which is equally applicable to both the endothermic and exothermic reactions has been developed to the point where it gives a clear insight into all sources of heat and work. The method is applied in particular to separating endothermic reactions of which ammonia dissociation is a prime example. A reversibility ratio is defined as the ratio of irreversible to reversible work and it is shown that in a practical solar thermochemical absorber design the reversibility ratio should be minimized, corresponding to reaction temperature minimization and therefore to tower energy losses and to potential for use of lower cost reactor materials and more active catalysts. Values of reversibility ratio are calculated for the ammonia system and are discussed in relation to solar thermochemical absorber design. In a final analysis employing the thermodynamic equivalence technique, it is shown that the apparent paradox between liquid and alternative gas pump work requirements in a liquid/gas thermochemical system is thermodynamically consistent with the internal generation of effective work from the heat source used to drive the endothermic reaction system.     

Thermodynamic simulation of hydrogen based thermochemical energy storage system

The increasing energy demand needs the attention for energy conservation as well as requires the utilisation of renewable sources. In this perspective, hydrogen provides an eco-friendly and regenerative solution toward this matter of concern. Thermochemical energy storage system working on gas-solid interaction is a useful technology for energy storage during the availability of renewable energy sources. It provides the same during unavailability of energy sources. This work presents a performance analysis of metal hydride based thermal energy storage system (MH-TES), which can transform the waste heat into useful high-grade heat output. This system opens new doors to look at renewable energy through better waste heat recovery systems. Experimentally measured PCIs of chosen metal hydride pairs, i.e. LaNi_4.6Al_0.4/La_0.9Ce_0.1Ni₅ (A-1/A-3; pair 1) and LaNi_4.7Al_0.3/La_0.9Ce_0.1Ni₅ (A-2/A-3; pair 2) are employed to estimate the thermodynamic performance of MH-TES at operating temperatures of 298 K, 373 K, 403 K and 423 K as atmospheric temperature (T_atm), waste heat input temperature (T_m), storage temperature (T_s) and upgraded/enhanced heat output temperature (T_h) respectively. It is observed that the system with alloy pair A-1/A-3 shows higher energy storage density of 121.83 kJ/kg with a higher COP of 0.48 as compared to A-2/A-3 pair. This is due to the favourable thermodynamic properties, and the pressure differential between coupled MH beds, which results in higher transferrable hydrogen. Besides, the effect of operating temperatures on COP is studied, which can help to select an optimum temperature range for a particular application.     

A review on long-term sorption solar energy storage

In the past decade, long-term sorption and thermochemical heat storage has generated lot of interest. This paper presents the state of the art in this field of research, materials used in these systems and technological difficulties that researchers are set against. An emphasis is put on recent demonstrative projects including absorption and adsorption for long-term solar energy storage. It emerges that considerable breakthrough have been made. Even though there is no mature long-term sorption or thermochemical energy storage yet, primarily due to the high cost of materials, the suitability of this technology to long-term storage remains its main power of attracting.     

Characterization of a thermochemical reactor for thermal solar energy

The main purpose of this work is to elucidate the thermochemical characteristics of a fluidized bed reactor to be used as a solar reactor in thermal energy storage. Zinc sulfate dissociation was studied over the temperature range from 973 to 1123 K. During the reaction problems such as non isothermisity of the bed and pressure drop changes with the reaction, were detected. It was shown that the fluidity increased with temperature and degree of dissociation, but the pressure drop amplitude increased exponentially with gas velocity and particle size when slugging is present in the bed.     

Research progress of solar thermochemical energy storage

Solar thermal power generation technology has great significance to alleviate global energy shortage and improve the environment. Solar energy must be stored to provide a continuous supply because of the intermittent and instability nature of solar energy. Thermochemical storage (TCS) is very attractive for high‐temperature heat storage in the solar power generation because of its high energy density and negligible heat loss. To further understand and develop TCS systems, comprehensive analyses and studies are very necessary. The basic principle and main components of a solar TCS system are described in this paper. Besides, recent progress and existing problems of several promising reaction systems are introduced. Further research directions are pointed out considering the technical, economic, and environmental issues that existed in the wide application of TCS. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimal and stochastic performance of an energy hub-based microgrid consisting of a solar-powered compressed-air energy storage system and cooling storage system by modified grasshopper optimization algorithm

Simultaneous operation of different energy generation and transmission infrastructures is a subject that has been considered under the concept of energy hub. This subject is highly regarded in the field of microgrids. One of the basic issues for investors is to properly utilize the energy hub for optimally managing energy carriers, especially in the energy price prediction. In the present paper, a new strategy is introduced for the energy hub in order to achieve the optimal performance of a microgrid (MG) that includes different energy carriers for each day. The objective of this strategy is to minimize the operation cost and consider the environmental issues. The proposed energy hub consists of a combined cooling-heating-power (CCHP) system along with a wind turbine and photovoltaic cells. The studied energy hub system is composed of an ice storage conditioner (ISC) system and an energy storage system (ESS) as the energy storage resource (ESR). One of the goals of the present work is to investigate the effect of solar-powered compressed-air energy storage (SPCAES) on the performance of the energy hub. The proposed strategy takes into account the uncertainty of the energy resources such as the wind and sun for meeting the electric, thermal, and cooling needs in different scenarios. In the present paper, to produce various scenarios, the Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) method is used. Also, the k-means method is used to reduce the number of scenarios. The objective function is solved using the modified grasshopper optimization algorithm (MGOA). According to the modeling results, the ESS can exhibit successful performance in the energy management strategy.     

