Temperature Abatement using Spray Injection and Metal Wire Mesh in Liquid Piston Compressor for Ocean Compressed Air Energy Storage Application

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barah Ahn ◽  
Paul I Ro ◽  
Vikram C Patil
Keyword(s):  
Energy Storage ◽  
Piston Compressor ◽  
Metal Wire ◽  
Wire Mesh ◽  
Compressed Air ◽  
Compressed Air Energy Storage ◽  
Energy Storage Application ◽  
Liquid Piston

Efficiency Improvement of a Liquid Piston Compressor Using Metal Wire Mesh

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vikram C. Patil ◽  
Jun Liu ◽  
Paul I. Ro
Keyword(s):  
Energy Storage ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Storage Systems ◽  
Piston Compressor ◽  
Metal Wire ◽  
Wire Mesh ◽  
Efficiency Improvement ◽  
Energy Storage Systems ◽  
Compression Efficiency ◽  
Liquid Piston

Abstract Intermittent nature of power from renewable energy resources demands a large scale energy storage system for their optimal utilization. Compressed air energy storage systems have the potential to serve as long-term large-scale energy storage systems. Efficient compressors are needed to realize a high storage efficiency with compressed air energy storage systems. Liquid piston compressor is highly effective in achieving efficient near-isothermal compression. Compression efficiency of the liquid piston can be improved with the use of heat transfer enhancement mechanisms inside the compression chamber. A high rate of heat transfer can be achieved with the use of metal wire mesh in the liquid piston compressor. In this study, metal wire meshes of aluminum and copper materials in the form of Archimedean spiral are experimentally tested in a liquid (water) piston compressor. Experiments are conducted for the compression of air from atmospheric pressure to 280–300 kPa pressure at various stroke times of compression. The peak air temperature is reduced by 26–33K with the use of metal wire mesh inside the liquid piston compressor. Both the materials are observed to be equally effective for temperature abatement. The use of metal wire mesh in liquid piston shifts the compression process towards near-isothermal conditions. Furthermore, the isothermal efficiency of compression is evaluated to assess the potential of efficiency improvement with this technique. The metal wire mesh was observed to improve isothermal compression efficiency to 88–90% from the base efficiency of 82–84%. A 6–7% improvement in efficiency was observed at faster compression strokes signifying effectiveness of metal wire mesh to accomplish efficient compression with high power density. Further investigations to evaluate the optimal configuration of the metal wire mesh will be useful to achieve additional improvement in efficiency.

Analysis, Fabrication, and Testing of a Liquid Piston Compressor Prototype for an Ocean Compressed Air Energy Storage (OCAES) System

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 86-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joong-kyoo Park ◽  
Paul I. Ro ◽  
Xiao He ◽  
Andre P. Mazzoleni
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Energy Storage ◽  
Piston Compressor ◽  
Compressed Air ◽  
Compressed Air Energy Storage ◽  
Compression Process ◽  
Compression System ◽  
Numerical Studies ◽  
Piston System ◽  
Liquid Piston

AbstractPrevious work concerning ocean compressed air energy storage (OCAES) systems has revealed the need for an efficient means for compressing air that minimizes the energy lost to heat during the compression process. In this paper, we present analysis, simulation, and testing of a tabletop proof-of-concept experiment of a liquid piston compression system coupled with a simulated OCAES system, with special attention given to heat transfer issues. An experimental model of a liquid piston system was built and tested with two different materials, polycarbonate and aluminum alloy, used for the compression chamber. This tabletop liquid piston system was tested in conjunction with a simulated OCAES system, which consisted of a hydrostatic tank connected to a compressed-air source from the wall to mimic the constant hydrostatic pressure at ocean depth experienced by the air stored in an actual OCAES system. Good agreement was found between the experimental and numerical studies and demonstrated that the heat transfer characteristics of a liquid piston compression process are effective in reducing the increase in air temperature that occurs during the compression process. The results also suggest that it may be possible to achieve a near-isothermal process with a fully optimized liquid piston compression system.

Design of an Interrupted-Plate Heat Exchanger Used in a Liquid-Piston Compression Chamber for Compressed Air Energy Storage

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Zhang ◽  
Farzad A. Shirazi ◽  
Bo Yan ◽  
Terrence W. Simon ◽  
Perry Y. Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Energy Storage ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Plate Heat Exchanger ◽  
Compressed Air ◽  
Compressed Air Energy Storage ◽  
Plate Heat ◽  
Liquid Piston ◽  
Compression Chamber

In the Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) approach, air is compressed to high pressure, stored, and expanded to output work when needed. The temperature of air tends to rise during compression, and the rise in the air internal energy is wasted during the later storage period as the compressed air cools back to ambient temperature. The present study focuses on designing an interrupted-plate heat exchanger used in a liquid-piston compression chamber for CAES. The exchanger features layers of thin plates stacked in an interrupted pattern. Twenty-seven exchangers featuring different combinations of shape parameters are analyzed. The exchangers are modeled as porous media. As such, for each exchanger shape, a Representative Elementary Volume (REV), which represents a unit cell of the exchanger, is developed. The flow through the REV is simulated with periodic velocity and thermal boundary conditions, using the commercial CFD software ANSYS FLUENT. Simulations of the REVs for the various exchangers characterize the various shape parameter effects on values of pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient between solid surfaces and fluid. For an experimental validation of the numerical solution, two different exchanger models made by rapid prototyping, are tested for pressure drop and heat transfer. Good agreement is found between numerical and experimental results. Nusselt number vs. Reynolds number relations are developed on the basis of pore size and on hydraulic diameter. To analyze performance of exchangers with different shapes, a simplified zero-dimensional thermodynamic model for the compression chamber with the inserted heat exchange elements is developed. This model, valuable for system optimization and control simulations, is a set of ordinary differential equations. They are solved numerically for each exchanger insert shape to determine the geometries of best compression efficiency.

scholarly journals Energy and Exergy Analysis of Ocean Compressed Air Energy Storage Concepts

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vikram C. Patil ◽  
Paul I. Ro
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Energy Storage ◽  
Heat Transfer Enhancement ◽  
Exergy Analysis ◽  
Compressed Air ◽  
Compressed Air Energy Storage ◽  
Transfer Enhancement ◽  
Energy And Exergy ◽  
Energy And Exergy Analysis ◽  
Liquid Piston

Optimal utilization of renewable energy resources needs energy storage capability in integration with the electric grid. Ocean compressed air energy storage (OCAES) can provide promising large-scale energy storage. In OCAES, energy is stored in the form of compressed air under the ocean. Underwater energy storage results in a constant-pressure storage system which has potential to show high efficiency compared to constant-volume energy storage. Various OCAES concepts, namely, diabatic, adiabatic, and isothermal OCAES, are possible based on the handling of heat in the system. These OCAES concepts are assessed using energy and exergy analysis in this paper. Roundtrip efficiency of liquid piston based OCAES is also investigated using an experimental liquid piston compressor. Further, the potential of improved efficiency of liquid piston based OCAES with use of various heat transfer enhancement techniques is investigated. Results show that adiabatic OCAES shows improved efficiency over diabatic OCAES by storing thermal exergy in thermal energy storage and isothermal OCAES shows significantly higher efficiency over adiabatic and diabatic OCAES. Liquid piston based OCAES is estimated to show roundtrip efficiency of about 45% and use of heat transfer enhancement in liquid piston has potential to improve roundtrip efficiency of liquid piston based OCAES up to 62%.

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