Design & Development of a Prototype Compressed Air Energy Storage Mechanism

Abstract

The world as of today is dependent almost entirely on fossil fuel for its energy requirements. However, Fossil fuel supplies are limited and non-renewable. Therefore, it is essential to utilise readily available renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, for a sustainable future. But because these sources are intermittent, a storage mechanism is needed to make them grid compatible. This study outlines the design of a small-scale prototype compressed air energy storage (CAES) plant that uses clean electricity from a supposed PV array or a wind farm to compress atmospheric air for storage in a subsurface tank. The stored air is fed to a generator-coupled turbine to produce electricity on as needed basis. The suggested technique, in contrast to the storage mechanisms found in literature, precludes the use of any fuel. To evaluate the performance of the proposed system, a thorough design approach, thermodynamic analysis, and selection criteria for various plant components are included. The experimental results indicated a decent efficiency of 20%, which is understandable given the plant's modest size and lack of any heat storage mechanism. Nonetheless, a number of methods have been found and are provided in order to increase the system's overall efficiency. In short, the suggested approach has proven its capacity to scale, enabling huge renewable power plants to store extra energy cheaply at the grid level without using costly pumped hydro storage or battery technology.