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DOE OSTI2012

HEATS: Thermal Energy Storage

HEATS Project: The 15 projects that make up ARPA-E’s HEATS program, short for “High Energy Advanced Thermal Storage,” seek to develop revolutionary, cost-effective ways to store thermal energy. HEATS focuses on 3 specific areas: 1) developing high-temperature solar thermal energy storage capable of cost-effectively delivering electricity around the clock and thermal energy storage for nuclear power plants capable of cost-effectively meeting peak demand, 2) creating synthetic fuel efficiently from sunlight by converting sunlight into heat, and 3) using thermal energy storage to improve the driving range of electric vehicles (EVs) and also enable thermal management of internal combustion engine vehicles.

ARPA-E↗

DOE OSTI2012

Conversion Tower for Dispatchable Solar Power: High-Efficiency Solar-Electric Conversion Power Tower

HEATS Project: Abengoa Solar is developing a high-efficiency solar-electric conversion tower to enable low-cost, fully dispatchable solar energy generation. Abengoa’s conversion tower utilizes new system architecture and a two-phase thermal energy storage media with an efficient supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) power cycle. The company is using a high-temperature heat-transfer fluid with a phase change in between its hot and cold operating temperature. The fluid serves as a heat storage material and is cheaper and more efficient than conventional heat-storage materials, like molten salt. It also allows the use of a high heat flux solar receiver, advanced high thermal energy density storage, and more efficient power cycles.

ARPA-E↗

DOE OSTI2014

The Development of an INL Capability for High Temperature Flow, Heat Transfer, and Thermal Energy Storage with Applications in Advanced Small Modular Reactors, High Temperature Heat Exchangers, Hybrid Energy Systems, and Dynamic Grid Energy Storage C

The overall goal of this project is to support Idaho National Laboratory in developing a new advanced high temperature multi fluid multi loop test facility that is aimed at investigating fluid flow and heat transfer, material corrosion, heat exchanger characteristics and instrumentation performance, among others, for nuclear applications. Specifically, preliminary research has been performed at The Ohio State University in the following areas: 1. A review of fluoride molten salts’ characteristics in thermal, corrosive, and compatibility performances. A recommendation for a salt selection is provided. Material candidates for both molten salt and helium flow loop have been identified. 2. A conceptual facility design that satisfies the multi loop (two coolant loops [i.e., fluoride molten salts and helium]) multi purpose (two operation modes [i.e., forced and natural circulation]) requirements. Schematic models are presented. The thermal hydraulic performances in a preliminary printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) design have been estimated. 3. An introduction of computational methods and models for pipe heat loss analysis and cases studies. Recommendations on insulation material selection have been provided. 4. An analysis of pipe pressure rating and sizing. Preliminary recommendations on pipe size selection have been provided. 5. A review of molten fluoride salt preparation and chemistry control. An introduction to the experience from the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been provided. 6. A review of some instruments and components to be used in the facility. Flowmeters and Grayloc connectors have been included. This report primarily presents the conclusions drawn from the extensive review of literatures in material selections and the facility design progress at the current stage. It provides some useful guidelines in insulation material and pipe size selection, as well as an introductory review of facility process and components.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2012

Molten Glass for Thermal Storage: Advanced Molten Glass for Heat Transfer and Thermal Energy Storage

HEATS Project: Halotechnics is developing a high-temperature thermal energy storage system using a new thermal-storage and heat-transfer material: earth-abundant and low-melting-point molten glass. Heat storage materials are critical to the energy storage process. In solar thermal storage systems, heat can be stored in these materials during the day and released at night—when the sun is not out—to drive a turbine and produce electricity. In nuclear storage systems, heat can be stored in these materials at night and released to produce electricity during daytime peak-demand hours. Halotechnics new thermal storage material targets a price that is potentially cheaper than the molten salt used in most commercial solar thermal storage systems today. It is also extremely stable at temperatures up to 1200°C—hundreds of degrees hotter than the highest temperature molten salt can handle. Being able to function at high temperatures will significantly increase the efficiency of turning heat into electricity. Halotechnics is developing a scalable system to pump, heat, store, and discharge the molten glass. The company is leveraging technology used in the modern glass industry, which has decades of experience handling molten glass.

