Scrutable

Prompted by plodder's reply to my terrible infrastructure project of a pumped storage system in Norwich, here's a serious project near me, being built by a UK company:

Liquified Air Storage. The key advantages seem to be that a relatively small system can store energy with low losses for weeks at a time, and can release it relatively fast when required.

Not sure about the practicalities there. Compression would heat up the air considerably, and when it's released weeks later it could lead to localised snow showers.


On the other hand, they could also extract Oxygen from the compressed air by passing it over zeolites.

Gfamily wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 12, 2020 4:19 pm

Not sure about the practicalities there. Compression would heat up the air considerably, and when it's released weeks later it could lead to localised snow showers.


On the other hand, they could also extract Oxygen from the compressed air by passing it over zeolites.

They store the heat from compression to drive expansion later.

Grumble wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 12, 2020 4:35 pm

Gfamily wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 12, 2020 4:19 pm

Not sure about the practicalities there. Compression would heat up the air considerably, and when it's released weeks later it could lead to localised snow showers.


On the other hand, they could also extract Oxygen from the compressed air by passing it over zeolites.

They store the heat from compression to drive expansion later.

The article says they cool the air to compress it. So not sure how they would store the heat.
I never really understood thermodynamics, enough to be able to handwave, perhaps; but never enough to be totally confident.

Gfamily wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 12, 2020 5:07 pm

Grumble wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 12, 2020 4:35 pm

Gfamily wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 12, 2020 4:19 pm

Not sure about the practicalities there. Compression would heat up the air considerably, and when it's released weeks later it could lead to localised snow showers.


On the other hand, they could also extract Oxygen from the compressed air by passing it over zeolites.

They store the heat from compression to drive expansion later.

The article says they cool the air to compress it. So not sure how they would store the heat.
I never really understood thermodynamics, enough to be able to handwave, perhaps; but never enough to be totally confident.

I’m not sure how either to be fair, I imagine in insulated tanks. They also say it’s more efficient if they can use waste heat and waste cold from other processes. Some concept info here: https://www.highviewpower.com/technology/