scieee Science in your language
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Ac kno wle d gm e nt

Cryogenic Energy Storage Systems:
An Exergy-based Evaluation and
Optimization

vorgelegt von
M.Sc.
Sarah Hamdy

ORCID: 0000-0002-7577-9595

von der Fakultät III – Prozessw issenschaften
der Technischen Universität Berl in
zur Erlangung des akademis chen Grades

Doktorin der Inge nieurwissenschaften
-Dr.-Ing.-

genehmigte Dissertation

Promot ionsaus schuss

Vors itzender: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Fe lix Ziegler
Gutac hte rin: Prof. Dr . -Ing. Tetyana Morozyuk
Gutac hte r: Pro f. Dr.- I ng. Aaron Praktiknjo
Gutac hter: Pro f. Dr.- Ing . Geo rge T satsa ronis

Tag der wissenschaftl ich en Aussprache: 12.07.2019

Berlin 2 019

Ac kno wle d gm e nt

II



Acknowledgment
III
Acknowledgment
First and f oremost, I would like to express my sincere g ratitud e to my supervisor
Prof. Tetya na Morozyu k, for her immense eng agemen t, trust, gui dance, and cont inuous
support not only with regards to scien tific research but also c oncerni ng adminis trative,
managerial and other academic assignments. I would also like to thank Prof. G eorge
Tsatsaroni s fo r his insp iring lectures and resea rch on exergy-b ased methods, his valuable
feedback , and his encourag ement. My g enuine thanks to Prof. Aar on Pr aktiknjo fo r his
willingness to be the external eva luator of this thesis, his in v a l u a b l e a d v i c e , a n d a l w a y s
sympathetic ear. Without the remarkable assistance, p atience, a nd reinforcemen t of my
advis ors, I would not have been able to comple te this t hesis in par allel to ful fill m y r ole as
a study coordinator. Successfully m anaging this challenge with the help a nd s upport of my
advis ors has g reatly benefitted both my professi onal and person al growth. My g rati tude
also goes to Prof. Feli x Zie gler, not onl y for chair ing my PhD d efense but also for the
enrichin g discussi ons a nd his inspira tion as a teache r.
This work was condu cted during my period as a research associat e at the Department o f
Energy Engineering of the Ze ntralinstit ut El Gouna at the Techn ische Universität Berlin.
My positio n in the Transnatio nal Education (TNB ) Project (ID 57 1 28418) was supported
by the G erman Academic Exchange Servi ce ( DAAD) with fu nds from the F ederal Minist ry
of Educ ation and Researc h (BMBF). I am deeply grateful for havi ng had the opport unity
to teach, coor dinate, and sh ape two Mast er degree programs a t t he TU Berlin Campus El
Gouna. I app reciated the opportun ities giv en and the challeng es faced in the p roject.
Enab ling a unique journe y for very inspiring s tudents has been a truly enriching experie nce.
There fore, I would like to express the deepest apprecia tion to t hose who made this
except ional aca demic enviro nment poss ible.
Moreover, I offer my gratitude t o all the colleagues fro m the d epart ment, an d b oth chairs
Exergy -base d methods of refr igeration sys tems and Energy Eng ineering and
Environmental Protection . In part icular, my sincere th anks to Stefanie Tesch, Timo
Blumberg, Johanne s Wellmann, Sara AlAhmed, Mohamed Noaman, Saee d Sayadi,
Sebastian Spieker , Jing Luo and Elisa Papadis for the knowl edge excha nge, the great
motivation, and the fruitful scientific discussions.
My special thanks also to Dr. Daniel Wolf, who initiated the id e a o f m y m a s t e r a n d l a t e r
PhD rese arch tog ether with Prof. Mor ozyuk, as well as D r. Marti n Robi nius for his honest
feedb ack, and encourag ement. I would also like to thank the stu dents who assisted in my
work and research: Tala Rifka, Jim ena Ince r Valve rde, Bianc a As torga, Francisco Moser,
and Baha a Alha ddad.
I as wel l owe very importa nt debt to my frie nds and fam ily for their t remendous spir itual
support. In particu lar, I am grateful to my husband Louay, for the pr eciou s co mmit ment,
patie nce, and proofreadi ng as well as my pare nts and my broth er I b r a h i m f o r t h e e n d l e s s
support. Moreover, I am deeply thank ful for the patience and st rengt h that God rewar ded
me to pursue this goal.

IV

Abstract
V
Abstract
Grid-scale en ergy storage sy stems a re cap able of p roviding th e needed flexib ility to th e
power g rid operators in o rder to ensure a secure power supp ly w ith increas ing sh ares of
highl y interm ittent elec tricity generati on from renewable energ y sources. Cryogenic
energy storage (CES) i s a g rid-scal e en ergy storage concept in whi ch electric ity is sto red
i n t h e f o r m o f l i q u e f i e d g a s e n a b l i n g a r e m a r k a b l y h i g h e r e x e r g y density than com peting
technologies such as pumped hydro st orage and compressed air en ergy storage and frees
the techno logy of common geogr aphical re striction s. CES h as rec ently receiv ed mu ch
attention in re search and application due to its advantageous characteristics, e.g ., th e lon g
cycle life, l ow stora ge losses, and being c ompose d of m ature c o mp on e n ts .
The present work aims to identify and apply meas ures for thermo dynamic per forman ce
enhance ment and cost redu ction of C ES sy stems with the aid of e xerg y-based methods.
Vario us system configur ations we re desi gned and sim ulate d in As pe n Plus® and e valuate d
with ene rgetic, exerge tic, econom ic, and exerg oeconom ic analysi s . M o r e o v e r , i t e r a t i v e
exergoe conom i c optimizatio n was perform ed. Six liquefac tion sys tems (charging process)
with and without “cold” (low-temperature exergy) storage were a ssessed. Based on th e
cost- optim al and t he most ef ficie nt li quefa ction pr ocess, t wo a diabatic CES systems (base
cases) with an install ed discharge power/ene rgy capacit y of 100 MW/400 MWh were
evalua te d and optim ized. The cost- optim ized syst em (optimize d c ase) was subjected to the
integr ation of exter nal heat sources and sinks (integrat ed syst ems) to an alyze the e ffect o f
system inte grati on on the ther modyna mic and the econom ic p erfor mance of CES sys tems.
The resul ts showed that th e addition o f c old stora ge increases the rou ndtrip effic iency by
60-80 % and reduces the specific costs of the liquefactio n (cha rgi ng) proce ss by 50 %. The
selection of th e l iquefaction pro cess was also r evealed to be o f signi ficance. The
liquefacti on process causes the m ajority o f the bare module cos ts and more than 60 % o f
t h e e x e r g y d e s t r u c t i o n i n t h e b a s e c a s e s y s t e m s . I n t h e e x e r g o e conom ic optim izati on, the
leveli zed cost of d ischarg ed electricity was redu ced f rom 2 67 € /MWh to 19 5 €/MWh a t the
expense of a reduction in t he roundtrip efficiency from 47 to 4 0 %. The specific investm ent
cost o f the cost-op timal adiabatic CES sy stem reached 1,200 €/k W, similar to competing
technologies but relatively high concerning the low roundtrip e fficien cies. The i ntegra tion
of waste heat, combus tion and/or the regasifi cation of LNG to C ES is a v iable option
reaching roundtrip efficiencies higher than 70 % and further re ducing the leveli zed cost of
dischar ged e lect ricity to 13 0-170 € /MWh.
Apart fro m the costs; th e operation hours and the respon se ti me were i dentified a s the
constraint to the economic feasibility. Potential energy storag e applications suitable for
CES were ide ntified acco rdingly. However, the mone tary val ue of the i dentified
applications is too low to recover the revenue required of the CES sy stems . As a r esult,
CES is only economica lly viable if further reve nue streams are identified and fi nancial
incentives for the investment in ES are p rovided, or th e CES co sts ar e redu ced significantly.

VI

Zusammenfassung
VII
Zusammenfassung
Mittels leistung sstarker Energiesp eichers ystem e kann d ie notwe n dige Flexibilität
bereitge stellt werden, um ein e sich ere Stromv ersorgung bei st ei gender Einsp eisung ho ch
flukt uiere nder Str omerzeu gung a us erne uerbar en Ener gieque llen z u gewährleisten. In
dieser Arbei t werde n kryogene Energie speic hers ysteme (CES) unte rsuc ht, welc he groß e
Mengen a n Üb erschu ssstrom in Form e ines Flüssiggases zwischen s peich ern könne n . Dies
erm öglicht eine deutlic h höh ere Exergie dic hte, welche im Verhäl tn is z u anderen
Netzs peiche ranlage n, wie Pum pspeiche rkraft werken oder Druc kluf t speichern, eine
gleich zeitige Un abhängi gkeit von geografischen Einschränkungen erlaub t. Aufgrund
seiner vorteil hafte n Eigenschaf ten, wie z.B. einer langen Leben s daue r, geringe n
Speiche rverlus ten und der Zusamm ensetz ung aus ausgere ifte n Komp on enten, hat d as
Inter esse a n CES-S ystemen in den verg angene n Jahre n i n der Indu strie und der Forschung
stark z ugeno mmen.
Die vorliege nde Arbeit befasst sich m it der therm odynamischen L e istung ssteigerung und
der Kostensenk ung kryogener Energies peic hersystem e mit Hilfe ex ergiebasierter
Met hod en . In d ie se m Zu sa mme nha ng wur den v ers ch iede ne Sy st emk onf iguratione n mit
der Simulati onssof tware Aspen Plus® entworfen, simulier t und mi ttel s energetischer,
exergetischer, wirtsch aftlicher un d exergoökono mischer Analysem ethode n bewe rtet.
Darüber hinaus, wurde eine iterative exergoökono mische Op timier ung durchgeführ t.
Sechs Luft verflü ssigungs prozesse (Einspeic herung) m it und ohne "Kältespeicher"
(Niedertem peraturspeicher) wu rden betrac htet. Auf Gru ndla ge des koste ngüns tigs ten und
des effizientesten Verflü ssigungsp rozesse s wurden zwei adiabate C E S - S y s t e m e ( b a s e
cases) mit einer installierten Au sspeicherl eistung/Speicherkapa zität von jeweils
100 MW/400 MWh entwickelt, b ewertet und optim iert. Das optimier te Syste m (optim ized
case) w urde ansc hließend m it verschie denen Ko nzepten d er Inte gr ati on ext erner
Wärmeq uelle n und - senken erweitert (integrated system s) um die Auswirkungen d er
System integra tion auf die therm o dynam ische und wirtschaftl iche Leistungsst eigerung von
CES-Systemen zu untersuchen.
Die Auswe rtung der Erge bnisse zeigt, d ass die Integra tion des K ält esp ei ch ers ein e
Effizienzsteigerung um 60-80 % ermöglicht und gleichzeitig die Kosten des
Verflüssigung s- bzw. Ladeprozesses um d ie Hälfte reduziert . Hi erbei ist auch die Wahl
des Verflü ssigungspro zesses vo n Bed eutung. Der Verflü ssigungspr ozess verursach t den
Großteil der Anlageninvestitionskos ten und der Exergi evernichtu ng in den Base-Case-
Systemen. Die exergoökonomische Optimierung e rmöglicht die Mind erung der
Stromgestehu ngskosten der Entladung von 26 7 €/MWh auf 195 €/MWh , welche eine
Reduzierung des Gesamtwirkungsg rades von 47 auf 40 % nach s ich zieht. Das
kostenop timale adi abate CES-Sy stem erreich t spezifisc he Investi tionskosten von
1.20 0 €/kW, was im Vergleich zu ande ren Netzspeic herte chnolog ie n k onkurrenzfähig i st.
In Anbetr acht des niedri gen Gesam twirku ngsgra d fallen die spez i fis ch en
Invest itions kosten jedoc h rela tiv hoch a us.

