SBIR Phase II: Grid-scale electricity storage from waste heat

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是释放水作为建筑空调热能储存介质的潜力。目前，基于冰盘管（IOC）技术的商业冰蓄冷系统无法捕捉到这一潜力，因为在水冻结和融化时，有效地将热能输入和输出是一项挑战。拟议的冰阻热交换（IHEX）技术消除了冷冻水与冷表面的粘附，防止了盘管上的冰积聚，实现了水的低成本、高效率、弹性建筑冷却的力量。基于IHEX的热存储消除了产品采用的主要障碍：高成本和空间限制。它帮助建筑业主降低冷却成本，加强冷却弹性，并通过经济实惠和空间适应性强的解决方案减少碳排放。从更广泛的角度来看，储能对于可持续电网来说是必不可少的。在全球范围内，通过在建筑制冷中全面部署IHEX技术，估计可抵消高达2.8%的全球温室气体排放。除了从间歇性可再生能源中获得可靠的电力外，具有成本效益的储热可以通过满足电网停机时的冷却需求来增加冷却弹性。SBIR二期项目旨在通过展示IHEX材料的高可靠性，并为商业规模的IHEX系统建立高能量密度、效率和冷却弹性，从而促进IHEX技术的发展。IOC系统使用数英里的管道来产生必要的传热表面积，这是昂贵和能源密集型的，而且它们的模块化系统需要很大的空间。该项目将证明IHEX技术符合IOC技术的所有现有优势，如耐久性，同时解决潜在的经济问题。首先，材料测试将在原型规模系统上进行一年的冻结/融化循环后完成，以表明IHEX系统的长寿命。其次，将展示使用具有高能量密度的可定制储罐的能力。可定制的空间填充罐将帮助IHEX技术消除阻碍许多商业项目的物理空间限制。第三，与IOC解决方案相比，商业规模的IHEX系统将获得20%的能源效率提高，成本低至每吨小时28美元。最后，通过与我们的产品终端用户和行业合作，与传统冷却系统相比，总拥有成本将降低67%。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is to unleash the potential of water as a thermal energy storage medium for building air conditioning. Today’s commercial ice storage systems, based on Ice-on-Coil (IOC) technology, fails to capture this potential because efficiently moving thermal energy into and out of water as it freezes and melts is challenging. The proposed Icephobic Heat Exchange (IHEX) technology eliminates the adhesion of freezing water to cold surfaces, preventing ice buildup on the coil and realizing the power of water for low-cost, high efficiency, resilient building cooling. IHEX based thermal storage removes the primary barriers to product adoption: high cost and spatial constraint limitations. It helps building owners lower their cooling costs, strengthen their cooling resiliency, and reduce their carbon emissions through affordable and spatially adaptable solutions. From a broader perspective, storing energy is imperative to a sustainable electric grid. Globally, an estimated potential for up to 2.8% of worldwide GHG emissions can be offset through full scale deployment of IHEX technology in building cooling. Beyond reliable access to power from intermittent renewable sources, cost-effective thermal storage can increase cooling resiliency by meeting cooling demand when the electric grid is down.This SBIR Phase II project proposes to catalyze development of IHEX technology by demonstrating high reliability for IHEX materials and establish high energy density, efficiency, and cooling resiliency for commercial-scale IHEX systems. IOC systems use miles of tubing to generate the necessary amount of surface area for heat transfer, which is costly and energy intensive, and their modular systems require significant space. This project will demonstrate that IHEX technology meets all the existing strengths of IOC technology, such as durability, while addressing potential economic concerns. First, materials testing will be completed after a year’s worth of freeze/melt cycling on a prototype-scale system to indicate long IHEX system life. Second, the ability to use customizable storage tanks with high energy density will be demonstrated. Customizable, space-filling tanks will help IHEX technology eliminate the physical space constraints that have thwarted so many commercial projects. Third, a commercial-scale IHEX system will be used to derive a 20% energy efficiency improvement compared to IOC solutions and a low, $28/ton-hr cost. And finally, by working with our product end-users and industry, a 67% reduction in total cost of ownership compared to conventional cooling systems will be shown.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.