Division of Information Technology, Engineering and the Environment
School of Advanced Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering
School of Advanced Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering
Thesis Abstract
The research will involve the development of a gas liquid phase hybrid thermal energy storage system for a temperature range between 300oC to 600oC. Current molten salt thermal storage systems suffer from calcite formation, segregation and low thermal conductivity. In this work a non reactive, high density storage gas will be used to achieve high energy storage density per unit volume, avoid segregation of the molten salts and optimize the heat transfer from molten salt to the working fluid. CO2 has good solubility in salts and has a high energy storage density at 31oC and 70 bar pressure and so has good potential as a thermal energy storage material. Also CO2 is widely used in oil wells to reduce the viscosity of the oil. A CO2 and molten salt hybrid system will be studied at high pressure for a temperature range between 300oC to 600oC. CO2 will be analyzed for reducing the viscosity of the molten salt, increasing the energy storage density and improving the thermal conductivity.
A prototype unit will be constructed to carry out experiments. The proportion of CO2 in a molten salt will be varied at various temperatures to determine if this mixture can be used for thermal energy storage.