Zusammenfassung
VIII
Die Integration von industrieller Abwärme, von Verbrennungsproz essen und/oder von der
Wiedervergasung von Flüssig erdgas (LNG) erhöht d en Gesamtwirkun gsgra d auf über
70 % un d senkt die Stro mgestehungskosten der En tladung weiter a uf 130-17 0 €/ MWh.
Neben den reinen Investiti onsko sten wur den auch die Betriebs stu nden und d ie
Re akt ion szei ten d es C ES al s Hin d erni ss e fü r ei ne wi rts ch aft lich e Umsetz ung deutli ch.
Darauf basierend wurden potentielle Anwendungen für CES-Sy steme hervo rgehoben. Die
mit den Energiespeicheranwendung en verb undenen potent iellen Ein nahm en, ermöglic hen
jedoch nicht die Rückzahlung d er gesamten Investitionskosten der dargelegten CES-
System e. Daher sin d CES-System e nur dann wirtschaft lich, we nn w eitere
Einnahmequellen identifiziert, finanzielle Anreize für die Inve stition in
Energies peiche rsyste me ge geben oder die Inves titions koste n deu t lich reduziert werden.

Nomenclatur e
IX
Nomenclature
Symbol Explanation Unit

A area m 2
c specific cost of power €/kW
𝐶 cost €
𝐶
󰇗

cost r ate €/s, €/cy cle
𝑒 specific exergy J/kg
E exergy J
𝐸
󰇗

exergy rate MWh/cy cle, W
𝑓

factor , exer goecon omi c fact or -
ℎ specific enthalpy J/kg
H enthalpy J
𝐻
󰇗

enthalpy rate W
𝑘 overal l hea t trans fer co effic ient W/m 2 K
𝑚 mas s kg
𝑚
󰇗

mass flow rate kg/s
𝑛 econ omic lif e year s
𝑝 pressure bar
𝑄
󰇗

heat t ransfer rate MWh/cycle , W
𝑟 (splitting) ratio, r elative cost di fference
(exergoeconomic analy sis)
-
𝑠 specific entropy J/kgK
𝑇 temperatur e °C, K
𝑊
󰇗

power W
𝑋 equipment cost €
𝑍
󰇗

cost ra te €/s, €/cycle

Greek sy mbols

𝛼 scaling componen t -
𝛾 rate, ratio , yield -, %
Δ differe nce -
𝜀 exerge tic eff icie ncy %
𝜂 energe tic (or ther mal) effici ency %
𝜂  isentropic ef ficiency %
𝜏 dura tion h

Nomenclatur e
X
Sup er sc rip ts

CH chemical
KN kinetic
M m echanical
PH ph ysic al
PT pot enti al
T thermal

Subscripts

0 ambient , restricte d dead state , refere nce
A state po int at T 0 and p
char charge
CC combustion cham ber
CI capital investmen t
CP cryog enic pum p
CS cold storage
cs carbon stee l
CM compr essor/co mpressi on
el electri city
D destruction
d design
dis disc harge
EX expander/expansion
F fuel
HE heat excha nger
HS heat storage
i, j running index
inst ins talled
k k-th component
L loss (exergetic analy sis), le veliz ed (e conom ic a nalysi s)
l liquid
m m ateria l
ma metal al loys
Mix mixer
OM operation and maintenance
P pr od uct
p pressure
PE purchased equipme nt
Q associated with heat transfer
RH reheater
SP splitter
ss stainless st eel
ST storage tank
sys system
T turbine
tot total

Nomenclatur e
XI

Abbreviation s

ASU air separatio n unit
BMC bare module co st
CAES compres sed air ener gy storage
CAPEX capital expend iture
CC carry ing ch arges
CELF constant escalati on levelization factor
CEPCI chem ical enginee ring plant co st index
CES cryogenic energy storage
CRF capital-r ecov ery factor
EES engin eerin g eq uati on sol ver
ES energy storage
FC fuel cost
FCI fixed ca pital investment
FES flywheel ener gy storage
FLH full load hours
FT flash tank
IC Int erc ool er
LA lead aci d battery
LAES liquid air energy storage
LCOE levelized cost of electricit y
LMTD log mean temperature difference
LNG liquefied natural gas
Li-Ion lithium ion b attery
MHE main heat exchan ger
NaS sodium sulfur battery
NA not avai lable
OMC operation and maintenance costs
OPEX operational expenditure
ORC organ ic Ran kine cy cle
PBCS pack ed- bed co ld s tora ge
PHS pumped hydro storage
RE renewable energy
RTE roundtrip effic iency
SNG synth etic na tural g as
SOFC solid oxide fuel cell
SPECO specific exergy costing
TCI total capita l investm ent
TIT turbine inlet temperature
TRL technology readiness level
TRR total revenue requirement
TV throttli ng valve
T&D transmission and distribution
UPS uninterruptible power su pply
VRB vana diu m red ox f low ba tter y
WH waste heat

Nomenclatur e
XII

Contents
XIII
Contents
Acknowle dgment ....... ........... ........ ........ .......... .... .... ........... ........ ........... ........ .......... ........ ... III
Abstract ....... .......... ........ ........... ........ ........... ........ .......... ........ ........... ........ ........... ...... V
Zusammenfassung ........... ........... ........ ........... ...... .. .......... ........ ........... ........ ........... ........ ... V II
Nomencla ture ......... ........ ........... ........ ........... ... ..... ........ ........ .......... ........ ........... ........ ..... .. IX

Chapter 1: Introduction ........ ........... .......... .......... ......... ........ ........... ........ .......... ........ ...21
Chapter 2: State of the art ......... ........... ........ ....... .... ........ ........ .......... ........ ........... ........ 23
2.1. Histor ical dev elopmen t of cry ogenic energy storag e .. ........... ............. 23
2.2. Adiabatic cryogenic energy storage systems ..... ............... ........... ......... 26
2.2.1. Princi ple of ope ration ............. ........ ........ .... .... .......... ........ ........... 26
2.2.2. System param eters .......... ........ .......... ........ .. ...... ........ ........... ........ 27
2.2.3. Charg ing processes . .......... ........ ........ ........ .. ......... ........ ........... .....28
2.2.4. Discharging processe s . ........... ........ .......... .... .... ........ ........... ........ 30
2.3. Syste m integra tion: waste h eat, waste cold, and comb ustion ............ 31
2.4. Classifica tion, charac teristic s a nd benc hmarki ng ....................... ......... 33
2.4.1. Classifica tion and c ompeting tec hnologies .... .......... ........ ........... 33
2.4.2. Characteris tics a nd benchmarki ng ...... ........... ...... .......... ........ .....34
2.5. Potential a pplicatio n and ec onom ic benef it .................. ............... ......... 39
2.5.1. Applicati ons suitable for CES systems ............ ...... .......... ........ ...39
2.5.2. Economic benefits and val ue propositions ............. .. ........ ........... 41
2.6. Summary of the literature review ....................... ........... ............... ......... 45

Chapter 3: Methodology .............. ........... .......... ..... ... ........ ........... ........ ........... ........ .....47
3.1. Ene rgetic analys is ............... ........... ............... ........... .......... .. ............... ..... 47
3.2. Exe rgetic analys is ............... ........... ............... ........... .......... .. ............... ..... 48
3.3. Econo mic an alysis ...... ............... ............ ........... ............... ... ........ ............. 51
3.3.1. Cost estimat ion ............... ........ .......... ....... ......... ........ ........... ........ 51
3.3.2. Assum ptions made ......... ........ .......... ........ .... .. .......... ........ ........... 53
3.3.3. TRR m ethod ................ ........ ........ ........... .. ...... .......... ........ ........... 54
3.3.4. Economic sensit ivity analysis ................ ........ .. ...... .......... ........ ...55
3.3.5. Determ ination of cost rates .............. ........ ...... ........ .......... ........ ...56
3.4. Exe rgoeconomic an alysis and optimizat ion ............. ............... ............ . 57
3.4.1. Exergy costing .......... ........ ........ ........... ........ ........... ........ .......... ...58
3.4.2. E xergoeconom ic optimization .......... ........ .......... ...... ........... ........ 59
3.5. Summary of the methodology .......... ............... ........... ........... ............... .. 60

