1. A general model for techno-economic analysis of CSP plants with thermochemical energy storage systems
- Author
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Christos T. Maravelias, Xinyue Peng, and Thatcher W. Root
- Subjects
business.industry ,Methane ,Energy storage ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,chemistry ,Cost driver ,Environmental science ,Electricity ,Cost of electricity by source ,Process engineering ,business ,Gas compressor ,Energy (signal processing) ,Efficient energy use - Abstract
Thermochemical energy storage (TCES), with high energy density and wide operating temperature range, presents a potential solution for CSP plant energy storage. We develop a general optimization based process model for CSP plants employing a wide range of TCES systems which allows us to assess the plant economic feasibility and energy efficiency. The proposed model is applied to a 100 MW CSP plant employing ammonia or methane TCES systems. The methane TCES system with underground gas storage appears to be the most promising option, achieving a 14% LCOE reduction over the current two-tank molten-salt CSP plants. For general TCES systems, gas storage is identified as the main cost driver, while the main energy driver is the compressor electricity consumption. The impacts of separation and different reaction parameters are also analyzed. This study demonstrates that the realization of TCES systems for CSP plants is contingent upon low storage cost and a reversible reaction with proper reaction properties.
- Published
- 2017