An exergy analysis of a traditional compressed air energy storage system

Compressed air energy storage (CAES) technology is one of the large-scale energy storage technologies with great commercial potential. This paper reports a simulation study on the CAES using the Aspen Plus software package. Exergy analyses are carried on the performance of the CAES and the result indicates the largest exergy loss in the combustion chamber. A sensitivity analysis is performed on the effects of the component efficiencies on the exergy loss of the CAES system. The results show that the efficiency of the combustion chamber has the biggest influence on the system exergy efficiency, while the adiabatic efficiency of expansion turbine has the smallest influence.