Thermodynamic analysis and optimization of an integrated solar thermochemical hydrogen production system

In this study, thermodynamic analysis of solar-based hydrogen production via copper-chlorine (Cu–Cl) thermochemical water splitting cycle is presented. The integrated system utilizes air as the heat transfer fluid of a cavity-pressurized solar power tower to supply heat to the Cu–Cl cycle reactors and heat exchangers. To achieve continuous operation of the system, phase change material based on eutectic fluoride salt is used as the thermal energy storage medium. A heat recovery system is also proposed to use the potential waste heat of the Cu–Cl cycle to produce electricity and steam. The system components are investigated thoroughly and system hotspots, exergy destructions and overall system performance are evaluated. The effects of varying major input parameters on the overall system performance are also investigated. For the baseline, the integrated system produces 343.01 kg/h of hydrogen, 41.68 MW of electricity and 11.39 kg/s of steam. Overall system energy and exergy efficiencies are 45.07% and 49.04%, respectively. Using Genetic Algorithm (GA), an optimization is performed to evaluate the maximum amount of produced hydrogen. The optimization results show that by selecting appropriate input parameters, hydrogen production rate of 491.26 kg/h is achieved.     

Energy and exergy analysis of a new solar air heater with latent storage energy

In this paper, we propose a new solar air heater with a packed-bed latent storage energy system using PCM spherical capsules. At daytime, the solar heating system stored the thermal solar energy as sensible and latent heat, however, at night it restored. Some parameters, such as the global solar radiation and the mass flow rate are varied to investigate their effect on the absorbed, used, and recovered heat from the system. An optimization study using the first and second laws of thermodynamics is also carried out to obtain the energy and exergy efficiencies. The experimental study was conducted, designed, and realized in the Research and Technology Center of Energy (CRTEn) in Tunisia. The experimentally obtained results are used to analyze the performance of the system, based on temperature distribution in different parts of the collectors, absorbed, instantaneous stored and used thermal energy. The daily energy efficiency varied between 32% and 45%. While the daily exergy efficiency varied between 13% and 25%. The effect of the mass flow rate of air on the outlet temperature of the solar air heater is examined.     

Exergetic sustainability indicators for a high pressure hydrogen production and storage system

This study examines the exergetic sustainability effect of PEM electrolyzer (PEME) integrated high pressure hydrogen gas storage system whose capacity is 3 kg/h. For this purpose, the indicators, previously used in the literature, are taken into account and their variations are parametrically studied as a function of the PEME operating pressure and storage pressure by considering i) PEME operating temperature at 70 °C, ii) PEME operating pressures at 10, 30, 50 and 100 bar, iii) hydrogen gas flow rate at 3 kg/h and iv) storage pressure between 200 and 900 bar. Consequently, the results from the parametric investigation indicate that, with the ascent of storage pressure from 200 to 900 bar at a constant PEME operating pressure (=50 bar), exergetic efficiency changes decreasingly between 0.612 and 0.607 while exergetic sustainability between 1.575 and 1.545. However, it is estimated that waste exergy ratio changes increasingly between 0.388 and 0.393 while environmental effect factor between 0.635 and 0.647. Additionally, it is said that the higher PEME outlet pressure causes the higher exergetic sustainability index, the lower environmental effect factor, the lower waste exergy output, the higher exergetic efficiency. However, the higher storage pressure causes the lower exergetic efficiency, the higher waste exergy output, the higher environmental effect factor and the lower exergetic sustainability index. Thus, it is recommended that this type of the system should be operated at higher PEME outlet pressure, and at an optimum hydrogen storage pressure.     

Numerical modelling for the solar driven bi-reforming of methane for the production of syngas in a solar thermochemical micro-packed bed reactor

