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Thermodynamic Analysis of High-Temperature Carnot

Battery Concepts
Wolf-Dieter Steinmann,* Henning Jockenhöfer, and Dan Bauer

storage.[5] During charging, surplus electri-

Within the thermal energy storage initiative, National Demonstrator for cal energy is converted into gravitational
IseNtropic Energy (NADINE) storage, three projects are carried out focusing on potential energy by pumping water from
thermal energy storage at different temperature levels. Thermal storage units are a lower reservoir to a higher reservoir.
During discharge, the water flows from
key components of Carnot batteries, which are based on the intermediate
the higher reservoir to the lower reservoir
conversion of electric energy into heat. Pumped thermal energy storage (PTES) is driving a turbine which drives an electric
an emerging Carnot battery concept variant for the flexible management of generator.
supply and demand of electricity, heat, and cold. A counterclockwise thermo- Two commercial storage facilities use
dynamic cycle operated by surplus electricity is used to charge a thermal storage, surplus electricity to compress air which
which delivers heat to operate a power cycle during discharge. The absence of is stored in large underground caverns.
During discharge, the compressed air is
geographic constraints, a theoretical roundtrip efficiency of 100%, and a small used to operate a turbine, the combined
environmental footprint are promising features of PTES. PTES is also able to storage capacity of these compressed air
provide low-cost backup capacity in case of shortages in available renewable energy storage (CAES) systems is 3.5 GWh.
energy. Various options are proposed for the technical implementation of PTES, So far, thermal energy storage has been
using various combinations of engines, thermal storage units, and working applied primarily for heating applications
and in process industry to improve the
fluids. The resulting systems differ in efficiency, costs, maturity, and complexity.
efficiency of batch processes. In power
Herein, a thermodynamic analysis of five different PTES variants is presented. plants, thermal storage units have been
The results should help to identify priorities in the further development of the considered to support the steam generator
PTES variants. to improve the flexibility. In recent years,
there has been a significant advancement
of thermal storage technology in the area
of concentrating solar power (CSP), where
1. Introduction large storage units with storage capacities up to 1.5 GWhel
are used to store surplus heat delivered by solar collectors.[6]
Grid-scale storage of electric energy is considered as a key The stored heat is used to operate a Rankine cycle following
element in a future energy system with large shares of variable the demand.
renewable energy.[1–4] By balancing supply and demand, storage Today’s commercial CSP thermal storage systems use a
can support the integration of generators powered by wind or molten salt undergoing a cyclic temperature variation between
sun. Costly investments in peak generation facilities and grid 280 and 565
C. The actual electric storage capacity related to
infrastructure can be reduced. the molten salt is about 75 kWhel m3. For an elevation
Today, pumped hydroenergy storage with a worldwide difference of 360 m, the ideal volumetric storage capacity of
capacity of about 130 GW constitutes 99% of the total grid-scale pumped hydroenergy storage is 1 kWhel m3, and the storage
capacity of compressed air volume operated between 75 and
40 bar (typical values for CAES) is in the range of
Dr. W.-D. Steinmann, H. Jockenhöfer, Dr. D. Bauer 4 kWhel m3. In contrast to these two concepts based on inter-
Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
mediate storage of mechanical energy, locations for thermal
Pfaffenwaldring 38, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany energy storage systems are not restricted by geological require-
E-mail: wolf.steinmann@dlr.de ments. Life expectancies in the range of 20–30 years without
The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article
significant degradation and the utilization of nonrare materials
can be found under https://doi.org/10.1002/ente.201900895. are further advantages. The low ecological impact helps to
avoid lengthy permission procedures for thermal storage
© 2019 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA,
Weinheim. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative
systems; the flexibility in location reduces requirements con-
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits cerning the distribution infrastructure.
use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly Replacing solar energy by surplus electricity is a straight-
cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are forward concept to implement a storage system for electric
made. energy based on intermediate heat storage. For this approach,
DOI: 10.1002/ente.201900895 the term Carnot battery has been suggested.

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The electric heating of the storage medium is one option for
the implementation of a Carnot battery.[7] This can be done either
directly by resistance heating or by inductive heating or indirectly
using an intermediate heat transfer fluid. The main drawback of
this concept is the limited efficiency. The maximum roundtrip
efficiency ηround is defined as
electric energy delivered during discharging
ηround ¼
electric energy consumed during charging
(1)
W discharge
¼
W charge
ηround is limited by the Carnot efficiency resulting from the
maximum and minimum temperatures of the power cycle used
in the discharge process. In technical implementations, a ther-
modynamic cycle with external heat supply will be applied; a
Rankine cycle is the most probable solution here, the resulting
roundtrip efficiency will be in the range of 40%.