Contents
XIV
Chapter 4: Design and simulation ........... .......... ......... ....... ........... ........ ........... ........ .....61
4.1. Simu lation and data manage ment software .................. ............... ......... 62
4.2. Gen era l assump t ion s mad e in t he s imul at ion ................... ............... ..... 62
4.3. Adiabatic cry ogenic energy storage sy stems ........ ............... ............ ..... 64
4.3.1. Charging unit ....... ........ ........ ........... ........ ........ ........ .......... ........ ...65
4.3.2. Storage unit ......... ........... ........ .......... ..... ... ........ ........... ........ ........70
4.3.3. Discharging unit ....... ........... ........ ........... .. ...... ........ .......... ........ ...72
4.4. Integrated system s ................... ............... ........... ........... ...... ......... ............ . 75
4.4.1. Waste heat integration .............. ........... ........ ........ ........ ........... .....77
4.4.2. Diabatic CE S with com bustion ................ ........ ...... .......... ........ ...77
4.4.3. Integration of LNG low-tem perature exe rgy ... ........... ........ ........ 78
4.5. Summary of the design and simulation ..................... ............... ............ . 80
Chapter 5: Results and discuss ion ............ ........ ......... .......... ........ ........... ........ .......... ...81
5.1. Evaluati on of different c harging p roce sses for adiabatic CES .......... 81
5.1.1. Ene rgetic a nd exe rgetic evalua tion of th e li quefact ion p rocess es ..81
5.1.2. Ec onomic evaluat ion of the C laude -base d liquef action p ro cesses .85
5.2. Analysis a nd optim ization of two a diabatic CES system s .... ............. 86
5.2.1. Exerg etic a nalysis ..... ........ ........ ........... ..... ........ ........ ........... ........ 86
5.2.2. Economic analysis .......... .......... ........... ....... . ........... ........ .......... ...90
5.2.3. Exergoeconom ic analysis and optim izatio n ........ ....... ...... ........... 91
5.3. Exergy-based evaluation of CES system integration ................. ....... 100
5.3.1. Com parative e nergetic and e xerge tic anal ysis ......... .. ...... .........100
5.3.2. Comparati ve economic anal ysis .......... ........... ..... ........ ........... ...102
5.4. Economic viabi lity of CES sy stems ....................... ........... ........... ....... 107
5.4.1. Econom ic sensit ivity a nalysis of the a-CES syste m ...... ......... ...107
5.4.2. Econom ic sensit ivity a nalysis of the integrated CES s yst ems ..10 9
5.4.3. Validation and asses sment of results ........ ........... ................ ......112
5.5. Summ ary of the res ults and di scussi on .............. ............... ........... ....... 116
Chapter 6: Conclusion and outlook .......... ........... ........ ........... ........ .......... ........ .........119
6.1. Summary of the main results ................... ............ ............... ........... ..... .. 120
6.2. Scope of t he pres ent work ............. ........... ............ ............... ........... ....... 121
6.3. Limitations ........ ............... ........... ............... ............ . .......... ............... ....... 123
6.4. Sum mary of pot ent ial f utur e wor k .............. ............... ............ .............. 123
Refere nces ....... .......... ........ ........... ........ ........... ........ .......... ........ ........... ........ ........... ...1 25
Appendix A ............ ........... ........ .......... ........... ........ ........ ........... ........ .......... ........ .........1 37
Appendix B ....... .......... ........... ........ ........... ..... ... .......... ........ ........... ........ ........... ........ ...1 41
Appendix C ....... .......... ........... ........ ........... ..... ... .......... ........ ........... ........ ........... ........ ...1 55
Appendix D ............ ........... ........ .......... ........... ........ ........ ........... ........ .......... ........ .........1 63 

List of figures
XV
List of figures
Figure 2. 1: His torical devel opme nt of cryoge nic ene rgy st orage. ........ .......... ........... ....... 23 
Figure 2. 2: Countr y of origin of revie wed artic les and patents on CES. ........... ........... .... 24 
Figure 2.3: Princi ple of operat ion of adiabatic C ES. .......... ....... ........... .......... ........ .......... 26 
Figure 2.4 : Integ ration of in ternal/extern al heat and ”cold ” so urces to a CE S system. .... 31 
Figure 2.5: Rated power, energy capacity and discharge durati on of ES techno log ies.. . . 33 
Figure 2.6 : Comparison of sel ecte d weighted characteri stics of CES, CAES, and PHS. . 35 
Figure 2.7 : CES specific costs p er kW installed capaci ty report ed in the literat ure. ........ 36 
Figure 2.8 : C APEX an d sp ecific costs ove r CES sy stem ca pac ity. .............. ........ .......... .. 37 
Figure 2.9 : Discharge period and power rating of various energy storage appl ications. .. 39 
Figure 2.1 0: “Lif e cycle” val ue prop osition of E S applicatio ns. ............ ........... ........ ....... 42 
Figure 2.11 : Potential primary (“anchor”) and secondary service s of CES. .......... ........ .. 43 
Figure 2. 12: Value pr opositi on for s tacke d benef its s uitable f o r CES. ................ .......... .. 44 

Figure 3.1: The exergy transfer rate associated with the h eat t ra nsfer over th e temperatur e
difference. .. ........... ........ .......... ........ ........... . .......... ........ .......... ........ ........... ........ ........ ... .... 50 
Figure 3.2 : Logic flowch art for the ex ergoecono mic optimiza tion applied i n this work. 57 

Figure 4. 1: Schem atic of the system conf igurati ons conside red f or this work. ............ .... 61 
Figure 4.2 : Flow sheet of t he stand-al one ad iabatic CES sy stem ( Base Cases A a nd B). . 64 
Figure 4.3 : Flowsh eet of t he ga s cleanin g and purificat ion unit ................ ........ ........... .... 65 
Figure 4.4: Minim u m specif ic wor k and the m aximum liquid yiel d over th e pre ssure. ... 66 
Figure 4.5 : Flowsheets of th e Linde-based liqu efaction pro cesse s with cold recycle. ..... 68 
Figure 4.6: Flowsheets of the Cl aude-based liquefaction p rocess es with cold recycle. ... 69 
Figure 4.7 : T, ∆ H 󰇗 -diagram of the main heat exchanger in the di scharge process. . ........ .. 72 
Figure 4. 8: RT E over pumpi ng pre ssure s for Ba se Cas e B. ....... .......... .......... ........ .......... 73 
Figure 4. 9: Spec ific dischar ge w ork per kg of liqui d air, RT E, and η over the TIT . ........ 74 
Figure 4.10: F lowshee ts of the integrated s ystems. ...... ...... .......... .......... ........ ........... ....... 75 
Figure 4.1 1: RTE and exerget ic effi ciency over the specif ic mas s flow of LNG. ........ .... 79 

Figure 5.1: Results of th e energet ic and exergetic eva luation f or the liquefaction processes
with/without integrated col d stora ge. ......... ........... ..... ........ ........ ........... ........ .......... .......... 82 
Figure 5. 2: Sensiti vity a nalysis results f or the Claude -based l iquefaction processes. ...... 83 
Figure 5.3: Minim u m specif ic wor k and m aximum liqu id yi eld o ver t he split ting ra tio. . 84 
Figure 5.4 : Exergeti c efficien cy of se lected co mponents o f the two base case systems. . 86 
Figure 5. 5: Grassm ann diagram of the ex ergy flo w in the B ase Ca s e A. .......... ........ ....... 87 
Figure 5. 6: Grassm ann diagram of the ex ergy flo w in the B ase Ca s e B. .......... ........ ....... 88 
Figure 5.7 : Breakdo wn of th e exergy destru ction o f the overall system s. .............. ........ .. 89 
Figure 5.8 : Cost breakdown of the LCOE dis for the two base case systems ........... .......... 90 
Figure 5.9 : Bare mod ule cost s of the B ase Cases A and B. . ..... ......... ........ ........... ........ .... 91 
Figure 5 .10: Exe rgoeconomic analy sis result s for th e five compo n e n t s w i t h t h e h i g h e s t t o t a l
cost rate. .......... ........... ........... ........ .......... .. ......... ........... ........ .......... ........ ........... ...... .. ....... 92

List of figures
XVI
Figure 5. 11: Com ponent cost ra tes of s elected compone nts of the Base Ca se B. ............ 95 
Figure 5.12: RTE over LCOE dis for the optimization s teps for the Base Ca se A. ........ .... 9 6 
Figure 5.13: RTE over LCOE dis for the optimization s teps for the Base Ca se B. .......... .. 9 6 
Figure 5. 14: Norm alized capital investm ent c ost ove r the rela ti ve exergetic efficiency. . 97 
Figure 5.15 : Exergo economic an alysis resu lts for the base case s and optimized cases. .. 98 
Figure 5. 16: Exerg etic ana lysis results for the integrated CES s ystem configu rations. . 100 
Figure 5.17 : Bare module costs o f th e components of the integra ted s ystems. .............. 102 
Figure 5.18 : Specifi c invest ment costs over RTE of the ten CES system s........... .......... 104 
Figure 5.19 : Specifi c investment costs and LCOE dis o ver the sp ec. mas s flo w o f LNG. 105 
Figure 5.20 : The levelized cost of ele ctric ity of th e ten CES s y stem conf igurat ions. .... 106 
Figure 5.21 : Economic sensi tivit y analys is results of the a-CES system. ......... ........... .. 107 
Figure 5.22 : LCOE dis over th e FLH dis f or the ten consi dered sys tems. .......... ........... ..... 109 
Figure 5.23 : LCOE dis over the price of ele ctricity f or selected CES s ystems. ...... .......... 111 
Figure 5.24 : LCOE dis of PHS, d-C AES, a-CAES, and s elected CES s ystems. ............ .. 112 
Figure 5. 25: Box-pl ot di agram of the spe cific c osts of PHS, CAE S, and CE S. ........... .. 113 
Figure 5.26 : LCOE dis of se lected CES sy stems c ompare d to values from the literature . 114 

