SELECTING THE OPTIMAL LIQUEFACTION CYCLE FOR CRYOGENICS ENERGY STORAGE

Abstract

Cryogenic energy storage (CES) is a large-scale energy storage technology that stores electricity in the form of liquefied gas at cryogenic temperatures. The CES system has three sub-processes, namely, charging or liquefaction, storage, discharging or power cycle. Because the main energy costs in this system are related to the liquefaction module, we will focus on the analysis of liquefaction processes. The present work aims at performing a comparative study between cycles commonly used for the liquefaction of air to evaluate and compare their performance under given working conditions. The cycles considered are simple Linde cycle, Linde Dual-Pressure cycle, and Claude cycle. The analysis is performed with the software program Engineering Equation Solver (EES). The cycle optimization criterion is the maximum value of the liquefaction coefficient and the minimum value of the specific energy consumption Claude cycle has been chosen as the optimal cycle for use in liquid air storage.