High temperature heat transfer and thermochemical storage performances of the solar driven bi-reforming of methane (SDSCB-RM) in a solar thermochemical micro-packed bed (ST-μPB) reactor are numerically investigated under different operating conditions along ST-μPB reactor length. A pseudo-homogeneous mathematical model is developed to simulate the heat and mass transfer processes coupled with thermochemical reaction kinetics in ST-μPB reactor with radiative heat loss. The effect of several parameters including the gas flow rate (Q_g), effective thermal conductivity (λ_s,eff), operating time (t_i) and operating temperature (T_op.) were investigated. The simulated results shown that the pressure drop increases with the increase of Q_g. When the Q_g is increased, the temperature profiles at the surface of the solid phase as well as the temperature profiles of the gas phase are remarkably decreasing. The consumption of reactants (CH₄, H₂O and CO₂) is increased when the λ_s,eff is gradually increased. On the other hand, the production of products (H₂, and CO) is remarkably increasing with the increase of the λ_s,eff. According to simulated results, the overall conversions of reactants (CH₄ and CO₂) and the dimensionless flow rate (DFR) of H₂ reach the maximum values of 98.18%, 75.61% and 1.6278 at the operating time of 2.50 h. The thermochemical energy storage efficiency (η_Chem) remarkably increases with the operating temperature and the maximum value of the η_Chem can be as high as 74.21% at 1123 K. The overall conversions of reactants (CH₄ and CO₂), DFR of H₂ and the energy stored as chemical enthalpy (Q_Chem) were also evaluated in relation to the operating temperature and their maximum values of 99.43%, 89.03%, 1.6383 and 1.3745 kJ/s are obtained at 1225 K.     

A critical review on integrated system design of solar thermochemical water-splitting cycle for hydrogen production

The development of clean hydrogen production methods is important for large-scale hydrogen production applications. The solar thermochemical water-splitting cycle is a promising method that uses the heat provided by solar collectors for clean, efficient, and large-scale hydrogen production. This review summarizes state-of-the-art concentrated solar thermal, thermal storage, and thermochemical water-splitting cycle technologies that can be used for system integration from the perspective of integrated design. Possible schemes for combining these three technologies are also presented. The key issues of the solar copper-chlorine (Cu–Cl) and sulfur-iodine (S–I) cycles, which are the most-studied cycles, have been summarized from system composition, operation strategy, thermal and economic performance, and multi-scenario applications. Moreover, existing design ideas, schemes, and performances of solar thermochemical water-splitting cycles are summarized. The energy efficiency of the solar thermochemical water-splitting cycle is 15–30%. The costs of the solar Cu–Cl and S–I hydrogen production systems are 1.63–9.47 $/kg H₂ and 5.41–10.40 $/kg H₂, respectively. This work also discusses the future challenges for system integration and offers an essential reference and guidance for building a clean, efficient, and large-scale hydrogen production system.     

Thermodynamic analysis of a novel energy storage system with carbon dioxide as working fluid

Recently, energy storage system (ESS) with carbon dioxide (CO₂) as working fluid has been proposed as a new method to deal with the application restrictions of Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) technology, such as dependence on geological formations and low energy storage density. A novel ESS named as Compressed CO₂ Energy Storage (CCES) based on transcritical CO₂ Brayton cycle is presented in this paper. The working principle of CCES system is introduced and thermodynamic model is established to assess the system performance. Parametric analysis is carried out to study the effect of some key parameters on system performance. Results show that the increase of turbine efficiency is more favorable for system optimization and the effect of minimum pressures on system performance is more significant compared with maximum pressures. A simple comparison of CCES system, liquid CO₂ system and Advanced Adiabatic Compressed Air Energy Storage (AA-CAES) system is conducted. It is shown that the system efficiency of CCES is lower than that of AA-CAES system but 4.05% higher than that of liquid CO₂ system, while the energy density of CCES system is 2.8 times the value of AA-CAES system, which makes CCES a novel ESS with potential application.     

Evaluating the limits of solar photovoltaics (PV) in electric power systems utilizing energy storage and other enabling technologies

In this work, we evaluate technologies that will enable solar photovoltaics (PV) to overcome the limits of traditional electric power systems. We performed simulations of a large utility system using hourly solar insolation and load data and attempted to provide up to 50% of this system's energy from PV. We considered several methods to avoid the limits of unusable PV that result at high penetration due to the use of inflexible baseload generators. The enabling technologies considered in this work are increased system flexibility, load shifting via demand responsive appliances, and energy storage.     

Numerical study on hydrogen and thermal storage performance of a sandwich reaction bed filled with metal hydride and thermochemical material

Hydrogen storage and release process of metal hydride (MH) accompany with large amount of reaction heat. The thermal management is very important to improve the comprehensive performance of hydrogen storage unit. In present paper, thermochemical material (TCM) is used to storage and release the reaction heat, and a new sandwich configuration reaction bed of MH-TCM system was proposed and its superior hydrogen and thermal storage performance were numerically validated. Firstly, the optimum TCM distribution with a volume ratio (TCM in inner layer to total) of 0.4 was derived for the sandwich bed. Then, comparisons between the sandwich reaction bed and the traditional reaction bed were performed. The results show that the sandwich MH-TCM system has faster heat transfer and reaction rate due to its larger heat transfer area and smaller thermal resistance, which results in the hydrogen storage time is shortened by 61.1%. The heat transfer in the reaction beds have significant effects on performance of MH-TCM systems. Increasing the thermal conductivity of the reaction beds can further reduce the hydrogen storage time. Moreover, improving the hydrogen inflation pressure can result in higher equilibrium temperature, which is beneficial for the enhancing heat transfer and hydrogen absorption rates.