Enhancement of the round-trip efficiency of liquid air energy storage (LAES) system using cascade cold storage units

Abstract

In this research, the variation of round-trip efficiency in a liquid air energy storage system (LAES) is calculated and an optimal configuration is found. The multiple stages of cold energy storage are simulated with several materials that process latent heat at different temperature ranges. The effectiveness in the charging and discharging processes of LAES is newly defined, and its relationship with the round-trip efficiency is examined. According to defined correlation, the effectiveness of the discharging process significantly affects the overall system performance. The round-trip efficiency is calculated for the combined cold energy storage materials of aqueous dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solution, ethanol, and pentane theoretically. The performance of LAES varies depending on the freezing point of the cold storage materials. In particular, when the LAES uses several cold storage materials, those materials whose freezing points are close to room temperature and liquid air temperature should be included in the cold storage materials. In this paper, it is assumed that only latent heat is used for cold energy storage, but for more realistic analyzes, the additional consideration of the transient thermal situation to utilize sensible heat is required. In the case of such a dynamic system, since there is certainly more increased heat capacity of the entire storage system, the volume of the cold energy storage system will be greatly reduced.