Figure A.1: Patents and resear ch articles published from 2013 t o 2017. .......... ............. 138 
Figure A.2: Compati bility of occasi onal a nd freq uent use E S app licati on ........... .......... 140 

Figure B.1 : Day-a head marke t clearing price over t he hours in t he y ea r in Ge r man y . . . 1 4 4 
Figure B. 2: His tori cal devel opment o f the ann ual a verage val ue of the CE PCI. ........... 1 44 
Figure B.3: Histo rical data for th e conversion rate of €/USD a n d €/GBP. ........... .......... 145 
Figure B.4 : Printe d cir cuit hea t exc hanger by He atric used by H ighview Ltd. [ 161] .... 14 8 

Figure C.1 : Sensiti vity a nalysis results f or the isentro pic eff iciency of the expander. ... 157 
Figure C.2 : Flows heet of the cold stor age inte gration i nto the CES system . ................. 160 
Figure C.3: R TE and exergetic effici ency over ma ss f low rat e o f t h e f u e l f o r t h e d - C E S
system ............. ........... ........ ........ ........... ..... ... ........ .......... ........ ........... ........ ........... .... ...... 161 

Figure D.1: T, ∆ H 󰇗 -diagram s of the M HE1 i n the Clau de-base d liquef action p rocesse s. 163 
Figure D .2: Co mpa rison of the compos ite curv es of the MHE1 f or th e Claud e and the
Kapitza process. ...... ........... ........ ........... ........ ........ .......... ........ ........... ........ ........... ........ . . 164 
Figure D.3: Max . exergeti c efficiency and min. specific work r equi red for liquefaction
over the liquefaction pressures for the Claud e process and the Heylandt process. ........ 165 
Figure D.4 : Maxim um liqui d yield a nd li quefact ion press ure ove r the splitting ratio. . 165 
Figure D.5: Exergy destructio n rati o of selec ted com ponents fo r the base cases. ......... 167 
Figure D.6: Effect of the increase d mass flow rate of the heat storage medi a on the RTE
over the L COE dis f or the base cases. ....... ........ ........... ........ ........ ........... .......... ........ ........ 1 68 
Figure D.7: Specific exergy destru ction and losses over the cos t o f t h e f i n a l p r o d u c t fo r th e
optimized cases a fter parametri c changes on Base Cases A and B. ............... ........ ........ 1 68 

List of figures
XVII
Figure D.8: LCOE dis ove r the ma ss flow of LNG in t he inte grate d systems. ........ ...... .. 169 
Figure D.9: LCOE dis over the mass flow of fuel suppli ed to the d-CES sy stem ...... ...... 169 
Figure D.10: LCOE dis over FLH for all conside red systems with consi deration of CO 2
emission prices. ............. ........ .......... ........ ........ ........... ........ ........... ........ .......... ........ ...... .. 170 
Figure D.11: Box-p lot diagram of th e sp ec. costs o f di fferen t b ulk ES t echnolo gies. ... 17 2 
Figure D.12: Box-p lot diagram of the LCOE dis of PHS, CAES, and CES. ......... .......... 172 

XVIII

List of tables
XIX
List of tables
Table 2.1: Para meters of CES s ystems p resented i n litera ture. . ..... ........ ........... ........... .... 27

Table 3.1: Cost f unction s develope d for t he estimation of the B MC of th e CES syst em. 53 
Table 3.2: Assum ptio ns made in the eco nomic a nalysis. ......... .... .......... ........ ........... ....... 54 

Table 4 .1: Isentropi c efficiencie s presumed for the tu rbomachin ery. .................. ........ .... 62 
Table 4.2: G eneral assum ptions a nd des ign para meter for the hea t e xchangers. ...... ....... 63 
Table 4.3: R efrigera nt pro perties co mpared to air [3 7, 56] . ... ...... ........ .......... ........ .......... 71 
Table 4.4: Ene rgy de nsities a nd eff icienci es rep orted in t he li terature. ............. ........... .... 74 
Table 4 .5: Power and heat capacities in MW for indicated work a nd heat flows. .......... .. 76 

Table 5.1: Desi gn par ameters f or the t hree Cla ude-base d CES s ys tems com p ared. . ....... 85 
Table 5.2: Resu lts of th e econom ic ana lysis for the Cla ude-base d liquefacti on units ...... 85 
Table 5.3: R esults ob taine d from the exe rgetic e valuat ion of th e two base case s ystem s. 86 
Table 5.4: R esults obt ained in exer goecon omic a nalysis f or t he two base case systems. 92 
Table 5.5: Decis ion varia bles for exer goecon omic optim izati on. ............. ........... ........ .... 93 
Table 5.6: P arameters and r esults of the optim izat ion ste ps for the Case A. ................ .... 94 
Table 5.7: P arameters and r esults of the optim izat ion ste ps for the Case B.. ......... .......... 94 
Table 5.8: RTE, energe tic and exergetic e fficien cy of the te n c onsidered systems. ...... . 101 
Table 5 .9: Re sults o f economic an alysis for the ten CES system con figurations. .......... 1 03 

Table A. 1: Comparis on of CES chara cteristi cs to other bulk ES t echnologies .............. 137 
Table A. 2: B ulk ener gy applicatio ns com patible with CES chara ct er istics . .......... ........ 1 38 
Table A.3: Anc illary services co mpatible with CES charact eristi cs ............ .......... ........ 139 
Table A.4: Frequen cy regulation services compatible with CES ch aract eristics . .......... 139 
Table A. 5: Re newable energ y inte grati on applic ations com patible with CES ............. .. 139 
Table A. 6: T&D sup port ap plicatio ns com pati ble wit h CES c haract eristics ................ .. 139 
Table A.7: R esults o f t he li terature review on the economic val ue of pote ntial CES
applications. ............ ........ ........... ........... ....... ......... ........ .......... ........ ........... ........ ......... .. .. 140 

Table B.1: Defin ition of the exe rgetic and energeti c efficienci es f or CES s ystems ....... 141 
Table B.2: Defi nition of exer gy of fuel a nd exe rgy of pro duct o f selec ted components 1 42 
Table B.3: Definition of exergy of fuel and exerg y of product o f pu mps and turb ines fo r
different cases of the entering and the exiting tempe rature. .. ......... ........ ........... ........... .. 141 

List of tables
XX

Table C.1: S tream values of t he Base Case A. ............. .......... ........ ........... ........ ........... .. 155 
Table C.2: S tream values of t he Base Case B. .............. .... ...... ........... ........ ........... ........ .. 156 
Table C.3: Strea m values fo r the states indi cated in the flowsh eets in Figure 4.6 .... ..... 158 
Table C.4: Strea m values fo r the states indi cated in the flowsh eets in Figure 4.5 .... ..... 159 
Table C.5: St ream v alues for th e ad iabatic CES sy stems w ith wa s te heat in tegration. .. 160 
Table C.6: Strea m values fo r the CES sy stems with s ingle and do uble combu stion . ..... 161 
Table C.7 : Stream value s for f or the CES s ystem s with/witho ut i ntegration of LNG. ... 162 

Table D.1: Exer gy a nalysis re sult s on c ompo nent le vel fo r Ba se Case A. ............. ........ 1 66 
Table D.2: Exer gy a nalysis re sult s on c ompo nent le vel fo r Ba se Case B. ................ ..... 167 
Table D.3: Econom ic anal ysis resu l ts for Base Cases A and B. .. .............. ........ ........... .. 168 



Chapt er 1 : Intr oduction
21

Chapter 1: Introduction
There is no doubt that the chall enges in the power sector are n owadays of great er impor tanc e
than earlier, resulting in majo r political, social, economic, a nd ecological consequenc es [1, 2].
The rapid devel opment towards a h igher pen etrati on of electrici ty g ener ation fr om r enewab le
energy sources introduces new cha llenges to the electricity gri ds [2]. The highly fluctuat ing
genera tion pattern, as well as t he low power capacity fa ctor of renewa ble ene rgy generators,
offer a weak predict ion for pow er availability; leave power gri d operators with l ittle means to
sustain th e supply-demand equilib rium and secure uninterrupted power supply [3]. Especially
w i n d a n d s o l a r p o w e r g e n e r a t i o n , w h i c h a r e s u b j e c t t o s t r o n g i n termittenc y, have recently faced
a significant boost globally [2 , 3, 4]. The power supply should b e able to cover the dem and at
any point in time. The infrast ruct ure and services o f the exist ing electricity grid are not
optimized to sustain reliable f uncti on while accomm odatin g a hi gh amoun t o f electricity from
renewa ble ene rgy s ources [5, 6, 7] .
So far, grid operators avoid system failures, which would cause power cutbacks and would
harm equipm ent, during a possi ble mism atch between demand and g eneration, by introducing
flexibilit y to the grid [8] . Ener gy storage (ES) and particular ly grid-scale electricity storage i s
widel y regarded to be the most v aluable option to advance power grid flexibility while facing
extensi ve renewable energy incor poration [6, 9, 10, 11]. Mid an d long-term electricity storag e
provide flexi bility on multiple layers by (a) leveling the high pen etration of r enewable energies
and capturing surplus electric ity at low demand ; (b) providing peak shaving, and (c) reducing
necessary reserv e capacity [12]. Grid-scale energy storage technologies vary in their energy
capacities, power capacities, dis charge periods, roundtrip eff icien cies (AC/AC effici ency),
response tim es, and capita l costs [6]. Grid balanci ng services entail a storage device with
reasonabl e effici ency (> 50 %) bu t low costs at a significan t s cale. These requirements are
consiste nt wit h the c oncept of c ryogenic energy s torage [13, 14 ].
The working principle of Cryogenics-based energy storage (CES) i s classified as thermal or
thermo-electric energy storage ( ES). CES charges excess electri city in an energy -inten se air
liquefaction process. T he liquefied gas is stored at ambient pr essure and a cryogenic
temperature in an insula ted stora ge vessel. During discharge; t he liquid air is pumped to high
pressure s, evaporat ed, superheate d, and finally expanded partia lly r ecovering th e electrici ty
charge d. CES is the only grid-sc ale ES technology without geogr aphical constr aints, a
remarkably higher volumetric ener gy d ensity, very l o w s t o r a g e l osses, and a long cycle life.
CES int egration with oth er pro cesses such as the recov ery o f “w aste heat” or “waste cold”
increase the technologies attrac tiveness as well as the efficie ncy [15]. CES consists of
components with well-known industrial-sca le applications [2], a llowing great scale-up
excessing present s upply infrastructure [16, 17, 18]. Hence, CE S is expected com paratively fast
progress towards commercializatio n [ 19]. Being a pre-com mercial , technology CES still has to
prove its favorable c haracteristics [3].