ARPA-E↗

DOE OSTI2011

Efficient Phase-Change Materials: Development of a Low-Cost Thermal Energy Storage System Using Phase-Change Materials with Enhanced Radiation Heat Transfer

HEATS Project: USF is developing low-cost, high-temperature phase-change materials (PCMs) for use in thermal energy storage systems. Heat storage materials are critical to the energy storage process. In solar thermal storage systems, heat can be stored in these materials during the day and released at night—when the sun is not out—to drive a turbine and produce electricity. In nuclear storage systems, heat can be stored in these materials at night and released to produce electricity during daytime peak-demand hours. Most PCMs do not conduct heat very well. Using an innovative, electroless encapsulation technique, USF is enhancing the heat transfer capability of its PCMs. The inner walls of the capsules will be lined with a corrosion-resistant, high-infrared emissivity coating, and the absorptivity of the PCM will be controlled with the addition of nano-sized particles. USF’s PCMs remain stable at temperatures from 600 to 1,000°C and can be used for solar thermal power storage, nuclear thermal power storage, and other applications.

ARPA-E↗

DOE OSTI2011

Metal Hydride Thermal Storage: Reversible Metal Hydride Thermal Storage for High-Temperature Power Generation Systems

HEATS Project: PNNL is developing a thermal energy storage system based on a Reversible Metal Hydride Thermochemical (RMHT) system, which uses metal hydride as a heat storage material. Heat storage materials are critical to the energy storage process. In solar thermal storage systems, heat can be stored in these materials during the day and released at night—when the sun is not out—to drive a turbine and produce electricity. In nuclear storage systems, heat can be stored in these materials at night and released to produce electricity during daytime peak-demand hours. PNNL’s metal hydride material can reversibly store heat as hydrogen cycles in and out of the material. In a RHMT system, metal hydrides remain stable in high temperatures (600- 800°C). A high-temperature tank in PNNL’s storage system releases heat as hydrogen is absorbed, and a low-temperature tank stores the heat until it is needed. The low-cost material and simplicity of PNNL’s thermal energy storage system is expected to keep costs down. The system has the potential to significantly increase energy density.

ARPA-E↗

DOE OSTI2011

Efficient Heat Storage Materials: Metallic Composites Phase-Change Materials for High-Temperature Thermal Energy Storage

HEATS Project: MIT is developing efficient heat storage materials for use in solar and nuclear power plants. Heat storage materials are critical to the energy storage process. In solar thermal storage systems, heat can be stored in these materials during the day and released at night—when the sun’s not out—to drive a turbine and produce electricity. In nuclear storage systems, heat can be stored in these materials at night and released to produce electricity during daytime peak-demand hours. MIT is designing nanostructured heat storage materials that can store a large amount of heat per unit mass and volume. To do this, MIT is using phase change materials, which absorb a large amount of latent heat to melt from solid to liquid. MIT’s heat storage materials are designed to melt at high temperatures and conduct heat well—this makes them efficient at storing and releasing heat and enhances the overall efficiency of the thermal storage and energy-generation process. MIT’s low-cost heat storage materials also have a long life cycle, which further enhances their efficiency.

ARPA-E↗

DOE OSTI2011

Advanced Thermal Energy Storage: Novel Tuning of Critical Fluctuations for Advanced Thermal Energy Storage

HEATS Project: NAVITASMAX is developing a novel thermal energy storage solution. This innovative technology is based on simple and complex supercritical fluids— substances where distinct liquid and gas phases do not exist, and tuning the properties of these fluid systems to increase their ability to store more heat. In solar thermal storage systems, heat can be stored in NAVITASMAX’s system during the day and released at night—when the sun is not shining—to drive a turbine and produce electricity. In nuclear storage systems, heat can be stored in NAVITASMAX’s system at night and released to produce electricity during daytime peak-demand hours.

ARPA-E↗

DOE OSTI2011

Thermal Batteries for Electric Vehicles

HEATS Project: UT Austin will demonstrate a high-energy density and low-cost thermal storage system that will provide efficient cabin heating and cooling for EVs. Compared to existing HVAC systems powered by electric batteries in EVs, the innovative hot-and-cold thermal batteries-based technology is expected to decrease the manufacturing cost and increase the driving range of next-generation EVs. These thermal batteries can be charged with off-peak electric power together with the electric batteries. Based on innovations in composite materials offering twice the energy density of ice and 10 times the thermal conductivity of water, these thermal batteries are expected to achieve a comparable energy density at 25% of the cost of electric batteries. Moreover, because UT Austin’s thermal energy storage systems are modular, they may be incorporated into the heating and cooling systems in buildings, providing further energy efficiencies and positively impacting the emissions of current building heating/cooling systems.

