Systems and methods for carbon dioxide-based energy storage and power generation
AssigneeEarthEn Energy Inc.
InventorsManas Pathak, Palash Panja
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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.
Claims22
A power generation system, comprising:
- a source of carbon dioxide (CO2);
- a high-pressure tank;
- a pump-turbine unit operable to perform a charging step and a discharging step, the charging step comprising (i) receiving at a first location of the pump-turbine unit a first stream of CO2 from the source of CO2 and (ii) releasing at a second location of the pump-turbine unit a second stream of compressed CO2 received by the high-pressure tank, the discharging step comprising (i) receiving at the second location of the pump-turbine unit a third stream of CO2 from the high-pressure tank and (ii) releasing at the first location of the pump-turbine unit a fourth stream of CO2 exhaust received by the source of CO2;
- at least one thermal energy storage (TES) unit;
- at least one heat exchanger operable to exchange heat between the at least one TES unit and at least one of the first stream, the second stream, the third stream, or the fourth stream;
- and
- at least one of a generator or a propeller coupled to the pump-turbine unit, the generator operable to produce electricity and the propeller operable to produce thrust,
- wherein the pump-turbine unit is configured to operate as a pump or a compressor during the charging step and as a turbine during the discharging step.
A method of generating power, the method comprising:
- performing a charging step comprising:
- providing a first stream of carbon dioxide (CO2) from a source of CO2 to a first location of a pump-turbine unit;
- compressing the first stream in the pump-turbine unit to produce a second stream of compressed CO2;
- and
- providing the second stream from a second location of the pump-turbine unit to a high-pressure tank;
- performing a discharging step comprising:
- providing a third stream of CO2 from the high-pressure tank to the second location of the pump-turbine unit;
- expanding the third stream in the pump-turbine unit to produce a fourth stream of CO2 exhaust;
- and
- providing the fourth stream from the first location of the pump-turbine unit to the source of CO2;
- using at least one heat exchanger to exchange heat between at least one thermal energy storage (TES) unit and at least one of the first stream, the second stream, the third stream, or the fourth stream;
- and
- producing at least one of (i) electricity using a generator coupled to the pump-turbine unit or (ii) thrust using a propeller coupled to the pump-turbine unit,
- wherein the pump-turbine unit is configured to operate as a pump or a compressor during the charging step and as a turbine during the discharging step.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.