Upcoming Ideas and Concepts

Kurzfassung

This module gives an overview of upcoming ideas and concepts for thermal energy storage. After attending the module, the listener will be able to understand which shortcomings of current thermal energy storage technologies are there and what possible improvements are currently under research. The topic is divided into three main sections according to the underlying technologies. The first technology is sensible heat storage, which is based on storing heat by changing the temperature of a substance. The technology has the highest maturity and some concepts are already commercially available. Research focus lies on the optimization of costs; hence system simulations play an important role. Experiments have left lab scale and are mostly at pilot or demonstrational scale. The second technology is latent heat thermal energy storage, where the phase change enthalpy of matter is utilized to store heat. Research is still focusing on better understanding and simulating the phase change process in real systems as well as new concepts in general. The concept has also been demonstrated on a relevant scale. Finally, the third technology is thermochemical energy storage, where the heat of reaction is used for thermal energy storage. Research is still in lab scale here, with the aim of investigating several possible reaction systems and understanding the underlying chemistry. Some concepts have been proved in a kW-scale.