Increasing the roundtrip efficiency of storage systems does not
only allow ensuring the security of supply with a lower total capac-
ity of renewable energy generators but also helps to reduce the
investment in the infrastructure required to transfer electricity
between sources and storage systems, reducing the size of the
thermal storage systems. To increase the roundtrip efficiency of
storage systems based on the intermediate storage of thermal
energy, an alternative charging option was suggested. As shown
in Figure 1, electric energy is used to operate a counterclockwise
thermodynamic cycle transforming low-temperature heat into
high-temperature heat which is stored. During discharge, a power
cycle is used to transform the heat delivered by the storage system
back into mechanical work/electricity. An ideal implementation
of this concept composed only of reversible processes, the work
Wdischarge delivered during discharge is equal to the work
Wcharge consumed during charging (ηround ¼ 1.0),[8] if the reverse
charging cycle is used for discharging.
A first storage system based on this concept was filed in
1920[9]; early layouts based on state-of-the-art components of
that time were published in the study by Marguerre.[10]
During the following decades, variants of the concept have been
repeatedly suggested as promising solutions for large-scale
energy storage.[11,12] At that time, storage was mainly considered
Figure 1. Schematic of PTES: a counterclockwise thermodynamic cycle is used to charge a thermal storage unit. The thermal storage unit delivers heat to
operate a right running thermal cycle during discharge.
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as a tool to allow constant load operation of power plants. With a
growing share of energy generated from renewable energy sour-
ces, energy storage is often regarded as a key element to ensure
grid stability. Large-scale thermal storage systems have become
standard components in commercial solar thermal power plants,
various alternative heat storage concepts have reached an
advanced status of maturity. In addition, the advancement of
thermal storage technology and also the progress of other com-
ponents like turbines and compressors have improved the per-
spectives for a successful implementation of this concept. The
term pumped thermal energy storage (PTES) is used here as
an identifier for this Carnot battery variant.
In real PTES systems, the roundtrip efficiency is reduced by
irreversible processes. The key challenge in the development of
PTES is finding the optimal compromise between roundtrip
efficiency and costs which strongly depends on the quality of
components.
A PTES system can be a combination of various types of
engines, thermal storage units, and working fluids. Most systems
which have been proposed so far are based on either Brayton
cycles or Rankine cycles. To minimize the entropy generation
in the heat transfer processes, sensible heat storage units are
preferred for Brayton cycles or transcritical Rankine cycles,
whereas latent heat storage allows smaller temperature differen-
ces in subcritical evaporation/condensation processes. Air or
argon are used as working fluids in Brayton cycles; water,
CO2, organic, or synthetic liquids are optional working fluids
for PTES systems based on Rankine cycles.
A first project aiming at the pilot-scale demonstration of PTES
has started.[13] The focus of this project is on the application of
PTES to manage both heat and electricity. Here, heat from a low-
temperature source is combined with electricity during charging;
heat and electricity are delivered during discharge. As both heat
and electricity are used, the requirements regarding efficiency
and temperature level are less demanding than for pure electric-
ity storage applications, allowing an implementation using
mostly state-of-the-art components.
The next step is the development of PTES pilot-scale test units
intended primarily for the storage of electricity. This development
will be facilitated by the availability of an experimental infrastruc-
ture, which allows both testing of components and complete
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storage systems. The NADINE initiative is a joint venture
by University of Stuttgart, German Aerospace Center, and
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, aiming to establish an experi-
mental R&D infrastructure for developing and testing TES
technologies, in collaboration between academia and industry.
An overview of these activities can be found in refs. [14–16].
Three complementary projects are conducted, working on novel
TES materials, components, and systems at the temperature
levels.
This article focuses on the system analysis of PTES systems
intended for the storage of electricity. For these systems, the
requirements for some components are quite different from stan-
dard applications, especially for the charging cycle. The aim of this
article is the identification of the requirements for the components
used in different PTES variants. The dependence of the roundtrip
efficiency on the quality of these components is estimated.
Essential for the successful implementation of a PTES concept
is the matching of the thermodynamic cycles and the thermal
storage system. While the multitude of thermodynamic cycles
and thermal storage concept allows theoretically a large number
of combinations, real thermal storage systems impose specific
constraints concerning temperature, pressure, or working fluid,
which exclude many options. In this article, the most promising
PTES variants are considered; Table 1 gives an overview of these
five variants including references. More details about the variants
are given in Section 3 where the thermodynamic models used for
the analysis of these variants are described.
