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Innovative Solar Power（ISP）最近开发了一种新型的自主发电系统，并获得了专利。这种新型系统将太阳能储存在热能储存器（TES）中，然后使用斯特林发动机将该热能直接转换为电能。正在考虑的自主发电系统是一种不含二氧化碳、对环境无害且廉价的技术，利用太阳辐射发电，这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能量存储设备和充电/放电过程的几何优化来提高系统的整体效率。特别是，建议TES的几何形状和参数的优化是必不可少的任务，以保持系统的成本低。 在拟议的项目中，使用计算流体动力学（CFD）模型，数值模拟的TES内的非稳态传热应用于几个充电/放电循环将进行优化的几何形状的TES耦合的斯特林发动机。这项合作的成果将是25 kWh TES动态行为的数值和半经验模型。这两个模型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ISP公司和发电系统的终端用户优化TES的工作参数，而无需计算昂贵的数值模拟。该项目的成果还将大大有助于降低TES生产和TES应用成本。此外，对TES内部传热动力学的基本了解的提高将大大有助于加拿大太阳能或任何储存的热量有效转化为电力用于发电领域的技术创新。

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.