Next-generation Thermal Energy Storage (NexTES) Technologies for Process Industry and Renewable Power Generation

Project description

Thermal energy is ubiquitous in our life. It is essential in the process industry and several energy conversion processes. Thermal energy storage (TES) is becoming very important with the rapid adoption of renewable energy sources. In addition to providing the capability to store excess energy during peak generation, TES also offers several value-added services to a dynamic grid, enhances interactivity between end-users and the grid, provides resiliency during blackouts and brownouts, and improves the efficiency of processes through energy recovery and reuse. TES is superior because many renewable energy sources are in the form of heat, storing heat directly avoids or reduces unnecessary losses in conversions between heat and electricity.

In this project, we envision a comprehensive analysis of different technologies to advance the state-of-the-art of TES technologies with applications in various sectors such as power generation, industrial process efficiency, combined heat and power systems, and renewable energy. Our approach will include developing detailed thermodynamic models of different systems and processes in the initial phase of the project. These models and analyses will help select the most promising technology in terms of roundtrip storage efficiency, storage capacity, and cost. The next phase of the project will focus on the selected technology and its detailed modeling and experiments to identify and address the challenges towards commercialization. The modeling will involve detailed heat and mass transfer analyses of thermal energy storage and recovery components. Lab-scale experiments will help validate our models and identify and address challenges in fabrication, materials, and system integration. Working closely with our industry partner, Thermax Limited, we will simultaneously focus on addressing the technical and commercialization challenges in this relatively early-stage research area.

Outcomes

The initial deliverable of the project will be a comprehensive thermodynamic analysis of several thermal energy storage technologies. Following the thermodynamic analysis, we will focus on either thermochemical energy storage or grid-scale thermal storage. The specific tasks and deliverables are:

1. Detailed numerical models and analyses of different thermal energy storage technologies for power generation and waste-heat recovery applications.
2. Thermochemical materials offer a very high theoretical energy storage density. However, practical systems have significantly lower energy density to heat and mass transfer and manufacturing limitations. Therefore, we will improve the understanding of fundamental heat and mass transfer processes in these systems to optimize the materials, component designs, and system integration to improve the overall feasibility.
3. Optimization of storage material and module design for rapid charging and discharging provided the power generation mix and temporal load profiles.
4. Lab-scale performance demonstration of the performance of thermal storage modules and identification of future research and development direction.

The key outcome of this project will be a comprehensive analysis framework and a proof-of-concept demonstration of an optimized thermal energy storage module for a selected application area.

Essential capabilities

Strong background in mechanical engineering with interest in thermal energy systems and proven excellent academic record in relevant courses.

Desireable capabilities

Past experience with research in thermal systems engineering particularly in the areas of fundamental heat transfer, thermofluids engineering, and power generation systems will be helpful. Experience with writing own codes and solvers in MATLAB or Python or any other programming language will also be helpful.

Expected qualifications (Course/Degrees etc.)

Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical or Energy Science Engineering. Course: thermodynamics, fluid mechanics , heat and mass transfer , related courses in thermal engineering.

Candidate Discipline

Thermal Energy Storage Renewable Energy Process Efficiency Heat Recovery.