The key component of Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) system is an air compressor/expander. The roundtrip efficiency of this energy storage technology depends greatly on the efficiency of the air compressor/expander. There is a trade off between the thermal efficiency and power density of this component. Different ideas and approaches were introduced and studied in the previous works to improve this trade off by enhancing the heat transfer between air and its environment. In the present work, a combination of optimal compression/expansion rate, optimal chamber shape and optimal heat exchanger material distribution in the chamber is considered to maximize the power density of a compression/expansion chamber for a given desired efficiency. Results show that the power density can be improved by more than 20 folds if the optimal combination of flow rate, shape and porosity are used together.

Volume Subject Area:
Dynamics and Control of Wind Energy Systems
Topics:
Air compressors, Compressed air, Design, Energy storage, Pistons, Wind turbines, Power density, Compression, Shapes, Tradeoffs, Cloud chambers, Flow (Dynamics), Heat exchangers, Heat transfer, Porosity, Thermal efficiency
This content is only available via PDF.
Copyright © 2015 by ASME
You do not currently have access to this content.