Supercritical CO2 Power Cycle Symposium

May 24-25, 2011

Boulder, Colorado

Thermoelectric Energy Storage based on Transcritical CO2 Cycle

Hemrle Jaroslav
ABB Switzerland, Corporate Research
Segelhofstrasse 1K, CH5405, Baden-Daettwil, Switzerland
jaroslav.hemrle@ch.abb.com

Mercangz Mehmet
mehmet.mercangoez@ch.abb.com

Kaufmann Lilian
lilian.kaufmann@ch.abb.com

Ohler Christian
christian.ohler@ch.abb.com

Abstract
A novel concept for large-scale site-independent thermoelectric energy storage (TEES) is presented. The search for
new electric energy storage concepts is stimulated by current trends in development of modern electric power
networks, such as increasing penetration of renewable energy sources and growing demands on transmission
infrastructure. Despite the urgent need, commercial site-independent alternatives with performance and cost
comparable to pumped hydro plants are not available.
The presented TEES concept uses a transcritical CO2 cycle operated in heat pump mode for charging and, in reverse,
in heat engine mode for discharging of the storage. Water is used as the hot thermal storage material, and ice
production/melting forms the cold end for the site-independent system. CO2 as the working fluid and water as the
storage material are both low-cost, safe, environmentally-benign fluids with excellent thermal properties allowing
for scalability and high efficiency of the storage. The concept also offers potential for cost and efficiency
improvements at favorable locations, for example by utilization of very low grade waste heat for charging.

1. Introduction
Current developments in the electric energy generation, transmission and distribution systems impose the need for
broad re-thinking and modernization of those systems with focus on ensuring energy reliability and quality, while
maintaining affordability, increasing supply capacity, reducing environmental impacts by energy efficiency
improvements and integrating intermittent renewable sources. The increased interest in energy storage in particular
is further enhanced by actual or planned increase of penetration of renewable energy sources, especially wind and
solar energy, and by continuously increasing demand for electricity and transmission capacity [1].
Bulk energy storage today is based on pumped hydro plant technology which has proven to be an excellent solution,
but its deployment is limited by suitable geological conditions, water availability, or environmental concerns.
Additionally, new installations are becoming more costly as easily accessible sites are becoming scarce. Battery
solutions are at present too costly for bulk energy storage and cost reductions are potentially limited by raw material
availability. Currently available batteries also suffer from short life times, and scale poorly towards large capacities.
Given this background, this report introduces a proposed thermoelectric energy storage (TEES) based on
transcritical CO2 charging and discharging cycles as a candidate for a site independent bulk electric energy storage.

2. TEES design background

In the thermoelectric energy storage (TEES) discussed here, electric energy is converted into relatively high
temperature (high grade) heat during charging, the heat is stored for the required time, and is converted back to
electric energy at demand by a discharging cycle.
The performance of the heat pump (TEES charging) cycle can be represented as
 Supercritical CO2 Power Cycle Symposium
May 24-25, 2011
Boulder, Colorado

QH TH 1
COP = = ir , charging
Wcharging TH TC id
.
Here the coefficient of performance, COP, is given by the COP of an ideal Carnot cycle operating between the
temperatures TH and TC, corrected by the factor id that corrects the COP to the ideal (i.e. reversible) version of the
actually implemented cycle, and by ir which reflects the irreversible exergy losses. The thermal efficiency of the
reversed thermal engine cycle (TEES discharging) expressed in the same method results in
Wdischarging TH TC
C = = id ir ,discharging
QH TH .
In this simplified representation, the round trip efficiency of TEES, RT, is the product of the above COP and C,
W disch arg ing
RT = = COP C = ir ,charging ir , dischargin g 1 .
W ch arg ing
The primary design concern for this type of energy storage is therefore to implement a cycle that performs the
function of heat pump and reversed function of heat engine as reversibly as economically possible, but few
constraints are imposed a priori by thermodynamic rules. For example, the storage temperature levels do not very
directly impact the round trip efficiency, since in contrast to thermal plants the site-independent TEES produces
its heat sinks and sources during charging and uses them during discharging. On the other hand the temperature
levels affect the storage density and the cost of the TEES.
This offers a very broad field of possible configurations for thermoeconomic optimization of the system, [2]. The
specific selection of the thermodynamic cycle, working fluid, and storage material is decisive for good efficiency
and low cost of the system: e.g. the working fluid properties determine the heat transfer efficiency and thereby the
sizes and costs of heat exchangers, as well as the efficiency and design of turbomachines.
The following points have been in focus in the design of the TEES concept: 1) A cycle that can be run as reversibly
as possible in the heat pump and heat engine mode has to be found; 2) The cycle must closely match the heat
sources and sinks with which it interacts; 3) The design aims at finding an optimal combination of round-trip
efficiency and capital cost of the storage system; 4) Environmentally benign and safe materials are a strict
requirement.
Among the broad search space, a system based on water as the storage material and CO2 as the working fluid
running in a transcritical cycle has been selected.

