Systems and methods for carbon dioxide-based energy storage and power generation
AssigneeEarthEn Energy Inc.
InventorsManas Pathak, Karthigeyan Chakaravarty
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Abstract
Systems and methods for carbon dioxide-based energy storage and power generation are described. An example system is presented that includes a compressor operable to receive supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) and produce compressed sCO2, one or more thermal energy storage (TES) units operable to heat the compressed sCO2, a turbine operable to receive the heated and compressed sCO2 and output an sCO2 exhaust, and at least one of a generator or a propeller coupled to the turbine, where the generator is operable to produce electricity and the propeller is operable to produce thrust.
Claims30
A power generation system, comprising:
- a low-pressure tank;
- a high-pressure tank;
- a compressor operable to receive a first stream of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the low-pressure tank and produce a second stream of CO2 received by the high-pressure tank, the second stream comprising compressed CO2;
- a turbine operable to receive a third stream of CO2 from the high-pressure tank and produce a fourth stream of CO2 received by the low-pressure tank, the fourth stream comprising a CO2 exhaust;
- a first set of one or more thermal energy storage (TES) units operable to receive heat from the fourth stream and provide heat to the first stream using a first plurality of heat exchangers;
- a second set of one or more TES units operable to receive heat from the second stream and provide heat to the third stream using a second plurality of heat exchangers;
- and
- at least one of a generator or a propeller coupled to the turbine, the generator operable to produce electricity and the propeller operable to produce thrust.
A method of generating power, comprising:
- providing a first stream of carbon dioxide (CO2) from a low-pressure tank to a compressor;
- compressing the first stream in the compressor to produce a second stream of CO2, the second stream comprising compressed CO2;
- providing the second stream to a high-pressure tank;
- providing a third stream of CO2 from the high-pressure tank to a turbine;
- expanding the third stream in the turbine to produce a fourth stream of CO2, the fourth stream comprising a CO2 exhaust;
- providing the fourth stream to the low-pressure tank;
- transferring heat from the fourth stream to the first stream using a first set of one or more thermal energy storage (TES) units and a first plurality of heat exchangers;
- transferring heat from the second stream to the third stream using a second set of one or more TES units and a second plurality of heat exchangers;
- and
- producing at least one of (i) electricity using a generator coupled to the turbine or (ii) thrust using a propeller coupled to the turbine.
A thermo-mechanical system, comprising:
- a low-pressure tank configured to store carbon dioxide (CO2);
- a compressor operable to receive and compress the CO2 from the low-pressure tank;
- a high-pressure tank configured to store the compressed CO2 from the compressor;
- a turbine operable to receive the compressed CO2 from the high-pressure tank and produce a CO2 exhaust for storage in the low-pressure tank;
- a first set of thermal energy storage (TES) units operable to utilize a first plurality of heat exchangers to (i) transfer heat in stages from the CO2 exhaust from the turbine and (ii) transfer heat in stages to the CO2 from the low-pressure tank;
- and
- a second set of TES units operable to utilize a first plurality of heat exchangers to (i) transfer heat in stages from the compressed CO2 from the compressor and (ii) transfer heat in stages to the CO2 from the high-pressure tank.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.