Chapt er 1 : Intr oduction
22
The reduction of the energy requ irement in the l iquefaction pro cess and the increase of the
specific power output of the disc harge process were identifie d as two main research and
development ob jectives, that need to be met to p repare CES tech nology for the market [20].
Apart from the enhancement of t he roundtrip effici ency, the red uction in costs is a major
milestone to be accom p lished for the techno logy t o reach m aturi ty.
With this background, the present work on cryogeni c energy stor age aims t o
 eval uate the potentials of the technology and the associated challenges
review ing and validat ing C ES character istics stated in literatu re (e.g., exergy
density, roundtrip effi ciency, specific cos ts), drawing a com pa r ison to its
competing technologies and evalua ting its potential application .
 quantify th e impact of the different cha rge, storage and discha rge process
config urati ons on the thermodynamic and economic perf orm ance of a diabat ic
CES systems.
 revea l the relation of thermodynamic inefficiencies a n d c o s t s i n t h e C E S
system and identify a m easure for cost reduction .
 identify the cost-optimal system des ign of adiabatic CES systems.
 eval uate the performance enhancement throug h the integration of liquid
natura l gas ( LNG), i nternal c ombust ion and wa ste heat to CE S sy stems.
 evaluate CES economic viability using sensitiv ity analysis: identifying the
limiting factor and revealing p otential r evenue streams.
These objectives are achieved wit h the application of exergy-ba sed methods after the design
and simula tion of several CES configurati ons in Aspen Plus® bas ed on an inten se literatu re
review.
In Cha p ter 2 of this thesis, the background t o the CES principle of operati on, history, and
maturity is given. CES core char acteristics are reviewed and b e nchm arked tow ards c om petin g
e n e r g y s t o r a g e t echnologies. Moreover, po tential energy storage applications for CES are
identified along w ith potential revenue stream s. The a ssumpt ion s made and m ethods applied in
the analy sis are subject to Cha pt er 3 . In Chapter 4 , the considered C ES system con figurations
are prese nted, the design decisi ons made for the system configu rations are justifie d, and the
assump tions made in the si mula tion are elaborated . The results from the analysis of the different
system configurations, their se nsitivity, validation, and discu ssion are presented in Chap ter 5 .
While Cha pte r 6 , places the main findings i n a holistic context. The conclusio n s a r e s t a t e d , a n d
the limitations to the present w or k are assesse d with the prosp ect for future work.

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
23

Chapter 2: State of the art
In this c hapter, cryogenic energy storage history, principle of operation, most significa nt system
param eters and sys tem configurat ions are introduced. In particu lar, different charge and
discharge unit configu rations are reviewed, and the potential f or sys tem integra tion with
external heat sources and sinks i s discussed. Furt her, the CES i s a d d r e s s e d i n a b r o a d e r c o n t e x t .
ES technologies are classified, and competing technologies are identified. Fu rther CES
charact eristics are comp ared to those of compe ting techno logy. Fina lly, the pote ntial
applications for CES and their e conomic benefit are outlayed.

2.1. Historical devel opment o f cry ogenic energy storage
The concept of storing e lectricity in the form of liquefied air has been firstly published by S mith
et al. [ 21] from the University of Newcastle in 1977. The stora g e c o n c e p t w a s c l a i m e d t o e n a b l e
roundtrip efficiencies (RTE), see equation (3.5), up to 72 % through adiabatic compression and
expansion [21]. The associated p atents were obtained by several research groups in France,
Japan, a nd Germany (1981-1983) [15 ]. In particular , Hitachi Ltd [22, 23, 24, 25] and Mitsubishi
Hi tach i Po wer Sys te ms Lt d [26 , 2 7, 28] engaged i n the technolog y’s furthe r de velopm ent. [3]
The first pilot plant was built in 1995 ( Mitsubis hi Hitachi Pow e r S y s t e m s L t d , [ 2 7 ] ) b y
extending an existin g air liquefaction plant with a 2.6 MW cryo genic power recovery unit
(dischar ge unit). The pi lot plant was argue d to conf irm the s ys tem via bilit y [27] despi te a ve ry
low RTE [29]. The technology’s h istorical advan cem ent is shown i n Figure 2.1.

Figure 2.1: Historical development of cryogenic energy storage [ 3] adopted fro m [30].

1977
System firstly proposed
University of Newcastle, UK
(Smith, 1977)
1995 – 1997
Power recove ry unit (2.6 MW)
by Mitsubishi, J apan
(Kishimoto et al., 1998)
2008 – 201 1
Pilot scale plant (350 kW/2.5 MWh)
by Univers ity of Leeds and Highview , UK
(Mor gan et al., 2015)
2016 – 2018
Demonstrator plant (5 MW/15 MW h)
Highview and project partners, UK
(https://www .highviewpower .com/)
CONCEPT LAB BENC H PILO T DEMONSTRA TION COMM ERCI AL
Future
Giga plant
(200 MW/1.2 GWh )

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
24
The f irst integrate d pil ot CES pla nt ( 350 kW/2.5 MWh) was the r esul t of a joint rese arch project
of the Universit y of Leeds and Highview Power Storag e Ltd. (fur ther “Highview Ltd.”),
a privatel y owned company [31]. The dischar ge unit was built in 2009. The pilot plant was
collocate d to a biom ass-fired power p lant providing waste heat to the system in Slough, UK. In
2010, the system w as connected to the electricity grid. Only in 2011, the recovery unit was
extended with an air liqu efier. First results from t his pilot p lant were published in 2015 by
Morgan et al. [16 ]
1
. The system reached a R TE of 7-11 % [32]. Provision of grid ba lancing
services such as loa d follow was found tec hnically realizable. The technologies e fficiency and
costs w ere predict ed as comp etiti ve once the system would reach commercial scale. The plant
was later moved to the U niversity of Birm i ngham for further tes ting [29] .

Figure 2.2: Country of orig in of reviewed articles and patents on CES [3].

In 2014, funding of approximate ly € 9 Million by the UK Departm ent of Energy and Climate
Change was granted to Highview Ltd . and project pa rtners for th e constr ucti on of the
demonstration plant (5 MW/15 MWh ). In April 2018, the demonstra tion plant started oper ation
n e x t t o a l a n d f i l l f a c i l i t y i n B u r y , G r e a t e r M a n c h e s t e r . T h e p l ant provid es selected b alancing
services such as peak shaving and short term operating r eserve [31]. The “G iga p lant”
developed by Highview Ltd. is planned to be located in Dallas, T e x a s , U S A , a t a t o t a l c o s t
of € 230 Million and rea ch a RTE of 60 %. [3]

1
In this work, the names of the authors are only given for key publications.

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
25
In 2013, the Liquid Air Energy Network (LAEN) was formed as a r esult of a joint research
project between UK universities and the Centre for Low C arbon F utures [8]. The LAEN aims
to investi gate the poten tial role of liquid air as an energy ve ct or in the futur e energy and
transportation sectors [30]. The number of publications and pat ents on cry ogenics-based or
liquid-air energy stor age increased since 2013 (the number of publications can be extracted
from Figure A.1 in Appendix A). Figure 2.2 shows the origin of reviewed papers and patents
on cryogenic and liquid air energy stora ge. Leading compani es i n the field of industrial gases,
e.g., Air Liquide, and Linde AG obtained p atents in 2012 and 20 14, respectively. The largest
number of patents and articles came from Chinese and UK experts . [3] The large majority of
UK pate nts relat e to th e activ ities of Highview Ltd. [31] .

Maturity of the technology
CES consists of mature componen ts with well-known industrial-sc ale applicatio ns in the field
of industrial gases and chemical processes as well as power gen eration ; allowing scale-up
excessing pr esent suppl y infrastr ucture [15, 16, 17, 1 8]. For t he same reason, de velope rs expec t
comparatively fast progress towa rds commercialization [ 19]. Acc ording to several case studies,
e.g. [20] , CES is expected to reach maturity in less than five y ears. The European Association
for Storage of Energy evaluated CES in 2017 with a Technology R eadiness Level (TRL) of
approximately TRL 8 (TRL 9 de noting a mature technology) [33] . T h e T R L 8 r e f e r s t o t h e
system b eing in the end phase of the d evelopment for the majori ty of components. CES
commercial design has been compl eted and the technology was p ro ven in testing and
demonst ration [ 34, 3 5].
For example , the char ging system of CES is in parts similar to convent ional air separation un its
(ASU). Commercial air liquefaction plants are about ten times s m aller than the liquef acti on
capacities needed for g rid-scale CES. Thus a technological gap still exists [15] while it could
be adapted from commercial-scale natural gas liquefaction. Avai lable indust rial cryogen
storage vessels based on lique fied natural gas (LNG) technology enable capacities of
200,000 m³, w hich would enable 17-23 GWh of stor age capacity [1 8] . The discharge unit is
a l s o a s s e m b l e d o f c o m p o n e n t s c o m m o n i n t h e p o w e r a n d p r o c e s s s e ctor (e. g., tur bines,
compressors, pumps, and electric motors). Potential vendors and supply chains for C ES key
compon ents were ev alua ted by S trahan et al. [8 ]. Li mitation s to t h e s c a l e o f t h e s y s t e m s w e r e
identi fied by B rett and Barnett [18]. Scales comparable with a plant size of up to 100 MW are
currently achiev able [ 12, 16, 18]. Being a p re-comm ercial tech nology, CES still has to prove
its expected advanta geous character istics [3] , e.g., its specif i c cost and its efficiency (sect ion
2.4. 2). The operati on and design of CES systems are subject to th e fo llowing sub section 2 .2
and 2. 3.

