Compressed Air Energy Storage

Power generation from renewable energy has become more important due to the increase of electricity demand and pressure on tough emission reduction target. Various solutions are under investigation and energy storage (ES) is one of the recognized potential ways forward. Among all the ES technologies

Project Title

Compressed Air Energy Storage

Project Area of Specialization

Augmented and Virtual Reality

Project Summary

Power generation from renewable energy has become more important due to the increase of electricity demand and pressure on tough emission reduction target. Various solutions are under investigation and energy storage (ES) is one of the recognized potential ways forward. Among all the ES technologies, Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) has demonstrated its unique merit in terms of scale, sustainability, low maintenance and long life time.It is also considered as one of the best options for storing energy with the highest economic feasibility and is shown to be an effective technology for handling the fluctuation of renewable energy. CAES can be considered as a hybrid generation/storage system with considerably higher emissions during operation than other storage technologies.

CAES is a hybrid form of storage and is a modification of the conventional gas turbine (GT) technology. A CAES plant consists of a power train motor that drives a compressor to compress air into a cavern, a high pressure turbine, a low pressure turbine and a generator. CAES plants operate similarly to a conventional GT except that compression and expansion operations occur independently and at different time periods. During the compression operation, off peak low cost electricity is used to run a chain of compressors which injects air into the cavern. During the expansion operation, for generating peak high cost electricity, air is withdrawn from the cavern. The pressurised air is then used to power the GT for electricity generation using just 33% of the gas normally required.

Project Objectives

The main idea of this Project is to design a system which gives us an un-inturrpted power supply, and can replace the UPS batteries system. CAES is higher emission than other storage technologies and have very low maintainance cost.
so the Objectives are:
 

•Design a Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) as a storage and regeneration plant for a domestic household using off the-shelf componentry.

•Identify all alternatives for the primary energy generation system. PV, wind, solar thermal etc.

•Investigate direct air compression from the primary energy source, e.g. wind turbine driven compressor.

•Identify efficiency of energy transfer of the various options.

•Identify cost effective componentry that matches the system requirements.

•Create a computational model to assist in system design and optimization

•Use the model to analyze the potential for CAES to be employed as a cost effective functional alternative energy storage and regeneration system for domestic households.

•Implement the CAES design using off-the-shelf componentry into a domestic household application to confirm design and results.

Project Implementation Method

• The surplus energy is pumped and compressed into storage tanks on smaller scale, but on utility scale stored in underground caverns. The amount of energy that is stored in compressed air is directly related to the air’s density. The storage tank or cavern that holds this air has to be robust enough to handle the high density and pressure. Carbon fiber is usually the material used in storage tanks on smaller scale, while salt caverns store compressed air much as we would with natural gas on utility scale.
• The process is essentially the same as for large scale CAES technology, it is just that the reservoir is smaller and above ground. The smaller reservoir limits the amount of electricity that can be stored with small scale technology.When the plant discharges, it uses the compressed air to operate the combustion turbine generator. Natural gas is burned during plant discharge, in the same fashion as a conventional turbine plant. However, during discharge, the combustion turbine in a CAES plant uses all of its mechanical energy to generate electricity; thus the system is more efficient
• A CAES system mainly includes Compressors, driving motors, generators, air reservoir(s) (underground cavern), turbines, Load and other components.
• When the grid load demand is low, the compressor will be driven by renewable energy or surplus electricity from the grid to produce compressed air which is then stored in an air reservoir.
• When the grid load demand is high, the compressed air can be released to drive the turbine and the associated generator for electricity generation.
• The potential energy stores in the compressed air can be converted to electrical energy to provide supplement electricity to the power grid.
• The pressurized air can be released to an air motor vane to rotate the shaft connected to the Turbine.
• The turbine rotates with a speed to produce electricity.
• WHen pressure is getting low, it effects the speed of turbine for which some automatic relays are connected which controls current and speed of turbine.
• Thus we get electricity

Benefits of the Project

Following are the Benefits of This Project:

• Shift of cheap off-peak energy to expension peak energy.
  •  CAES uses excess energy at off-peak times to to cmopress air.
  • It then generates electricity at time of peak demand, when electricity pricess can be 4 or 5 times as high.
    • It is this difference in electricity price that generates income for the cavern operators.
• Quick start-up time.
  • 0%-100% can be achieved in 110 minutes.
  • 50%-100% can be achieved in 15 seconds.
• It does not cause any environmental Pollution.
• Long life and low maintanace cost as compared to Batteries and other storage technologies.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

A compressed air engine uses the expansion of compressed air to drive the pistons of an engine, turn the axle, or to drive a turbine.

The following methods can increase efficiency:

• A continuous expansion turbine at high efficiency
• Multiple expansion stages
• Use of waste heat, notably in a hybrid heat engine design
• Use of environmental heat

A highly efficient arrangement uses high, medium and low pressure pistons in series, with each stage followed by an airblast venturi that draws ambient air over an air-to-air heat exchanger. This warms the exhaust of the preceding stage and admits this preheated air to the following stage. 

Additional heat can be supplied by burning fuel as in 1904 for Whitehead's torpedoes.This improves the range and speed available for a given tank volume at the cost of the additional fuel.

Final Deliverable of the Project

Hardware System

Type of Industry

Energy

Technologies

Others

Sustainable Development Goals

Affordable and Clean Energy

Required Resources

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