Energy can be stored thermally in three ways:
- as cold in liquid air
- in a backed bed regenerator cold store
- as heat in a molten salt.
Professor Robert Morgan's co-authored 2014 paper, '', presented analysis and results from the design and testing of the novel LAES concept at pilot scale. This also gave fundamental analysis of the LAES cycle to determine the theoretical cycle performance and in particular the value of cold recycle. The pilot plant was then described together with the results of a series of comprehensive technical and commercial trials.
Morgan was co-author on the subsequent 2015 report 'Liquid Air in the energy and transport systems: opportunities for industry and innovation in the UK' (Akhurst et al.) and the 2016 'Liquid air energy storage – from theory to demonstration.' (Morgan, R, 2016, International Journal of Environmental Studies, 72(3), 469-480.) The article described optimising the thermodynamic principles of the cycle to deliver improve round trip efficiency, reduce cost and harness waste heat, the use of cold recycle being essential to deliver an efficient LAES cycle. The article looked ahead to large scale deployment and integration with other power generation and industrial processes.
In 2018-19, Morgan then worked with and on the Highview-led, Innovate UK-funded project ''. This resulted in the publication .
In the publication, the 118开奖 authors note that a potential means to overcome the obstacles placed by the intermittent nature of the most common sustainable energy sources was represented by the Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) systems. In order to improve its round trip efficiency, which was at that time at 50 per cent, the use of a common thermal medium for thermal storage and heat transfer fluid was considered as an effective solution. Molten salts were selected as the common thermal medium in this work, where a novel methodology for identifying and evaluating alternative mixtures was introduced. Their presented methodology was proven to be an effective and versatile tool in identifying alternative salt mixtures, and can be adapted for comparable applications.
Work is ongoing, with the project extending the future possibilities for improved energy storage. Recognising that the air liquefier used to charge the LAES device has a sweet spot at large (>50MW) scale as plant efficiency increases and relative cost reduces with scale for this technology, the project asks what would happen if a LAES plant could be efficiently deployed at smaller (<50MW) scale?
At smaller scales, the LAES technology could be integrated with other aspects of the energy network that require cooling at cryogenic temperatures such as the long term storage of bio methane and green hydrogen. Pursuing this interest, researchers investigated the integration of a small to mid scale LAES plant with, for example, the liquefaction of locally produced bio methane from waste.
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Of the work with Highview on Liquid Air Energy Storage, Professor Rob Morgan, said: “Working with such an innovative company helping to enhance technology in this rapidly developing and important sector has been and continues to be immensely rewarding. The collaboration enables us to exploit our expertise in thermal fluid and energy systems, transferring our research from the laboratory to the real world.”