Development of efficient and inexpensive thermal energy storage (TES) system for solar-thermal-electric power generation

加拿大的一家研发公司，创新太阳能电力公司，最近开发了一种新型的自主发电系统并获得了专利。这种新颖的系统将太阳能存储在热能存储(TES)中，然后利用斯特林发动机将这些热能直接转换为电能。正在考虑的自主发电系统是一种无二氧化碳、对环境无害、利用太阳辐射发电的廉价技术，太阳辐射是一种强大的可再生能源。最终硬件生产中的挑战之一是通过对储能设备和充放电过程进行几何优化来提高系统的整体效率。特别是，优化所提出的TES几何结构和参数是保持系统低成本的关键任务。 在拟议的项目中，将使用计算流体动力学(CFD)模型，对几个充放电循环中TES内部的非稳态换热进行数值模拟，以优化TES与斯特林发动机的几何结构。这一合作的结果将是25kWh TES动态行为的数值和半经验模型。这两种模式都将用于进一步提高系统和工商业污水附加费的整体效率。开发和验证的半经验模型将允许运营商和发电系统的最终用户优化TES的工作参数，而不需要计算昂贵的数值模拟。该项目的成果还将大大有助于降低污水附加费的生产和应用成本。此外，改善对TES内部传热动力学的基本了解将大大有助于在加拿大将太阳能或任何储存到电力中的热量有效转化为电能以用于发电的技术创新。

A Canadian R&D company, Innovative Solar Power (ISP), recently developed and patented a novel autonomous electricity generation system. This novel system stores solar energy in the thermal energy storage (TES) and then directly converts this thermal energy to electricity using Stirling engine. The autonomous electricity generation system being considered is CO2 free, environmentally benign and inexpensive technology to produce electricity using solar radiation, which is powerful renewable source of energy. One of the challenges in the production of the final hardware is to increase the overall efficiency of the system by geometry-optimization of the energy storage device and charging/discharging processes. In particular, optimization of proposed TES geometry and parameters is essential task to keep the cost of the system low. In the proposed project, using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models, numerical modeling of the unsteady heat transfer inside the TES applied for several charging/discharging cycles will be performed to optimize the geometry of TES coupled with the Stirling engine. The outcome of this collaboration will be numerical and semi-empirical models of the dynamic behavior of a 25kWh TES. Both models will be used to further improve the overall efficiency of the system and TES. Semi-empirical model developed and validated will allow ISP company and end-users of electricity generation system to optimize working parameters of TES without computationally expensive numerical simulations. The results of the project will also contribute significantly into the reduction of TES-production and TES-application costs. Furthermore, improved fundamental understanding of the heat transfer-dynamics inside TES will significantly contribute to technological innovations in the field of efficient conversion of the sun power or any heat stored to electricity for energy generation in Canada.