Abstract
In order to enhance the spreading of renewable energy sources in the Italian electric power market, as well as to promote self-production and to decrease the phase delay between energy production and consumption, energy storage solutions are catching on. Nowadays, in general, small size electric storage batteries represent a quite diffuse technology, while air liquid-compressed energy storage solutions are used for high size. The goal of this paper is the development of a numerical model for small size storage, environmentally sustainable, to exploit the higher efficiency of the liquid pumping to compress air. Two different solutions were analyzed, to improve the system efficiency and to exploit the heat produced by the compression phase of the gas. The study was performed with a numerical model implemented in Matlab, by analyzing the variation of thermodynamical parameters during the compression and the expansion phases, making an energetic assessment for the whole system. The results show a good global efficiency, thus making the system competitive with the smallest size storage batteries.
Highlights
The rise in the energy demand in recent years has led to an increase in the development and use of renewable energy sources throughout the world
The most critical challenges regarding CAES technology are the management of the heat produced during the compression of the gas and the increase of the efficiency of the system
To study the second configuration more equations are utilized, in particular, the following equations are utilized to model the effect of the direct-contact heat exchange between the gas and the liquid obtained via spraying [23]
Summary
The rise in the energy demand in recent years has led to an increase in the development and use of renewable energy sources throughout the world. The most critical challenges regarding CAES technology are the management of the heat produced during the compression of the gas and the increase of the efficiency of the system For this reason, many studies have been performed about the possible achievement of isothermal or almost isothermal compressions through the use of liquids in the form of a spray during compression [12,13,14,15,16,17,18]. To study the CAES system, most of the research use the simulated data of CAES with simulated data of the end users such as an apartment or buildings and only a few papers proposed an economic analysis [22] Another significant development of the CAES system is the liquid -gas compressed air energy storage. In a first configuration the heat produced by compression will not be reused; in the second one, a liquid will be injected into the gas using a spray to increase the efficiency of the system
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