Reactor Construction for an Experimental Investigation on Thermochemical Energy Storage and Heat Transformation

Abstract

Energy storage systems are considered as an important technology, which development is essential for the facilitation of the sustainable energy production. A thermochemical energy storage system can be utilized not only for the storage of thermal energy, but also simultaneously for its transformation to high grade heat. This thesis introduces a new pillow-plate reactor for a thermochemical gas-solid reaction system with indirect heat transfer and integrated storage. The reactor can fit around 1.3 L of powdery material, withstand a temperature of up to 600 °C and support a heat flow rate of 1200W. It is experimentally tested with the reaction system of calcium sulfate and its hydrates CaSO4 x nH2O. The experiments have shown a successful heat transformation from 135 °C (open/closed dehydration at 0.009 bar) to 192 °C (closed hydration 0.96 bar). The evaluation of the results has, however, also revealed a large number of improvement possibilities, including the modification of the experimental settings, of the storage material and of the reactor itself. The reactor is intended to be utilized in the future also with other reaction systems and especially with strontium bromide SrBr2 x nH2O.