CRYOGENIC ENERGY

STORAGE

LUCIO C. RUIZ JR.

MENG’G-ME
luciojrruiz@gmail.com, 0932-412-4495
 WHAT IS CRYOGENIC ENEGY STORAGE?

Cryogenic energy storage (CES) is the use of low

temperature (cryogenic) liquids such as liquid
air or liquid nitrogen as energy storage. Both cryogens
have been used to power cars. The inventor Peter
Dearman initially developed a liquid air car, and then
used the technology he developed for grid energy
storage. The technology is being piloted at a UK power
station.
HISTORY:

A liquid air powered car called Liquid Air was built

between 1899 and 1902 but it couldn't at the time
compete in terms of efficiency with other engines.More
recently, a liquid nitrogen vehicle was built. Peter
Dearman, a garage inventor in Hertfordshire, UK who
had initially developed a liquid air powered car, then
put the technology to use as grid energy storage.
HISTORY:

The Dearman engine differs from former nitrogen

engine designs in that the nitrogen is heated by
combining it with the heat exchange fluid inside the
cylinder of the engine.
GRID ENERGY STORAGE
PROCESS
When it is cheaper (usually at night), electricity is used
to cool air from the atmosphere to -195 °C using
the Claude Cycle to the point where it liquefies.
The liquid air, which takes up one-thousandth of the
volume of the gas, can be kept for a long time in a
large vacuum flask at atmospheric pressure.
GRID ENERGY STORAGE
At times of high demand for electricity, the liquid air is
pumped at high pressure into a heat exchanger, which
acts as a boiler. Air from the atmosphere at ambient
temperature, or hot water from an industrial heat
source, is used to heat the liquid and turn it back into a
gas. The massive increase in volume and pressure
from this is used to drive a turbine to generate
electricity.[8]
GRID ENERGY STORAGE
charge store discharge
Liquid Evaporation/
AIR Compression Liquefaction air Pump Expansion AIR
heating
storage

Cold-
storage

Heat-
storage

Electricity IN Electricity OUT

External Heat
(OPTION)
INTEGRATION CAPABILITIES OF CES

Peak shaving from Utilization of LNG

RES to avoid regasification cold to
curtailment avoid cold storage in
LAES system

Utilization of
CES industrial waste
heat, supply of
cold, utilization
and supply of
pressurized air

Ancillary services, Flexibilization of

Voltage support, conventional
energy trading, power plants
minimize grid
expansion District
heating and
cooling
GRID ENERGY STORAGE
EFFICIENCY
In isolation the process is only 25% efficient, but this is
greatly increased (to around 50%) when used with a low-
grade cold store, such as a large gravel bed, to capture
the cold generated by evaporating the cryogen. The cold
is re-used during the next refrigeration cycle.
Efficiency is further increased when used in conjunction
with a power plant or other source of low-grade heat that
would otherwise be lost to the atmosphere.
GRID ENERGY STORAGE
Highview Power Storage claims an AC to AC round-trip
efficiency of 70%, by using an otherwise waste
heat source at 115 °C. The IMechE (Institution of
Mechanical Engineers) agrees that these estimates for a
commercial-scale plant are realistic. However this
number was not checked or confirmed by independent
professional institutions.
Currently surplus gaseous nitrogen is produced as a
byproduct in the production of oxygen.
GRID ENERGY STORAGE
Oxygen can be used in oxy-combustion coal power
plants, enabling CO2 capture and sequestration. This
gaseous nitrogen can be liquefied by available
liquefaction capacities for further use. Cryogenic
distillation of air is currently the only commercially viable
technology for large scale oxygen production.
PILOT PLANT
A 300 kW, 2.5 MWh storage capacity pilot cryogenic
energy system developed by researchers at
the University of Leeds and Highview Power Storage,that
uses liquid air (with the CO2 and water removed as they
would turn solid at the storage temperature) as the
energy store, and low-grade waste heat to boost the
thermal re-expansion of the air, operated at a 80MW
biomass power station in Slough, UK, from 2010 until
2014 when it was relocated to the university of
Birmingham .
PILOT PLANT
The efficiency is less than 15% because of low efficiency
hardware components used, but the engineers are
targeting an efficiency of about 60 percent for the next
generation of CES based on operation experiences of
this system.
PILOT PLANT
The system is based on proven technology, used safely
in many industrial processes, and does not require any
particularly rare elements or expensive components to
manufacture. Dr Tim Fox, the head of Energy at the
IMechE says "It uses standard industrial components -
which reduces commercial risk; it will last for decades
and it can be fixed with a spanner."
GRID-SCALE DEMONSTRATOR
In April 2014 the UK government announced it had given
£8 million to Viridor Waste Management Ltd. and Highview
Power Storage to fund the next stage of the
demonstration.[15] The resulting grid-scale demonstrator
plant at Pilsworth Landfill facility in Bury, Greater
Manchester, UK, started operation in April 2018.
Grid-scale demonstrator
This is based on research by the Birmingham Centre
for Cryogenic Energy Storage (BCCES) associated
with the University of Birmingham, and has storage for
up to 15 MWh, and can generate a peak supply of
5 MW (so when fully charged lasts for 3 hours at
maximum output) and is designed for an operational
life of 40 years.
Tacoma Plant
In 2019 the Washington State Department of
Commerce's Clean Energy Fund announced it would
provide a grant to help Tacoma Power partner
with Praxair to build a 15 MW/450 MWh liquid air energy
storage plant. It will store up to 850,000 gallons of liquid
nitrogen to help balance power loads.[17]