Thermal energy grid storage: Liquid containment and pumping above 2000 °C

As the cost of renewable energy falls below fossil fuels, the key barrier to widespread sustainable electricity has become availability on demand. Energy storage can enable dispatchable renewables, but only with drastic cost reductions compared to current battery technologies. One electricity storag...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied energy 2021-12, Vol.308
Main Authors: Amy, Caleb, Pishahang, Mehdi, Kelsall, Colin, LaPotin, Alina, Brankovic, Sonja, Yee, Shannon, Henry, Asegun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
High temperature
High Temperature Pumping
Inert containment
Liquid Metal Pumping
Liquid Silicon
Materials compatibility
POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
Pumping
Sealing
Thermal energy storage
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Summary:As the cost of renewable energy falls below fossil fuels, the key barrier to widespread sustainable electricity has become availability on demand. Energy storage can enable dispatchable renewables, but only with drastic cost reductions compared to current battery technologies. One electricity storage concept that could enable these cost reductions stores electricity as sensible heat in an extremely hot liquid (>2000°C) and uses multi-junction photovoltaics (MPV) as a heat engine to convert it back to electricity on demand hours, or days, later. Furthermore, this paper reports the first containment of silicon in a multipart graphite tank above 2000°C, using material grades that are affordable for energy storage at GWh scales. Low cost molded graphite with particle sizes as large as 10 μm successfully contained metallurgical grade silicon, even with as much as two-thirds iron by mass for up to 10 hours and temperatures as high as 2300°C, in tanks as large as two gallons.
ISSN:0306-2619
1872-9118