3. TEES system
The proposed system consists of a transcritical CO2 heat pump for charging, storage of heat in sensible form in
water on the hot side of the cycle and in a latent form as ice on the cold end, and of a transcritical CO2 thermal
engine for discharging, [3]. Water as the heat storage material offers excellent thermal properties, low cost, and is
also advantageous due to the absence of any toxicity or environmental threats posed by the material. CO2 is
environmentally benign, non-flammable and non toxic working fluid (but suffocating at high concentrations), and
has excellent thermal properties for the current purpose. The main disadvantage of the arrangement using low
storage temperatures is the need for high heat transfer duties on the cold and hot end of the cycle, compared to the
electric input stored in the storage. This results in lower electric storage energy density, but the high thermal duties
are potentially offset by very low cost of the storage material as well as by very good heat transfer performance of
the CO2 and water leading to more compact heat exchangers.
The schematic of operation is shown in the following Figure 1. The charging process (left frame) uses electric
energy (i.e. pure work) to upgrade low grade heat from the ambient or a cold thermal bath. As a first step, the
working fluid (CO2) in gas phase is compressed by a compressor which consumes the electric energy to be stored.
After the compression, the working fluid has high temperature and pressure as it enters the counter-current heat
exchanger (gas cooler) where the heat is transferred from the working fluid to the storage water, which is pumped
through the heat exchanger from the cold storage tank to the hot storage tank. While in subcritical heat pump cycles
the working fluid condenses during this process, in the adopted transcritical cycle the condensation is replaced by
sensible heat exchange. Typical for the transcritical cycle is a high back-work ratio, and therefore an expander rather
 Supercritical CO2 Power Cycle Symposium
May 24-25, 2011
Boulder, Colorado

than a throttling valve is used to reduce the pressure of the working fluid. Last, the working fluid is evaporated
consuming the heat from the cold end storage. The heat is extracted from the ice storage in which ice is produced. At
the hot end of TEES, heat is stored in sensible form to water at highest temperatures typically at about 120 C in
slightly pressurized vessels. The cold end of the site-independent TEES is based on an ice storage at or below 0 C.

Figure 1: Illustration of TEES charging and discharging cycles.

The discharging cycle shown in the right frame of Figure 1 operates ideally as the exact reversal of the charging: a
pump increases the pressure of the working fluid, after which the working fluid is heated sensibly by heat from the
stored hot water. The hot, pressurized working fluid expands in a turbine producing electricity. To close the cycle,
the working fluid condenses by consuming the heat from the ice storage, thereby melting the ice.
An important feature for achieving high round trip efficiency of the TEES is the match between temperature profiles
of CO2 and water in the gas cooler/heater. As seen in Figure 2, the isobars of CO2 are curved at the pressure levels
considered currently for the operation due to variable heat capacity. To match the temperature profiles of CO2 and
water, the mass flow rates on the water side are modified in several segments of the gas cooler/heater by diverting or
inserting certain flow rates of water at selected temperatures from or into intermediate storage tanks, [4].
An example of the thermodynamic cycles performed during charging and discharging are shown in Figure 2,
represented in T-s and p-h diagrams.

Figure 2: TEES transcritical CO2 cycle (blue: charging, green: discharging).