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
26
2.2. Adiabatic cryogeni c energy storage systems
2.2.1. Principle of operation
In CES systems, large quantities of e lectricity are sto red in t he form of liquefied gas at cryoge nic
temperature (< - 150 °C). C ES is frequently named liquid air ene r gy storage (L AES) as air, or
air constituents are com monl y utilize d as the worki ng and stora ge media. The integrated
methods of operat ion (charging, storage, and dischargi ng) of an adiabatic CES system are
displa yed in Figure 2. 3.
An ener gy- intensi ve liq uefacti on process form s the charging process o f C E S . I n t h e
liquefaction process, the gas i s p re-t reated, co mpressed , coole d and expande d until it reaches
its due point. The liquefied gas (cryogen) is stored in a site- independent thermally insulated
storage vessel at approximately a mbie nt pressur e and very low t emperatures (e .g., - 194 °C).
The com pression proces s of the li quefacti on is prese nted separa tely, as in th e adiabatic C ES th e
heat of compressi on is recovere d a nd store d to be used i n the d ischarge process.
In the discharge process, the liquefied gas is pumped to supercritical pressure (e.g., 1 50 bar) in
a cryogenic pump, evap o rated and sup erheated . The thermal energ y supplied to the gas in the
superheating process ca n be provide d by t he envir onme nt (e.g. , 15 °C), the intern al heat storage
(e.g., 200 °C), a comb ustion process (e.g., > 800 °C) or a wast e heat source (e. g., 350 °C). The
high-temperature high-pressure g a s i s su p pl i e d t o a s e r i es o f e xpanders regaini ng a part of the
electricity charged to the system.

Figure 2.3: Principle of operation of adiabatic CES systems. T,s-diagram for the charging and t he
discharging process [36] .
Storage
Cold storage
Hea t stor age
STOR AGE
Liquef. Compr.
CHARGE
Pump. Expansion
Evap.
DISCHARG E
Air
Liqu id air
Heat
Cold
Electricity
-225
-150
-75
0
75
150
225
-4000 - 2000 0 2000
s, k J/kg K
T, °C
-225
-150
-75
0
75
150
225
-4000 -2000 0 2000
s, kJ/kg K
T, °C

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
27
The low-temperature ex e r g y ( o r “ c o l d ” ) r e j e c ted during the evap oration process can be
recov ered and sto red. When addit ional low -temper ature exergy is supplied to the liquefaction
process (charging), the amount of air that is liquefied is incr eased. Withou t co ld storag e and
recovery, CES sy stems would reac h roundtrip efficiencies of les s than 30 %. Stand-alone
adiabatic CES systems reach a r oundtrip efficien cy of 40-50 % [ 37, 38] . The integration of
thermal energy through external heat and cold sources can signi ficantly increase the RTE to
above 70 %. The potential fo r system i nteg ration is reviewed in sect ion 2 .3.
The state of the art o f differen t parameters, charging and disc har ging conf igurat ions of adiaba tic
CES systems are discussed in the following subsections 2.2.2 to 2.2.4. The system design and
simulati on of the CES systems evaluated in this work are discus sed in greater detail in chapter 4.

2.2.2. System parameters
Recently, several publications ha ve d iscussed the thermodynamic p e r f o r m a n c e o f C E S . A
number of adiabatic CES system c onfigurations hav e been propose d. The different liquef action
processes, cha rge and disc harge press ures ( 𝑝  , 𝑝  ), li quid yields ( 𝛾 ), cold storage
configurations and r oundtrip effi ciencies ( RTE ) o f t h e a d i a b a t i c C E S s y s t e m s d i s c u s s e d i n
s e l e c te d l it er a t u r e a re gi v en i n T a bl e 2 . 1. T he se l e c t e d s ys te m parameters varied s ignificantly;
the liquefaction pressures rang e from 20 to 180 bar and dischar ge pressures vary between 50
and 150 bar .

Table 2.1: Parameters of CES systems presented in the literatur e.
Ref. Liquefaction process 𝑝  ,
bar 𝛾 ,
-
Cold storage configuration 𝑝  ,
bar
RT

E ,
%
[39 ] Linde-Hampson ~130 0.44-0.74 fluid tanks (CH 4 O, R218) 112-120 28-37
Expander cycle
N

A
N

A fluid tanks (CH 4 O, R218)
N

A 40-46
[10 ] Linde-Hampson 20 0.70 direct integration (ideal) 100 20-50
[40 ] Linde-Hampson 120 0.83 fluid tanks (CH 4 O, C 3 H 8 ) 50 50-60
[41 ] Integr. Linde-Hampson 90 0.60 fluid tanks (CH 4 O, C 3 H 8 ) 120 60
[42 ] modified Claude 180 0.86
p

acked bed gravel (air) 75 48.5
[14 ] 4 turbine Claude 56.8 0.551
p

acked bed gravel (air) 190 > 50
[16 ] 2 turbine Claude/Collins 54
N

A
p

acked bed gravel (air) 150 47
[2] Heylandt 180 0.61 fluid tanks (CH 4 O, R218) 150 41
[43 ] Linde-Hampson 180 0.842 fluid tanks (CH 4 O, C 3 H 8 ) 65 50
[44 ] Linde-Hampson 140
N

A
N

A 70 47.2

The liquid yield 𝛾 refers to th e ratio of th e mass flow of th e air liqu efied in t he liqu efaction
process to the mass flow o f the compressed air, equation (3.4). The liquid yield is an indicat ion
of the cha rging- unit perform ance. The values fo r the liqui d yie ld vary strongly (0.44-0.86),

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
28
while the RT E are wit hin the same ra nge m ostly b etween 40 % and 55 %. Theref ore, no optimal
CES desi gn configur ation coul d be ident ified [3]. Different assum ptions were made in
s i m u l a t i o n , e . g . , i d e a l d r y a i r w a s a s s u m e d , h e a t a n d p r e s s u r e losses in most compone nts as well
a s h e a t l os s e s i n t h e c o l d r e c o v e r y a n d t he a s s o c i a t e d h e a t e x c hangers were negl ected [40] , or
assumed lower th an 8 % [14].
Moreover, the reviewed publications rarely u sed exergy-based me thods on the component level.
N e i t h e r t h e “ f u e l a n d p r o d u c t a pproach” nor the “splitting of p h y s i c a l e x e r g y ” w a s t a k e n i n t o
consi derati on. T he origin a nd m argi n of the rmodynam ic ineff icie ncies i n the s ystem have thus
not thoroughly been iden tified. The role of cold storage and he a t r e c o v e r y w a s e m p h a s i z e d i n
all paper s. Neve rtheless , the effect of heat and c old rec overy a nd stor age was not quant ifie d in
terms of exergy. A com parison of the sim ulation and analysis re sults while neglecting the
various assum ptions would resul t in misleading conclusions. In order to identify an optim al
system design, the different parameters and configurations must be analyzed under common
assumptions. In this w ork, a cost- optim al system design of adia batic CES system s is identified
with the aid of ex ergy -based methods. In the following s ubsecti ons the different air liquefaction
processes, cold storage configurati ons and potential discharge processes are assessed in the
context of CES.

2.2.3. Charging processes
The significance of th e liquefaction process to the CES’s p erfo rmance was addressed in [39] as
“the ke y part” of the s yste m as the dischar ge unit is relativel y s im ple a nd ef fic ie nt . D es pite a ir
liquefaction being co mmercial since the 1940 s [45], the chargi ng process of CES s ystems s till
h a s r o o m f o r i m p r o v e m e n t [ 4 6 ] . W hen additional low-temperature ex ergy i s avail able, e.g .
through cold storage, t he performance of th e liquefaction proce ss is c onsidera bly improve d [2,
15]. On e o f the vital find ings from th e te sting of the fi rst pi lot plant was the increa se of system
efficiency though cold recovery a nd storage [14] . Thus, the cho ice of the liquefa ction process
for CES infl uences the therm odynam ic and economic perform ance o f the overall system . This
work aims to q uantif y this impro vement and identif y the most su itable liquefaction process wit h
cold storage a nd recovery.
(a) Liquefaction processes
Nowadays, various lique faction processes are i n operation. The first-industrialized and simplest
confi gurat ion is t he Linde pr oce ss. The pur ifie d air is t here by com presse d, cool ed a nd fe d to a
throttling valve to undergo an is enthal pic expans ion, bringin g the air to its due point [47] . Gas
liquefaction is at the present ti me achieved in more complex pr ocesses [10]. The Claude p rocess
and i ts modi ficatio ns a re the most comm only applied in c omm erci al a ir l iquefac tion plants d ue
to the ir elevate d efficie ncy [48] .
I n t h e C l a u d e p r o c e s s , t h e c o m p r e s s e d a i r i s c o o l e d b y a c o l d r ecycle stream – a share of the
pressurized air that underwent a n isentropic exp ansion in one o r m o r e c o l d t u r b i n e s [ 1 4 ] . T h e
Heylandt pr ocess im plied t he elim ination of the f irst heat exch anger in t he Claude s ystem [48]
and the Kapitza proce ss dates back to 1939 w hen the inventor su ggeste d the use of centrif ugal
expansio n turbines in the Claude process [47] . Most modern liqu efiers use expan sion tu rbines
proposed by Kapitza [ 49] and mos t high-pressure air liquefactio n plant operate with the
Heylandt process. [46]

