סמינר מחלקתי Vanger Erez

School of Mechanical Engineering Seminar
Wednesday, June 17, 2015 at 15:00
Wolfson Building of Mechanical Engineering, Room 206

THERMODYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF A SOLAR THERMO-ELECTRO-CHEMICAL STORAGE (TECS) SYSTEM

Erez Wenger

MSc Student of Prof. Kribus

Thermo-Electro-Chemical Storage (TECS) is a novel concept for energy conversion and storage, where a thermo-chemical reactor is used to charge a battery directly without prior conversion to electricity. The thermo-chemical charging process is equivalent to electrical charging the battery but uses heat instead of electricity. The battery discharge produces electricity as in a conventional battery. The cycle may use concentrated solar radiation as a heat source, and operate as both a solar thermal power generator and an energy storage device, without the need for a turbine or a high-temperature heat storage unit.

Figure 1. Right: Layout of the TECS cycle, Left: Thermal to Electrochemical Conversion efficiency for configuration of waste heat utilization

This work analyzes the conversion efficiency of the TECS cycle at ideal thermodynamic conditions, Implemented mainly on the chemistry of the sodium-sulfur battery which is a commercially available battery for large scale operations. Process simulations of the cycle were carried out at different temperatures and pressures, and for different process configurations that include heat recuperation and waste heat utilization. The results show that proper internal and external utilization of waste heat leads to a very high conversion efficiency.