Modeling of liquid-piston based design for isothermal ocean compressed air energy storage system

Abstract Ocean renewable energy resources are intermittent, and a large scale energy storage is needed for their optimal utilization. Ocean compressed air energy storage (OCAES) system is a promising large-scale energy storage for integration of ocean energy with the electric grid. In OCAES, energy is stored in the form of compressed air in an underwater storage device. In this paper, modeling and design of various components in the OCAES system are presented. Furthermore, design specifications and efficiencies of the various components in the 2 MWh storage system at 500 m ocean depth are evaluated. Design of compressor/expander is crucial for high efficiency and sensible component sizing. Trade-off between the polytropic index and stroke time should be addressed in the compressor/expander design. Compressor/expander volume can be divided into a large number of liquid piston cylinders to achieve high efficiency. Greater ocean depth of the air storage system decreases storage volume requirement but affects roundtrip efficiency. The roundtrip efficiency of OCAES can be significantly improved by designing compressor/expander operating under near-isothermal conditions.

[1]  Perry Y. Li,et al.  Optimal trajectories for a liquid piston compressor/expander in a Compressed Air Energy Storage system with consideration of heat transfer and friction , 2012, 2012 American Control Conference (ACC).

[2]  Mohamed Machmoum,et al.  Attraction, Challenge and Current Status of Marine Current Energy , 2018, IEEE Access.

[3]  P. I. Ro,et al.  Experimental Investigation of Aqueous Foam based Heat Transfer in Liquid Piston Compressor for Improvement in Compression Efficiency , 2018 .

[4]  Shyi-Min Lu,et al.  A review of high-efficiency motors: Specification, policy, and technology , 2016 .

[5]  P. I. Ro,et al.  Experimental investigation of heat transfer in liquid piston compressor , 2019, Applied Thermal Engineering.

[6]  Seamus D. Garvey,et al.  Design and testing of Energy Bags for underwater compressed air energy storage , 2014 .

[7]  Paul I. Ro,et al.  Analysis, Fabrication, and Testing of a Liquid Piston Compressor Prototype for an Ocean Compressed Air Energy Storage (OCAES) System , 2014 .

[8]  H. E. Merritt,et al.  Hydraulic Control Systems , 1991 .

[9]  Paul I. Ro,et al.  Conceptual Design of Ocean Compressed Air Energy Storage System , 2013 .

[10]  P. I. Ro,et al.  End-to-end efficiency of liquid piston based ocean compressed air energy storage , 2016, OCEANS 2016 MTS/IEEE Monterey.

[11]  P. I. Ro,et al.  Energy and Exergy Analysis of Ocean Compressed Air Energy Storage Concepts , 2018 .

[12]  A. Nasiri.  Integrating energy storage with renewable energy systems , 2008 .

[13]  P. I. Ro,et al.  Experimental study of heat transfer enhancement in liquid piston compressor using aqueous foam , 2020 .

[14]  Perry Y. Li,et al.  Liquid piston gas compression , 2009 .

[15]  P. I. Ro,et al.  Experimental Investigation of Water Spray Cooling for Temperature Reduction in Liquid Piston Compressor , 2018 .

[16]  P. I. Ro,et al.  Experimental investigation of water spray injection in liquid piston for near-isothermal compression , 2020 .

[17]  Perry Y. Li,et al.  Experimental study of heat transfer enhancement in a liquid piston compressor/expander using porous media inserts , 2015 .