There are also storage concepts based on the storage of exergy
in cryogenic liquids.[34] Surplus electricity is used here to liquefy
gases. During discharge, the liquefied gas is applied as a heat sink
and the environment or waste heat is used as heat source to oper-
ate a thermal cycle. While these concepts can also be considered as
PTES systems because a counterclockwise thermodynamic cycle is
combined with a thermal storage and a power cycle, they are not
considered here to limit the extent of the article.
2. Thermodynamics of Real PTES Systems
For any PTES system, the required capacity Qstorage,hot and the
heat flow Q̇ of the thermal storage subsystem for a given
nominal mechanical power Pel,discharge during discharge over
a duration Δτdischarge can be estimated from the thermal
efficiency ηthermal,discharge of the thermal cycle used in the dis-
charge process:
P el,discharge Δτdischarge
Q storage,hot ¼ Q̇ discharge Δτdischarge ¼
ηthermal,discharge
Table 1. Overview of PTES variants considered in this article.
PTES variant Thermal cycle
Brayton Closed Brayton
Recuperated Brayton Closed Brayton with recuperation
Brayton Rankine Reverse Brayton combined with Rankine cycle
CHEST Subcritical Rankine
CO2 TranscriticalRankine
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While the roundtrip efficiency of an ideal PTES implementa-
tion is not dependent on the thermal efficiency, increasing the
thermal efficiency of the discharge cycle by a higher average tem-
perature in the hot storage reduces both the required capacity
and the heat transfer rate of the hot storage unit. In spite of usu-
ally higher capacity specific costs, the total capital costs of the hot
storage unit might decrease with increasing maximum cycle
temperature.
After the expansion process, heat has to be transferred to a
low-temperature reservoir to close the discharge cycle. If a cold
storage is used to store this rejected heat, the required thermal
capacity of an ideal PTES implementation is
Q storage,cold ¼ P el,discharge Δτdischarge þ Q storage,hot (3)
In real PTES systems, the heatflow Q̇ irreversible results from
the irreversible processes and must be transferred to the
environment
Q̇ irreversible ¼ P el, charge  P el, discharge


1 (4)
¼ P el, discharge 1
ηround
Minimizing Q̇ irreversible is not only beneficial regarding the
efficient use of primary energy, it also helps to limit investments
for heat transfer equipment and parasitic loads required for
cooling.
The roundtrip efficiency of real PTES systems is reduced by
exergy losses in the various irreversible subprocesses. Usually,
the working fluid of the thermal cycle is not used as the storage
medium. Entropy is generated by heat transfer through finite
temperature differences between the storage medium and the
working fluid; additional losses might result from internal heat
transfer between different sections of the thermal cycles. The
exergy loss dE resulting from the transfer of heat dQ from a
source with temperature T to a sink with temperature T  ΔT
is calculated as
ΔT
dE ¼ dQ ⋅ T 0 ⋅ (5)
TðT  ΔTÞ
with the environmental temperature T0.[35] For a constant
temperature difference ΔT, the exergetic losses resulting
from heat transfer processes decrease with increasing temper-
ature, representing a further argument of applying thermal
cycles with high mean temperatures for the implementation
of PTES.
(2) Further exergetic losses result from nonideal compression
and expansion processes. Figure 2 shows ideal and real
Working fluid Storage concept References
Argon, air Packed bed regenerator [17–23]
Argon, air Molten salt two tank [24–27]
Argon, air Molten salt two tank
Water, organic fluids PCM storage þ sensible heat [28]
CO2 Cascaded pressurized water multitank [29–33]
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Figure 2. Nonideal compression (left) and expansion (right) as the source
for efficiency losses in the hs-diagram.
compression and expansion processes for given pressure
differences in enthalpy–entropy (hs)-diagrams. The ideal pro-
cesses are operated between state 1 and 2s, the real processes
are operated between the states 1 and 2, and the changes in
specific enthalpy are Δhs for the ideal processes and Δh for
the real processes.
The mass specific exergetic loss of a real adiabatic compres-
sion/expansion process with the inlet entropy s1 and the outlet
entropy s2 is given by
Δecompression=expansion ¼ T 0 ðs2  s1 Þ
with the environmental temperature T0. The exergetic efficien-
cies for the compression and expansion processes are defined as
work delivered h2  h1
ηEx, turbine ¼ ¼ (7)
change in exergy h2  h1  T 0 ðs2  s1 Þ
change in exergy h2  h1  T 0 ðs2  s1 Þ
ηEx, compressor ¼ ¼ (8)
work required h2  h1
For temperature higher than the environmental temperature,
the exergetic efficiency exceeds the value of the isentropic effi-
ciency. Compared with the ideal processes, more energy is
required in a real compressor and less energy is released in a
real turbine, which can be calculated by the isentropic efficien-
cies of the engines. In contrast, the specific exergy of the working
fluid at the exit of the real engines is higher compared with the
ideal processes. As the calculation of the roundtrip efficiency of a
PTES system requires the knowledge of the exergy losses, esti-
mations of the maximum roundtrip efficiency based only on the
isentropic efficiencies of the real engines do not provide useful
results.