ARPA-E↗

DOE OSTI2011

Advanced Thermo-Adsorptive Battery: Advanced Thermo-Adsorptive Battery Climate Control System

HEATS Project: MIT is developing a low-cost, compact, high-capacity, advanced thermoadsorptive battery (ATB) for effective climate control of EVs. The ATB provides both heating and cooling by taking advantage of the materials’ ability to adsorb a significant amount of water. This efficient battery system design could offer up as much as a 30% increase in driving range compared to current EV climate control technology. The ATB provides high-capacity thermal storage with little-to-no electrical power consumption. The ATB is also looking to explore the possibility of shifting peak electricity loads for cooling and heating in a variety of other applications, including commercial and residential buildings, data centers, and telecom facilities.

ARPA-E↗

DOE OSTI2011

High Energy Density Thermal Batteries: Thermoelectric Reactors for Efficient Automotive Thermal Storage

HEATS Project: Sheetak is developing a new HVAC system to store the energy required for heating and cooling in EVs. This system will replace the traditional refrigerant-based vapor compressors and inefficient heaters used in today’s EVs with efficient, light, and rechargeable hot-and-cold thermal batteries. The high energy density thermal battery—which does not use any hazardous substances—can be recharged by an integrated solid-state thermoelectric energy converter while the vehicle is parked and its electrical battery is being charged. Sheetak’s converters can also run on the electric battery if needed and provide the required cooling and heating to the passengers—eliminating the space constraint and reducing the weight of EVs that use more traditional compressors and heaters.

ARPA-E↗

DOE OSTI2011

Advanced Metal-Hydrides-Based Thermal Battery: A New Generation of High Density Thermal Battery Based on Advanced Metal Hydrides

HEATS Project: The University of Utah is developing a compact hot-and-cold thermal battery using advanced metal hydrides that could offer efficient climate control system for EVs. The team’s innovative designs of heating and cooling systems for EVs with high energy density, low-cost thermal batteries could significantly reduce the weight and eliminate the space constraint in automobiles. The thermal battery can be charged by plugging it into an electrical outlet while charging the electric battery and it produces heat and cold through a heat exchanger when discharging. The ultimate goal of the project is a climate-controlling thermal battery that can last up to 5,000 charge and discharge cycles while substantially increasing the driving range of EVs, thus reducing the drain on electric batteries.

ARPA-E↗

DOE OSTI2011

Electric Adsorption Heat Pump for Electric Vehicles: Electric-Powered Adsorption Heat Pump for Electric Vehicles

HEATS Project: PNNL is developing a new class of advanced nanomaterial called an electrical metal organic framework (EMOF) for EV heating and cooling systems. The EMOF would function similar to a conventional heat pump, which circulates heat or cold to the cabin as needed. However, by directly controlling the EMOF's properties with electricity, the PNNL design is expected to use much less energy than traditional heating and cooling systems. The EMOF-based heat pumps would be light, compact, efficient, and run using virtually no moving parts.

ARPA-E↗

DOE OSTI2011

Solar Thermochemical Fuels Production: Solar Fuels via Partial Redox Cycles with Heat Recovery

HEATS Project: The University of Minnesota is developing a solar thermochemical reactor that will efficiently produce fuel from sunlight, using solar energy to produce heat to break chemical bonds. The University of Minnesota is envisioning producing the fuel by using partial redox cycles and ceria-based reactive materials. The team will achieve unprecedented solar-to-fuel conversion efficiencies of more than 10% (where current state-of-the-art efficiency is 1%) by combined efforts and innovations in material development, and reactor design with effective heat recovery mechanisms and demonstration. This new technology will allow for the effective use of vast domestic solar resources to produce precursors to synthetic fuels that could replace gasoline.

