March 1, 2019
Colloquium Topic: Thermodynamic Analysis of a Liquid Air Energy Storage System
Renewable energy generation is intermittent, necessitating energy storage subsystems to provide electricity during periods of reduced or no power generation. Liquid air energy storage (LAES) systems, with their high energy density and scalability, are a promising method to store energy for intermittent systems. This presentation presents research for use in the systems engineering process during the conceptualization and requirements stage of designing and development a LAES system. This includes a closed-form method of calculating the compressor work for a modified simple Linde-Hampson system and liquid yield of a binary mixture of nitrogen and oxygen using only their respective pure fluid tables. This tool provides a methodology to check holistically a vast amount of different potential binary mixtures for use in a LAES system. Secondly, an energy and exergy analysis of a LAES system is presented in order to map the trade space and identify optimum operating ranges. Finally, the presentation presents a valuable Excel add-in tool used to download fluid chemistry tables from the National Institute of Standards and Technology website.
Colloquium Speaker: CPT Todd Howe
Todd A. Howe is a Captain in the US Army and currently serves as an Observer, Controller and Trainer Team Chief at Fort Knox, KY responsible for partnering with Army National Guard and Army Reserve forces across the nation. Captain Howe graduated from Norwich University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and has served in the US Army since May 2008. In that time he has served in various positions to include: platoon leader, company executive officer, project engineer, battalion logistics officer, company commander, and observer, controller, and trainer team chief. Captain Howe graduated with distinction from Naval Postgraduate School in 2018 with a master’s degree in Systems Engineering. He completed his thesis work on liquid air energy storage. He has published one paper in the international journal Entropy titled “Operating Range for a Combined, Building-Scale LAES and Expansion System: Energy and Exergy Analysis.”