The charging cycle of PTES systems is sometimes referred to
as heat pump cycles. This might be misleading as the primary
aim here is to store exergy while heat pumps are usually consid-
ered as devices to deliver thermal energy for heating. The coeffi-
cient of performance (COP) used for the evaluation of heat
pumps relates the high-temperature heat to the work required
to transform the low-temperature heat without considering
exergy. Optimizing PTES on the basis of the COP might result
in the conclusion that lower maximum temperature in the cycle
is advantageous which would contradict the conclusions derived
earlier from Equation (3) to (5).
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3. Thermodynamic Models for the PTES Variants
PTES is in an early stage of development, the quality of simula-
tion results is limited by the accuracy of specific performance
parameters of innovative components like high-temperature
compressors and large-scale thermal energy storage units. To
estimate the effects of irreversibilities resulting from limited
derivations from ideal behavior on the performance of the vari-
ous PTES variants, thermodynamic models have been developed,
which allow to calculate the efficiency of the storage process
dependent on the efficiency of the engines and the heat transfer
processes. To limit the complexity of the models and due to the
uncertainties, various assumptions have been made: 1) the effi-
ciency of turbines and compressors is expressed by their isentro-
pic efficiency η; the isentropic efficiency is assumed to be equal
and constant for all engines of a PTES system. 2) The efficiency
of heat transfer processes is considered by the effective tempera-
ture difference ΔT between sink and source. The value for ΔT is
assumed to be equal for all heat transfer processes in a PTES
system and is applied for both heat transfer between the working
fluid and the storage material and between two fluids flowing in
recuperators. 3) Pressure losses due to friction are neglected as
the calculation would require detailed knowledge about the flow
geometries of the components. 4) Heat losses to the environment
are neglected. 5) Losses resulting from the transformation
processes between electrical and mechanical energies are
(6)
neglected. The models have been implemented in the
MATLAB environment.
3.1. Brayton
In the Brayton PTES variant (Figure 3), a gas is compressed in a
turbine (1–2). Thermal energy from the hot gas is transferred to a
thermal storage unit (2–3). The gas is expanded in the turbine
(3–4) before entering a low-temperature thermal storage unit
where the gas is reheated (4–1) to the compressor inlet tempera-
ture. During discharge, gas is compressed (C–D) and cooled
down (D–E) before being heated in the hot packed bed storage
(E–A). After expansion in the turbine (A–B), the gas is cooled
down in the cold storage unit (B–C) before entering the compres-
sor again. Figure 4 shows the process for the solid Brayton vari-
ant in the temperature–entropy (Ts)-diagram. A sensible heat
storage system is required here to minimize temperature differ-
ences between the gas and the storage material during charging
and discharging. A packed bed storage system is assumed here as
the preferred solution, offering a large volume-specific heat
transfer area and high cyclic temperature variations. Two-tank
liquid medium storage is not an attractive solution here due
to the limited operational temperature range of the candidate
storage media. Mineral oil or molten salt allows only temperature
variation of less than 300 K between the compressor and the tur-
bine, resulting in a high back work ratio (¼ │power turbine/
power compressor│during charge), large engines, and small
roundtrip efficiencies.
There are various options for releasing the heat, resulting
from the irreversibilities to the environment. Heat exchangers
might be placed at the cold end of the hot storage or at the
hot end of the cold storage, heat might be released during
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Figure 3. Brayton PTES variant, a Brayton cycle is combined with two packed bed storage units; during charging (left), compressed gas transfers heat to
the hot storage which heats up the gas during discharge (right).

Figure 4. Ts-diagram of the Brayton PTES variant: 1–4) charging and A–E) discharging.

charging or discharging, and these various options can also be T A ¼ T 2  2 ⋅ ΔT (10)

combined. According to the study by White et al.,[19] the depen-
dence of the results on the heat rejection concept is small. In the T B ¼ T 1 þ 2 ⋅ ΔT (11)
model used here, the heat is rejected during discharge before T C ¼ T 4 þ 2 ⋅ ΔT (12)
entering the hot storage (D–E).
The working fluid is assumed as a perfect gas with a constant T E ¼ T 3  2 ⋅ ΔT (13)
specific heat capacity. For the charging process, the temperature
t2 of the gas after compression, the temperature t3 at the exit of For the discharge process, the temperature at the exit of the
the hot storage, and the minimum temperature t4 are assumed as compressor can be calculated as
given boundary conditions. The temperature at the inlet of the ! !