ARPA-E↗

DOE OSTI2011

Solar Thermochemical Fuels Production: Solar Thermochemical Fuel Production via a Novel Lowe Pressure, Magnetically Stabilized, Non-volatile Iron Oxide Looping Process

HEATS Project: The University of Florida is developing a windowless high-temperature chemical reactor that converts concentrated solar thermal energy to syngas, which can be used to produce gasoline. The overarching project goal is lowering the cost of the solar thermochemical production of syngas for clean and synthetic hydrocarbon fuels like petroleum. The team will develop processes that rely on water and recycled CO2 as the sole feed-stock, and concentrated solar radiation as the sole energy source, to power the reactor to produce fuel efficiently. Successful large-scale deployment of this solar thermochemical fuel production could substantially improve our national and economic security by replacing imported oil with domestically produced solar fuels.

ARPA-E↗

DOE OSTI2015

Doped calcium manganites for advanced high-temperature thermochemical energy storage

Developing efficient thermal storage for concentrating solar power plants is essential to reducing the cost of generated electricity, extending or shifting the hours of operation, and facilitating renewable penetration into the grid. Perovskite materials of the CaB x Mn 1-x O 3-δ family, where B = Al or Ti, promise improvements in cost and energy storage density over other perovskites currently under investigation. Thermogravimetric analysis of the thermal reduction and reoxidation of these materials was used to extract equilibrium thermodynamic parameters. Lastly, the results demonstrate that these novel thermochemical energy storage media display the highest reaction enthalpy capacity for perovskites reported to date, with a reaction enthalpy of 390 kJ/kg, a 56% increase over previously reported compositions.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2024

Performance Investigation of High-temperature Latent Heat Storage for Integration with Advanced Nuclear Reactors

Integrating thermal energy storage (TES) with advanced nuclear reactors enhances the flexible use of nuclear energy, facilitating its expansion beyond conventional electricity generation. High-temperature TES, capable of storing heat above 400 degree C, emerges as a vital carbon-free energy solution for decarbonizing industrial sector, especially when combined with low-emission energy sources like advanced nuclear reactors. Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has recently developed a novel design for high-temperature latent heat storage system, called Heat pipe Integrated Thermal Battery (HITB), and efforts are underway to experimentally demonstrate the concept. HITB employs liquid-metal heat pipes to establish thermal linkage between TES and nuclear systems without direct fluid exchange, minimizing the potential risk of the integrated systems such as cross-contamination. HITB is designed to achieve high charging and discharging efficiency as well as high energy storage density by employing metal alloys as Phase Change Material (PCM). Initial proof-of-concept experiments are being undertaken using an aluminum alloy (Al59%-Mg35%-Zn6%). This paper discusses current progress of the HITB project at INL, seeking to develop high-temperature TES for versatile integration with advanced nuclear reactors, and shares insights from the performance evaluations via numerical modeling and analysis.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2024

Design and optimization of flexible decoupled high-temperature gas-cooled reactor plants with thermal energy storage

Advanced nuclear power plants are well-positioned for future zero-carbon grids, however, the need for flexible power generation will be required over the traditional emphasis on baseload generation for meeting historical demands. To achieve such flexibility, this work examines viable configurations for coupling nuclear energy production with thermal energy storage. Previous designs on nuclear-thermal energy storage configurations for advanced reactor designs, which utilized reactor steam as the heat source for charging the thermal energy storage, are restricted by the heat diversion ratio and efficiency losses, thus their impacts can be limited. In this context, this study proposes configurations for fully decoupling the nuclear reactor from the power cycle and positioning the storage as an intermediate loop, thereby achieving an unconstrained heat diversion ratio and improved efficiency. Compared with a standard high-temperature gas-cooled reactor’s power cycle, steady-state thermodynamic modeling and dispatch optimizations quantify the benefits of a steam reheat cycle within the fully decoupled thermal energy system to separate the plant cycle from the high-pressure primary side. These benefits are further detailed, compatible with required high-temperature and high-pressure conditions, through (1) open-source dynamic transient models that examine the impact of off-design operation on the systems, (2) the investigation of components design and costing and finally (3) sizing and dispatch optimization. The fully-decoupled design achieves a cycle efficiency of 43.1%, an enhancement over the vendor’s standard efficiency of 42.2% (Xe-100 design). Here, the proposed design offers strengthened physical barriers from the nuclear island as well as superior operational flexibility and power boosting. Dispatch optimization and market analysis reveal that thermal energy storage size is highly dependent on the peak patterns of electricity prices and the minimum generation level constraint imposed on the balance of plant. Evaluation of off-design operation demonstrates that the full decoupling design with the suggested fail-safe control mechanisms ensures a minimal impact on reactor parameters, even during rapid power ramping.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