In Figure 3 the schematic layout of TEES pilot plant for technology demonstration at several MW and a commercial
plant of 50 to 100 MW at 60% to 70% efficiency with 8 hours of charging and 5 to 6 hours of discharging the
storage are shown.
 Supercritical CO2 Power Cycle Symposium
May 24-25, 2011
Boulder, Colorado

Figure 3: Layout of 1 MW (left) and 50 MW (right) TEES for 8 h charging storage.

4. An alternative thermally open cycle with very low grade heat utilization
The TEES concept based on storage at low temperatures brings the fundamental disadvantage that relatively high
heat exchange duties are required compared to the net electric power. On the other hand, at favorable sites the cycles
can be thermally open, utilizing very low grade waste heat to reduce the charging work and therefore increasing the
round trip efficiency, [5]. The concept is illustrated in Figure 4, showing on the left hand side the site-independent
configuration, and on the right hand side the modification if low grade waste heat is available.

Figure 4: Schematic of waste heat utilization potential of TEES.

A schematic of TEES for utilization of waste, low grade geothermal or similar heat sources is given in Figure 5,
showing the collection of low grade heat and upgrade of the heat by the charging cycle the discharging is similar
to the site-independent TEES, except that the heat is rejected to the ambient instead of the ice storage. The collection
of the waste heat can be done at any time the heat is available. To store electric energy the heat is upgraded to higher
temperature at times of low electricity prices and the storage is used to produce electricity at peak demands. The
TEES in this form can be integrated into any process that offers very low grade waste heat, typically below 150 C,
with the potential for combined or trigeneration operation. The economics of this method of recovering very low
grade waste heat is boosted by the possibility to delay the electricity production to times of peak electricity demand.

Figure 5: Functional schematic of waste heat integration to TEES: heat collection: left, heat upgrade: right.
 Supercritical CO2 Power Cycle Symposium
May 24-25, 2011
Boulder, Colorado

Examples of the possible underlying thermodynamic cycles of TEES utilizing low grade heat are shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Examples of ideal TEES thermodynamic cycles with waste heat utilization at two different temperature levels.
Left: waste heat temperature about 30 C; right: waste heat temperature about 75 C.

Similarly, an open arrangement without ice storage can be used if a large (nearly isothermal) cold end heat source is
available at the site of TEES. Specifically, the TEES can achieve reasonable efficiencies without ice storage if e.g.
cold sea (15 C or lower) is available as the cold end of the system. This may offer an interesting option with
reduced costs for electricity storage near off-shore wind power plants in cold areas.

5. Further work
The research on TEES aims at the development of a site-independent large scale bulk electric energy storage
concept. The technical feasibility has been concluded with a positive result even if off-the-shelf components at small
sizes are considered. To exploit the efficiency improvements and economy of scale, the work focuses currently on
scaling the system up to hundreds of MW net electric storage power. As a step into this direction the construction of
a pilot plant at the power of few MW electric is planned.
Table 1 shows the roadmap for further development of the concept, together with simulated round trip efficiencies
targeted at the three levels of TEES development.

Table 1: Roadmap of further ABB TEES development.

Short term Mid-term (2-5 years) Long term (>5 years)
TEES sizes (net electric) Few MWe (pilot scale) Tens of MWe Over 50 MWe
Round-trip efficiency ~50% ~60% 65-75%
Component development Generic, off-the-shelf Customized Custom developed and
status components components optimized for TEES

References
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Sandia Report SAND2010-0815, 2010
2. M. Mercangz, J. Hemrle, L. Kaufmann, F. Buchter, Ch. Ohler, Thermoelectric Energy Storage with
Transcritical CO2 Cycles, Submitted to the 24th International Conference on Efficiency, Cost, Optimization,
Simulation and Environmental Impact of Energy Systems, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2011
3. J. Hemrle, M. Mercangz, Ch. Ohler, Thermoelectric energy storage system and method for storing
thermoelectric energy, WO2010020480, 2009
4. J. Hemrle, L. Kaufmann, M. Mercangz, Thermoelectric energy storage system with an intermediate storage
tank and method for storing thermoelectric energy, WO2010145963, 2009
5. J. Hemrle, L. Kaufmann, M. Mercangz, Thermoelectric energy storage system having two thermal baths and
method for storing thermoelectric energy, WO2010118915, 2009