1 1
compressor then can be calculated as TD ¼ TC   1 þ1 (14)
η 1 TB  1 þ 1
T2 η TC
T1 ¼ 0 1 (9)
1@ The roundtrip efficiency can be calculated as
η
 1   1A þ 1
T4
T 3 1 þ1 TD  TE
1
η
ηround ¼ 1  (15)
T1  T2  T3 þ T4
To consider nonideal storage processes, the temperatures
of the discharge process are related to the corresponding In this model, the choice of the gas does not affect the effi-
temperatures of the charging process by the given temperature ciency. Noble gases like argon might be preferred due to the
difference ΔT between the storage material and the working higher heat capacity ratio compared with air as the same maxi-
fluid mum temperature can be reached at a lower maximum pressure.

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3.2. Recuperated Brayton
Two-tank molten salt systems are today’s most mature thermal
storage systems in the multi-MW range. A mixture of KNO3 and
NaNO3 which is denoted as solar salt is the preferred storage
medium for which the operational temperature range limited
by solidification and thermal stability is between 280 and 560
C.
Using this storage concept the Brayton PTES concept described
in Section 3.1 would not be effective due to the small temperature
variation in thermal storage. To increase the temperature differ-
ence between the turbine and the compressor, thus improving
the back work ratio, a recuperated Brayton cycle (Figure 5) is
applied as the basis for a PTES system using two-tank molten
salt storage. During charging, heat from the compressed gas
is transferred to the molten salt in a heat exchanger (2–3).
Before entering the turbine, heat from the gas (3–4) is trans-
ferred internally to the gas (5–6) exiting the low-temperature
storage.
During discharge, the molten salt flowing from the hot tank to
the cold tank heats up the gas (H–A) before it enters the turbine.
After expansion (A–B), heat from the low-pressure gas is used to
preheat the high-pressure gas (B–C). The heat resulting from the
irreversibilities of the process is transferred to the environment
between C and D. Before entering the compressor, the gas is
cooled to the minimum process temperature by transferring heat
to the storage medium of the cold storage unit (D–E). The model
applied for the recuperated Brayton concept is described in the
Supporting Information including an exergy analysis.
Theoretically also a packed bed storage system can be used in a
recuperated Brayton PTES, but it is unlikely to offer advantages
compared with the simple Brayton concept described in
Section 3.1. While from a thermodynamic point of view the
higher average temperature of heat transfer in thermal storage
improves the efficiency of the thermal cycle, thus reducing
the required thermal storage capacity, this advantage is probably
compensated by the lower storage density in the packed bed stor-
age unit resulting from the lower cyclic temperature difference
compared with the simple Brayton cycle. Another disadvantage
of the recuperated Brayton concept is the internal gas/gas heat
Figure 5. Schematic of the recuperated Brayton PTES variant: charging (left) and discharging (right).
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exchanger which increases not only the capital costs significantly
but also causes additional exergy losses. For a recuperated
Brayton PTES concept, it is advantageous to increase the pres-
sure of the working fluid to reduce the size of the internal heat
exchanger but this would also increase the costs of the pressure
vessel of the packed bed thermal storage system, whereas there is
only a moderate increase in the costs for the two-tank molten salt
system resulting from the molten salt/gas heat exchanger. While
the direct contact between the gaseous working fluid and the
storage medium allows an efficient heat transfer in packed
bed systems, the gas must not be contaminated with dust to avoid
damaging the engines.
If available for a given temperature range, a two-tank liquid
medium storage system will usually be preferred due to its better
operational behavior (constant exit temperature, good partial
charging, and partial load performance) compared with the
packed bed having a regenerator-type behavior.
3.3. Brayton Rankine
Using already existing steam power plants, the development
effort required can be reduced. Using the commercial two-tank
molten salt system is another element of this approach. The sys-
tem is completed by the application of a Brayton cycle for charg-
ing the molten salt system. As shown in Figure 6, the Brayton
cycle is similar to the system used for charging the recuperated
Brayton PTES variant shown in Figure 5, except for the cold stor-
age, which is not required. Instead, heat from the environment is
used to heat the working fluid between the exit of the turbine and
the inlet of the recuperator (5–6). Alternatively, stored heat
released during the discharge process (B2–D) can be used. For
discharge, a conventional two-stage Rankine process with
recuperative feedwater preheating is applied.
3.4. Compressed Heat Energy Storage (CHEST)
The compressed heat energy storage (CHEST) concept combines
a subcritical Rankine process with latent heat and sensible heat
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Figure 6. Schematic of the Brayton–Rankine variant: charging (left) and discharging (right).
