Method for liquid air and gas energy storage

A method for a liquid air and gas energy storage (LACES) comprising in combination:

• pumping a liquefied natural gas (LNG) from an LNG storage tank of an LNG terminal into a co-located liquid air energy storage (LAES) facility and continuous re-gasifying the LNG in said LAES facility, resulting in injection of a formed send-out natural gas (NG) into gas networks;
• continuous consuming a required power by an air liquefier of the LAES facility and interchanging a waste thermal energy between a re-gasified LNG and a compressed air in said air liquefier, resulting in round-the-clock producing of a low-pressure (LP) liquid air from a part of said compressed air;
• storing at least a part of the LP liquid air from the air liquefier only in the off-peak hours in an electric grid;
• consuming a fuel and the LP liquid air for producing an on-demand power by a power train comprising at least one fueled and supercharged reciprocating gas engine integrated with an upstream installed high-pressure (HP) air expander and a down-stream installed low-pressure (LP) exhaust gas expander;
• recovering a cold thermal energy of a re-gasified liquid air for operating the LAES facility in one of the modes selected from a group comprising:
• re-liquefaction of a part of the send-out NG, cryogenic capture of a CO2 component from an exhaust of the power train and integration of the power train with a semi-closed CO2 bottoming cycle;
• and
• wherein the improvement comprises in combination:
• using at least a part of the on-demand power produced by the power train for supplying the air liquefier with the required power in the off-peak hours;
• using a part of the on-demand power produced by the power train for supplying the air liquefier with the required power in the on-peak and mid-peak hours;
• delivering a rest of the on-demand power produced by the power train to the electric grid;
• recovering a part of a cold thermal energy of the LP liquid air for a liquefaction of a process air in the air liquefier at a top charge cycle pressure;
• and
• recovering a cold thermal energy of a re-gasified LNG for cooling the compressed air in the air liquefier using a closed cooling loop with an intermediate cold carrier between the LNG and the compressed air.