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
29
A comparative evaluation of air liquefaction processes in the c o n t e x t o f C E S s y s t e m s w a s
presented by Li et al . [39], Borri et al. [ 50] and Abdo et al. [51 ]:
Borri et al. [50] compared three air liqu efaction processes for application in a micr o-scale CES:
the Linde-Ham pson, the Claude, and the Collins process. The Cla ude process was identified as
the most suitable air liquefactio n process for application in CES. The Linde-Hampson process
operating with a Joule-T homson v a l v e w a s c l a i m e d t o b e i n f e r i o r . Also, a second cold expander
used in the Collins process was found not economically feasible . Borri et al. [50] thereby did
not take into account the effect o f th e in tegration of cold rec overy and storage on the
perform ance of t he li quef action processes.
L i [ 3 9 ] o n l y c o n s i d e r e d t h e i n t eg ration of a co ld expander ins tea d of a throttling valve in the
Linde process apart fro m a n “ e x p a n d e r p r o c e s s ” w h i c h e m p l o y s a refrigeration process with
Helium as working fluid. Li [39 ] came to the same conclusion t h a n B o r r i e t a l . [ 5 0 ] , t h a t t h e
throttle-valve-based Linde-Hampson process is not applicable fo r CES.
Abdo et al. [51] compared a CE S s ystem design (patente d by Chen e t al. [52]) based on a sim ple
L i n d e - H a m p s o n p r o c e s s t o t w o a l t e r n a t i v e s y s t e m s : t h e C o l l i n s a n d t h e C l a u d e p r o c e s s . T h e
heat of compression w as accounted for in the analysis, but the cold storage was not considered.
The Claude and Collins process showed similar therm odynamic per formance and reached
greater RTE than the Linde-based process. The more efficient Claude-based system was
evaluated as the bes t option, although the Linde-Hampson achiev ed the lowest specific costs
[51] .
None of the three co mparative an alyses reviewed assessed the im pact of cold storag e on the
selecti on an d perform ance of the liquefac tion de spite discussin g specif ica lly t he applicati on in
CES systems. The present work aims to compare several air lique faction processes with
integrat ed co ld storag e to iden tify th e most efficien t and econ omic liquefaction process for
implem entation in CES sys tems. The differe nt liquefacti on proce sses that w ere considered are
descri bed in sectio n 4.3.1. The resul ts from the com parative en ergetic, exergetic, and econom ic
evalua tion a re prese nted in secti on 5. 1.
(b) Cold storage
Without cold recovery and storage , adiabatic CES efficiency wou ld drop bel ow 35 % [15]. The
temperature in the cold storage cyclically varie s between cryog enic temperature (discharging
process) a nd envir onmental temperature ( chargi ng proces s) [53] . For the effective reco very and
storage of the low-tem perature exergy from the dischar ging proc ess, the charact eristics o f the
storage medium play a vital role [42]. From the literature revi ewed (T able 2.1), two kinds of a
cold storage configuratio n can be extract ed:
1) q u a r t z i t e g ra v e l ba s e d p a c ke d be d st o r a ge w i t h d r y a i r a s t h e s econdary working fluid,
and
2) two- tank fluid stora ge with metha nol and propane (or R218) as s econdary working
fluids and stora ge med ia on two d iffer ent t empera tur e lev els.
The latter cold storage configu ration (2) dates back to 1997 wh en Hitachi, Ltd. developed and
patent ed the first conce pt for cold recove ry and storage [ 22]. The concept was afterward
adopted for a solid-packed-bed of pebbles by Highview Power Sto rage Ltd. [52] . The high
densit y and specific heat capacity o f the pebbles in packed bed cold storage (PBCS) enables
higher e nergy de nsit y. The P BCS can be des igne d with a w ide ra n ge of storage m aterials. Hd-

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
30
polyethylene and polyp ropylene were evalua ted suitable for appl icati on in P BCS w hile m etals
were found unfitting b y [53]. The dynamic perform ance evaluatio n of PBCS reveale d that the
dynamic cycli ng between the chargi ng and the dis chargi ng proces s increases the work required
for the li quefacti on pr ocess by a n undesire d 25 % in com pariso n to steady-state analysis [42].
Due to a large amount of low-tem perature exergy to be stored, s afe (non-toxic and non-
flammable) and inexpensive cold sto rage media are preferab le [3 9, 22]. The cold storage
configuration was the subject of many publications. The cold st orage performance (e.g.,
t e m p e r a t u r e , t h e m i n i m u m p i n c h t e m p e r a t u r e a n d t h e p r e s s u r e d r o p i n the CS) has a high impac t
on the RTE of the overall system independent of the st orage material [ 43, 52, 22]. On a system
l e v e l , t h e r e c o v e r y r a t e o f t h e l o w - t e m p e r a t u r e e x e r g y a n d t h e c o l d s t o r a g e c o s t s a r e o f
impor tance. Thus, t he cold storage config uration itself is not ana lyzed in this work. S olely, one
CES configur ation was considered (a pair of thermal fluids). Th e considered C S design is
explained i n m ore detai l in secti on 4. 3.2.

2.2.4. Discharging processes
Power cy cles are driven by the t emperature gradient between two thermal reservoirs: the heat
sink and the h eat source [2]. The electricity “charged” to a cr yogen (liquid gas) while
liquefaction may be p artially r eg ained in a c old power genera ti on c y cl e wh er e th e cr yo g en a ct s
as the heat sink. Di verse hea t sources can be util ized: ambie nt heat, low/high-grade waste heat
or heat of com bustion [ 45, 54]. V arious methods for extracting low-temperature exergy stored
in a cryogen have b ee n publi shed in China, USA, and Belgium [10 , 17, 37, 55, 56, 57].
Altogether three different method s for power generatio n and t he ir com bination can be identif ied
[2]:
1) The ‘Direct Expansion’ refers to power generation wh ile expanding the beforehand
pressur ized, vaporize d and superhe ated cryogen, in a direct man ner [8, 45, 55]. The
cryogen thereby serv es as the only working fluid o f the Rank ine cycle.
2) Methods for extracting cold exer gy from a cryog en employin g a s econd working fluid
in addition to the c ryogen are referred to as ‘indirect’:
a. The ‘Indirect Rankine’ cycl e i s th e most commo nly considered ind irect cold
power g eneration method [10, 37, 45, 58]. The cryogenic fluid t hereby acts as
the heat sink of the cycle, wh ile the heat f or eva porat io n of t he working f lui d is
provided by the ambient o r another heat source.
b. Within the ‘Indirect Brayton’ cycle the cryogen cools down a gas to decrease
compression work, the dense gas is further heated and expanded generati ng shaft
work in a gas tu rbine [54, 58].
3) Combination s of th e three me thods can be referred to as ‘Com bined Met hods’ [ 45, 54].
Methods for extracting cold exergy in power cycles is most comm only discussed in the context
of the regasificat ion of LNG. The low-tem perature exergy vented in the LNG regasificat ion
usua lly ser ves no f urther purpos e. The co ld exergy r eleased in the evapor ation process in CES
system s, in c ontras t, coul d be stored a nd s upplied for the subs equent c hargi ng pr ocess. F or CES
the indirect methods (2.-3.) are thus in direct competition wit h the cold recovery and storage
within the system. For CES only th e direct expansi on of the liq uid air wa s considered.

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
31
2.3. System integration: waste h eat, waste cold, and combustion
Cryogenic energy storage RTE can be increased by 40-75 % whe n internal and/or external heat
sources or heat sinks (“cold” sou rces) are integrated. Examples for the integration o f external
heat and cold sources to an adia batic CES system are shown in F igure 2.4. Four different system
configur atio ns can be diff erentiated [ 59]:
 the adiaba tic system,
 waste heat recovery,
 LNG waste cold recovery, and
 the inte gration of i nterna l combus tion.
In adiabatic systems, the heat o f compr ession in the charging p rocess can be recovered and
stored in the heat stora ge subsystem. The heat stora ge is commo nly realized with pressurize d
water or therm al oil. The store d thermal energy is later used t o increase the turbine inlet
temperature (TIT) and power output o f the discharge process. Th e s pecific power output of the
discharge unit increases linearly with the increase in TIT [2]. The tempera ture of the captured
thermal energy increases with fewer com pression stages and high er pressures.

Figure 2.4: Integration of internal and external heat and ”cold” sources to a CES system [59].

The recovery of “waste heat” is seen as one of the main potenti als of CES [10, 8, 16, 37]. Waste
heat refers to heat transfer streams from energy and manufacturing processes that serve no
furthe r purp ose and m a y occ ur at diff erent tem peratur e leve ls [ 60] . For waste-heat recovery in
CHARG E STORAGE DISCHARGE
Air
Liquid air
Heat
Cold
Electricity
ADIABATIC SYSTEM
Stor ag e
Cold sto rag e
Heat storage
Liquefaction Comp res sion Pum pi ng Expansio n
Reg asif icat ion
LNG deli very LNG por t LNGregasific ation Gaspip eline
Indust ry/
pow erplan t
WASTE COLDRECOVERY
WASTE HEAT RECO VERY
CO‐FIR ING
Combustion