Figure 7. Schematic of the CHEST PTES variant: charging (left) and discharging (right).
storage (Figure 7). For systems intended primarily for the storage
of electric energy, medium-temperature steam processes using
water as the working fluid are preferred. To limit the maximum
temperature in the compression process a step-wise compression
(1–2) with intercooling is applied. The heat extracted between two
stages can either be stored (3–4) or be used for generation of
additional steam. The latent heat storage unit is charged by
the condensing steam (2–5), the condensate is subcooled in
the sensible storage unit. The low-pressure condensate is evapo-
rated using heat from the environment. To avoid technical
challenges resulting from the high volume of low-pressure steam
an ammonia cycle might be used for the initial stages of the com-
pression process.
The model applied for the CHEST concept is described in the
Supporting Information, including an exergy analysis and the
application of a low-temperature water volume as an alternative
for the ammonia cycle.
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3.5. CO2
The CO2 variant combines transcritical CO2-Rankine cycles with
pressurized liquid water storage on the hot side and an ice
storage unit on the cold side (Figure 8). After compression
(1–2), heat is transferred from the CO2 to the pressurized liquid
water (2–3), which is used as the storage medium. Heat from the
low-temperature CO2 (3–4 is used to preheat the saturated
CO2 (6–1). After the internal heat transfer, CO2 expands in
the turbine (4–5). Heat from an ice storage is used to evaporate
the CO2 (5–6).
During discharge, the CO2 is heated in the storage (F–A),
before expanding in the turbine (A–B). Heat is released to the
environment between the exit of the turbine and the inlet of
the ice storage (B–C). The condensing CO2 transfers heat to
the ice storage (C–E). The cycle is closed by the compressor
(F–E). Figure 9 shows the process in the Ts-diagram.
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Figure 8. Schematic of the CO2 PTES variant: charging (left) and discharging (right).
Figure 9. Ts-diagram for the CO2 PTES variant: 1–6) charging and A–F) discharging.
Nonideal heat transfer in the recuperator is considered by ΔT,
the difference between the evaporation temperature during
charging (T5, T6) and the condensation temperature during
discharging (TE, TD) is 2ΔT. Due to the nonlinear property
correlations for CO2 required in transcritical processes, a closed
analytical solution cannot be obtained; subroutines including
physical property correlations for CO2 have been included in
the MATLAB tool.
The specific heat capacity of CO2 varies strongly with tempera-
ture between 50
C and 200
C, in a heat exchanger, it is not pos-
sible to achieve a mean temperature difference between the CO2
and pressurized water in the range of 5–10 K with a constant mass
flow ratio for a significant temperature difference between the
inlet and outlet. In the study by Morandin et al.,[31] the application
of intermediate storage tanks for the pressurized liquid water is
proposed to adapt the mass flow ratio. In this article, an ideal stor-
age system is assumed, which is able to keep a constant tempera-
ture difference of 5–15 K between the fluids, as the focus here is
not on the design of the storage system.
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4. Results of Parameter Variation
The models for the PTES variants described before were used to
estimate the effects of nonideal implementations. The main
sources for irreversibilities are the turbines and compressors
with isentropic efficiencies <1.0 and heat transfer processes with
effective temperature differences >0.0 K. The value for the isen-
tropic efficiency η was varied between 0.8 and 0.9, which is
considered as a representative range for today’s state-of-the-art
engine. Depending also on size, turbines reach maximum isen-
tropic efficiencies in the range of 0.90–0.95, whereas state-of-the-
art compressors reach maximum efficiencies up to 0.87. The
value of the effective temperature difference ΔT between sink
and source for the heat transfer processes was varied between
5 K and 15 K, representing the range between condensing/
evaporating heat transfer and single-phase gas flow.
For the two concepts based on the Brayton cycle, the technol-
ogy of the engines should be similar. It is assumed that the costs
of the engines correlate with the maximum and the minimum
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temperatures of the cycles, so these temperatures were chosen as It is assumed that different engines are used for charging and
boundary conditions. Today’s commercial compressors can be discharging.
