SBIR Phase II: Regenerative Freeze Suppression for Thermally Bound Energy Storage Systems

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this project includes peak demand relief for utilities, reducedfreezer operating costs for retail stores, and natural refrigerants for regulators. Unfortunately, no state-ofthe-art system simultaneously addresses all these issues. Industrial/commercial batteries remainunaffordable, refrigeration costs account for 60% of a retail store?s electricity bills and equipmentmanufacturers are only realizing incremental efficiency improvements with new vapor compressionarchitectures. This project introduces an energy storage technology, embedded in a natural refrigerantcooling cycle, that provides load-shifting services and a 40% reduction in commercial freezer electricalpurchases. More importantly, it achieves this at a 3-year payback without government incentives usingnatural, near ambient, materials.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will investigate an energy storagetechnique utilizing water as the storage material in a time delayed, freeze-point-suppression refrigerationcycle. The project will focus on the internal testing, third party validation and commercial demonstrationof a 10kWth system. Successful integration within low temperature refrigeration architectures requiresindustrial design focused on skid/waste heat integration, validation testing to inform required part countreductions/system revisions and demonstration to monitor, learn and revise the technology in preparationfor scale up.