Thermal energy grid storage: Liquid containment and pumping above 2000 °C
Author(s)
Amy, Caleb
Pishahang, Mehdi
Kelsall, Colin
LaPotin, Alina
Brankovic, Sonja
Yee, Shannon
Henry, Asegun
Date Issued
February 2022
Journal
Applied Energy
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Citation
Caleb Amy, Mehdi Pishahang, Colin Kelsall, Alina LaPotin, Sonja Brankovic, Shannon Yee, Asegun Henry. Thermal energy grid storage: Liquid containment and pumping above 2000 °C. Applied Energy, Volume 308, 2022.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
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. 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.
Subjects
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Mechanical Engineering
General Energy
Building and Construction
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.118081
