Theoretical Performance Limits of an Isobaric Hybrid Compressed Air Energy Storage System

The desire to increase power production through renewable sources introduces a number of problems due to their inherent intermittency. One solution is to incorporate energy storage systems as a means of managing the intermittent energy and increasing the utilization of renewable sources. A novel hybrid thermal and compressed air energy storage (HT-CAES) system is presented which mitigates the shortcomings of the otherwise attractive conventional compressed air energy storage (CAES) systems and its derivatives, such as strict geological locations, low energy density, and the production of greenhouse gas emissions. The HT-CAES system is investigated, and the thermodynamic efficiency limits within which it operates have been drawn. The thermodynamic models considered assume a constant pressure cavern. It is shown that under this assumption the cavern acts just as a delay time in the operation of the plant, whereas an adiabatic constant volume cavern changes the quality of energy through the cavern. The efficiency of the HT-CAES system is compared with its Brayton cycle counterpart, in the case of pure thermal energy storage (TES). It is shown that the efficiency of the HT-CAES plant is generally not bound by the Carnot efficiency and always higher than that of the Brayton cycle, except for when the heat losses following compression rise above a critical level. The results of this paper demonstrate that the HT-CAES system has the potential of increasing the efficiency of a pure TES system executed through a Brayton cycle at the expense of an air storage medium.