operated at temperatures around 400
C; in literature, the exit The costs of the thermal storage systems of a PTES system
temperatures assumed for the compressor of Brayton PTES are usually dominated by the costs of the hot thermal storage
systems vary between 500[19] and 995
C.[17] In the recuperated unit. As not all PTES variants described in this article require
Brayton PTES system, the exit temperature of the compressor dur- a cold storage unit, only the capacity of the hot storage system
ing charging is limited by the thermal stability of the molten salt is considered here
(560
C) and the assumed value for the temperature difference of
the heat transfer process. The same assumption is made at the specific capacity hot thermal storage
exit of the compressor of the simple Brayton concept. For the capacity hot storage (17)
recuperated Brayton cycle, the inlet temperature of the com- ¼
electric energy delivered during discharge
pressor is fixed by the minimum operational temperature of
the molten salt (280
C) and the assumed value for the temper-
Figure 10 shows the roundtrip efficiency calculated for the
ature difference of the heat transfer process. The minimum
PTES variants depending on the isentropic efficiency of the com-
temperature at the exit of the turbine of the recuperated
pressors and turbines assuming a temperature difference of
Brayton cycle during charging is determined by the environ-
10 K for all heat transfer processes. For an isentropic efficiency
mental temperature and the waste heat that has to be trans-
of 0.9, the variants including Brayton cycles reach efficiencies
ferred to the environment. The same temperature is
between 0.5 and 0.57, the efficiency of the CHEST system is
assumed for the simple Brayton cycle as minimum tempera-
in the range of 0.68. The efficiency of the CO2 variant is in
ture. The choice of boundary conditions affects the perfor-
the range of 0.45. Reducing the isentropic efficiency results
mance of the PTES concepts. For the simple Brayton PTES
in lower roundtrip efficiencies for all variants; the reductions
concept, more options for defining the boundary conditions
for the systems using Brayton cycles for both charging and dis-
are available, but these alternative options would also affect
charging are more severe as four engines are affected by the
the requirements for the engines. For the CHEST system, a
decrease in the isentropic efficiency. While the roundtrip effi-
NaNO3 latent heat storage system with a phase change temper-
ciency of the combined Brayton–Rankine variant is lower than
ature of 305
C was assumed. A pressurized liquid water
the value for the recuperated Brayton system using molten salt
storage tank at a pressure of 10 bar which allows storage up
storage for an isentropic efficiency of 0.9, the decline resulting
to 160
C was assumed for the CO2 system, which uses an
from reduced isentropic efficiency is lower for the combined
ice storage at 0
C. An environmental temperature of 20
C
cycle variant. The roundtrip efficiencies of the PTES variants
was assumed for all systems. The costs of the storage systems
using Rankine cycles are less susceptible to the variation of
and the engines will take a substantial share of the total costs of
the isentropic efficiency.
a PTES system. The required specific power of the engines is Figure 11 shows the effect of the engine efficiency on the total
defined as installed power of the engines. Due to the high back work ratio,
the required installed power for the Brayton systems is signifi-
sum specific required power
P cantly higher than that for the Rankine cycle; lower engine
power compressors þ turbines (16) efficiencies demand a further increase in the engine capacity.
¼
power deliverd during discharge These results show that the application of high-efficiency engines

Figure 10. Dependence of the roundtrip efficiency for the PTES variants on the isentropic efficiency of the engines; temperature difference of 10 K
assumed for all heat transfer processes.

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www.advancedsciencenews.com
Figure 11. Dependence of the required specific power of all engines for the PTES variants on the isentropic efficiency of the engines; temperature
difference of 10 K assumed for all heat transfer processes.
might not only improve the roundtrip efficiency of the PTES sys-
tem but might also reduce the total costs of a facility in spite of
higher specific costs of high-quality engines.
Figure 12 shows the required capacity of the hot thermal stor-
age units in relation to the electric energy delivered during
discharge, which depends on the thermal efficiency of the
discharge cycle. The low-temperature CO2 variant requires
more than twice the thermal storage capacity than the high-
temperature PTES variants. The maximum temperature of
the Rankine cycle used during the discharge process is higher
for the combined Brayton–Rankine variant, resulting in a higher
thermal efficiency of the discharge cycle compared with the
CHEST variant, so a lower capacity is required for the hot stor-
age of the Brayton–Rankine PTES variant. The medium temper-
ature of heat supply from the hot storage system is highest for
the recuperated Brayton variant using molten salt, so the
Figure 12. Dependence of the required capacity of the hot storage for the PTES variants on the isentropic efficiency of the engines; temperature difference
of 10 K assumed for all heat transfer processes.
Energy Technol. 2020, 8, 1900895 1900895 (10 of 13)
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required specific capacity for the hot storage system is lowest
here for high values of isentropic efficiency; this advantage is
compensated for lower values of isentropic efficiency resulting
in lower output, whereas the size of the storage remains the
same.
Figure 13 shows the effect of the finite temperature difference
ΔT of the heat transfer processes on the roundtrip efficiency of
the PTES variants; an isentropic efficiency of 0.9 was assumed
for turbines and compressors. The Brayton–Rankine variant
shows only a minor effect; here, the mean temperature differ-
ence between the molten salt and steam during discharge, espe-
cially in the evaporation section, is always much higher than the
mean temperature difference of the other PTES variants, so there
is only a slight effect of ΔT. For the other PTES variants, an
increase in 1 K in ΔT results in a reduction of the roundtrip
efficiency in the range of 0.01–0.015.
© 2019 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
www.advancedsciencenews.com
Figure 13. Dependence of the roundtrip efficiency for the PTES variants on the temperature difference assumed for the heat transfer processes; isentropic
efficiency of turbines and compressors is 0.9.
Figure 14. Dependence of the required specific power of all engines for the PTES variants on the temperature difference assumed for the heat transfer
processes; isentropic efficiency of turbines and compressors is 0.9.
Figure 14 shows the required specific power of all engines of
the PTES variants depending on the temperature difference ΔT.
There is a moderate dependence of the installed power on the
temperature difference; again the effect on the Brayton–
Rankine variant is the smallest.
The dependence of the required specific hot storage capacity
on ΔT is shown in Figure 15. There is also only a slight increase
in the size of the storage with the temperature difference; the
impact for the Brayton–Rankine variant is very limited.
5. Conclusions
PTES systems represent an innovative option for the flexible
management of supply and demand of electricity, heat, and cold.
Energy Technol. 2020, 8, 1900895 1900895 (11 of 13)
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The focus of this article was on systems developed for the storage
of electric energy. While the ideal implementation of a PTES sys-
tem can reach a roundtrip efficiency of 100%, irreversibilities
reduce the energy delivered during discharge. To estimate the
effect of irreversibilities, models have been implemented for five
different PTES variants.
The simulation results presented in this article show the deci-
sive importance of the isentropic efficiency of engines for the
roundtrip efficiency of PTES variants. This dependence is stron-
ger for systems based on Brayton cycles than for systems based
on Rankine cycles. Due to limited cyclic temperature differences
of the thermal storage units and/or limited maximum temper-
atures of compressors, the temperature difference between
compressors and turbines is smaller than in conventional gas
turbines, resulting in an increased back work ratio. Due to this
© 2019 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
www.advancedsciencenews.com
Figure 15. Dependence of the required capacity of the hot storage for the PTES variants on the temperature difference assumed for the heat transfer
processes; isentropic efficiency of turbines and compressors is 0.9.
increased back work ratio, the PTES systems show a high sensi-
tivity to changes in the efficiencies of turbines and compressors.
To reach roundtrip efficiencies exceeding 60% to be competitive
with other bulk storage concepts, PTES based on Brayton cycles
requires turbines and compressors reaching isentropic efficien-
cies in the range of 0.9. High isentropic efficiencies are also
required to limit the capacity of the installed engines and the size
of the thermal storage units, which are also strongly dependent
on the reversibility of the compression and expansion processes
in Brayton PTES systems.
PTES systems based on Rankine cycles are less dependent on
the isentropic efficiency, acceptable roundtrip efficiencies can be
reached with isentropic efficiencies of about 0.85, and variations
of the isentropic efficiency have smaller effects both on the
roundtrip efficiency and on the capacity of installed engines
and thermal storage units.
The combined PTES variant using a Brayton cycle for charging
and a Rankine cycle for discharging shows a mixed behavior,
whereas the maximum roundtrip efficiency is limited due to
the nonideal matching of the cycles; the effects of variations
of the isentropic efficiency are less severe than for the variants
using Brayton cycles both for charging and for discharging.
The roundtrip efficiency of the PTES variant based on the tran-
scritical CO2 cycle is in the range of 45%. In addition to this low
roundtrip efficiency, the main disadvantage of this approach is
the large thermal storage unit required. The CO2 variant seems
to be more apt for the combined delivery of heat, electricity,
and cold.
Finite temperature differences are another source for irrever-
sibilities in PTES systems. According to the simulations results,
nonideal heat transfer has a significant effect on the roundtrip
efficiency which must not be neglected. Except for the PTES var-
iant using a combination of Brayton and Rankine, all PTES var-
iants show a similar dependence of the roundtrip efficiency on
irreversibilities resulting from nonideal heat transfer. The effect
of nonideal heat transfer on the required capacity of engines and
thermal storage units is limited.
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Supporting Information
Supporting Information is available from the Wiley Online Library or from
the author.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic
Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and the Projektträger Jülich (PtJ) in the frame
of the collaborative project DESI-NADINE.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Keywords
bulk energy storage, Carnot batteries, compressed heat energy storage,
pumped thermal energy storage, thermo-mechanical energy storage
Received: July 26, 2019
Revised: September 26, 2019
Published online: October 17, 2019
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