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
32
cryogenic energy stora ge, only high-temperature (> 300 °C) wast e heat is of int erest. The heat
of com pression recovered in a dia batic CES systems easily reache s temperatures o f 200 °C.
Waste heat recovery would necess itate c olocation of the storage to an existing waste heat source
setting up geogra phical lim itations. As an alte rnative, a CES c an con tain a combustion process
in which fuel, e.g., natural gas, is burned to supply additional thermal energy, which increases
the temperature of the high-pres sure gas before expansi on. Natu ral-gas-fire d systems may reac h
RTE s of 55-6 0 % [15, 43] .
I n t h e d i s c h a r g e p r o c e s s of a d i a b a t i c CE S s y s t e m s , t h e p r e s s u r i zed liquid g as i s evaporated in
heat e xcha nge to the col d stora ge m edia t o rec over and store th e low-tem perature exergy. When
the low-temperature exergy is s uppli ed to the subsequent liquef action process, a higher share
of compressed air is liquefied, and the efficien cy o f th e ch arg ing process significantly increas es
[2] , section 2.2. 3.
Low-temperature exergy may also be supplied from LNG r egasifica tion plants or industrial
processes, e.g., air separation units [61]. Low-tem perature exe rgy that would else be released
to the environment is often refer red to as “waste cold”. The wa ste cold can either be integrated
instead of or in additi on to the cold stora ge. Es peciall y in th e cont ext of e nvironm ental impact,
as we ll as e nergy an d c ost savin gs waste col d recove ry from the LNG re-ga sificati on proce sses
has attracted great interest in t he past decade. LNG integrated C E S s y s t e m s w e r e r e p o r t e d t o
reach RTE s of 63-70 % [8, 62, 63]. Exe rgetic effi ciencies for LNG i ntegr ated systems p resented
by [ 62], [63] and [64] reached 33-43 %. Integrating both LNG co ld recuperation and
comb ustion, t he s ystem may reac h energetic effici encies above 7 0 % [43] and exerget ic
efficiencies of 60-70 % [64] .
Other CES sy stem in tegra tions hav e be en suggest ed, e.g . into ga s-fired power plants [8, 39],
with a secondary organi c Rankine cycle (ORC ) driv en by the heat of com pression [ 41, 63] , with
an absorpti on refrigera tion machine [65] , or with a pumped ther m al energy storage ope rating
as a topping cycle [66].
Several sources mention the favou rable integration of CES with other processes. The influence
of system integrati on on cost was rarely discusse d in the revie wed literat ure. Diff erent system
configurations were not compare d on common ground (neither ther modynamically nor
economically) to quantify the p erf orm ance enhancement of integr atin g different heat sour ces
and sinks. The only comp arison o f CES RTE s was given by Stöver et al. [15] . Stöver et al.
emphas ized the unavaila bility of reliable data and presente d on ly rough estimates for RTE s of
differe nt system configurations [15]. For this reason, the inte grat ion of CES in this work aims
to qua ntif y the ef fect of system integrati on on CES therm odynam ic performance and
economics, see sect ion 4.3 a nd 5.3 .

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
33
2.4. Classification, char acteristics and benchmarking
2.4.1. Classification and competing technologies
G r ea t i n t er e s t i n e ne r gy s t or a ge s ys t e m s ha s e m e r g e d i n r ec e n t yea rs [67], and a large number
of energy storage (ES) technologies exist. ES technologies can be classified according to:
 the principl e of operatio n or type of energy store d (mechanical , chemical
electrom agnetic/el ectrical, therm al);
 the rated power,
 the energy c apacity, and
 the freq uency a nd durat ion of discharge [ 3].
The working principle of CES systems is classified as thermal ( or thermo- electr ic) ES [7] . The
rated power, energy capacit y and discharge duratio n of most com mon ES technologies are
shown in Figure 2.5. When classifying ES technologies accor ding to the rated power of the
discharge unit, sm all (≤ 1 MW), me dium (10-100 MW) and l arge-sc ale ( ≥ 100 M W) ES syst ems
are diff erent iated [ 68].

Figure 2.5: Rated power, energy capa city and discharge duration of E S technologies [3 ] based on
Guney and Tepe [69 ] and Yoon et al. [70 ] .

1,000
100
10
1
1 m in 1 hr 1 day
LA
NaS
1 MWh 10 MWh 100 MW h 1 GWh 10 GWh 100 GWh
FES
Li-Ion
VRB
CAES
PHS
H2
SNG
rated power , MW
ener gy capacity
dischar ge duration
1 m onth
CES
CES cry ogenic energy storage Li-Ion Li-Ion battery
FES flywheel energy storage PHS pum p ed hydr o
com pressed air energy storage
CAES NaS sodium sulphur batter y
H2 hydrogen storage SNG Synthetic natural gas
LA lead acid battery VRB vanadium redox flow battery

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
34
Being anticipated to achieve hundr eds of MW in power rating and energy capacitie s larger than
10 GWh, CES is categorized as gr id-scale energy storage. As a n alterna tive, ene rgy stor age can
be classified accordi ng t o the a p plication [3]. Technologies wi th similar c haracteristics com pete
for the sam e services (or applic ations) that can be provided to various stakeholders in the power
system ( e.g., transmission or distribut ion s ystem operators) [7 1]. The services an ES t echnology
can provide are dependent on a number of character istics. The p ower and energy capaci ty, as
well as the response time, are o f particular importance. In the f ol l ow in g s ec ti o n, a c o m par is o n
i s d r a w n b e t w e e n t h e c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s o f C E S a n d t h e c h a r a c t e r i s tics of the com peti ng
technologies. Potential ES applications suitable f or CES storag e are assessed i n section 2.5.
Being chara cterize d by high power ra tings and ener gy capac ity a long with response times o f up
to several m inutes CES competes with other bulk ES technologies for energy management
applications [7, 37, 72]. Cryogenics-based energy stora ge is in d irect co mpetition with oth er
grid-scale ES t echnologi es such as pumped hy dro storage (PHS) a nd com presse d-air energ y
storage (CAES), as well as selec te d batter y-base d and hydrogen- based ES technologies [3] .

2.4.2. Characterist ics and benchmarking
In order to identify suitable ES applications, it is necessar y to evalu ate th e characteristics of the
respective ES technology . In p articular, the rated po wer , the energy capacity , the RTE , the
response time , and the discharge time influence the technologie s viability for various
applications. The characteristic s of CES and competing technolo gie s are revie wed in this
section. T he gat hered data are given in Table A.1 in Appendi x A .
The capacity of the ch a rg e a nd t he dis cha rg e un it of C ES sys tem s can be sized independently,
contrary to other bulk ES technologies. The power rating o f CES sy stems commonly r efers to
the installed capacity of the discharge unit. CES power ra tings o f 10 to 500+ MW are
economically a nd ecologically di fficult to achieve by hydrogen- based and battery-based energy
storage [7, 16, 17, 29, 72]. The volume o f t he sto rage tank and the specif ic work output of the
discharge unit de termine the energy capa cit y of CES s ystems. Energy capacities larger than 25
GWh [ 39] are realiza ble with avai lable industrial cryogen tanks , ena bling storage losses bel ow
0.2 % Vol per day, and come at low associated costs (appr oximately 160 € /k W dis [18]) [12, 16].
Selected characteristics of bulk -energy technologies (PHS, CAES , and CES) are compare d on
a weighte d scale in Figure 2.6. Energy capac ities of m ultip le h undreds of MWh and power
ratings of 50-200 MW are expected to be achieved by CES systems in the near future [ 8].
One of the greatest advantages of CES systems is the high volumetric energy dens ity . CES
energy density may rea ch v alues of 90 Wh/l [18, 73], or even 16 0-200 Wh/l [10, 17, 37] , while,
other bulk energy storage technologies such as PH S (0.5-1 .5 Wh/ l) and CAES (3-6 Wh/l) reach
by the order of two magnitudes sm aller energy densities [8, 15, 16, 29, 37] . The high volum etric
density enables CES “site-free” or site-independent storage. On ly hydrogen-based energy
storag e achieves a higher vo lume tric energy density than cryoge ns, regardl ess of the storage
form [74]. The storage of hydroge n, however, entails po tential safety hazards due to extreme
flammability a t high pressures [ 29, 74]. Liquid air can be stor ed with low technical requirements
at ambient pressur e [3].
Fo r a d a il y cy c l i n g C E S s y s t e m, t h e s t a r t - u p o f t h e l i q u e f a c ti o n proce ss takes up t o 20 m inutes.
While ramp up after a d ay at standby may take one hour [18]. Th e response time of the discharge

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
35
unit of the pilot plant o f fewer than 150 seconds was reported by Alyami and Williams [75] .
For comparison, CAES systems tak e 10-15 m inutes to start operat ion [ 76].
The discharge duration i s s o l e l y l i m i t e d b y t h e c h a r g e - t o - d i s c ha r g e r a t i o a n d t h e s t o rag e tank
size and m ay be adjuste d according to the aim ed applica tion of the storage. The charge-to-
dischar ge ratio of CES system s is usually an ticipa ted betwe en t w o a n d s e v e n [ 18, 31, 77].
Several minutes to days [7], and even longer discharge duration s e . g . s e a s o n a b l e s t o r a g e a r e
technically realizable. The standing losses of CES systems are r a t h e r l o w a n d a r e c o m p a r a b l e
to that of battery-bas ed ES technologies [18]. A discharge dura tion of multiple hours at daily
operat ion is m ost comm o nl y report ed [ 7, 11, 37]. Regarding the response tim e of the chargi ng
process (< 20 min [18] ), chargin g time should exceed 2-4 hours.

Figure 2.6: Comparison of weighted characteristic s of CES, CAES, and PHS [36] adopted fr om [68 ] ,
based on data extracted from literature (see Table A.1).
The roundtr ip efficie ncy o f s t a n d - a l o n e C E S i s r e p o r t e d t o r e a c h 4 0 - 5 0 % [ 3 7 , 3 8 ] . T h e specific
power output of the discharge un it can be increased by the reco very of waste heat e.g., from
industrial processe s [10, 16]. The RTE may reach values of up to 55 % with the integra tion of
waste heat [12]. The integr ation of “waste cold“ (low-tempe ratu re exergy) provided by e.g., re-
gasif ying LNG can als o in crease the RTE o f C E S s y s t e m s . T h e s i g n i f i c a n t r e d u c t i o n i n t h e
energy demand for liquefactio n process may increase the RTE of CES sy stems to 63 -70 %
according to [8, 62, 63]. The int egrat ion of CES sy stems with e xte rnal heat/c old sources is
discusse d i n sect ion 2.3 an d secti on 4. 4.
PHS has currently the highest installed ener gy storage capacity globally. As a mature
technology, the RTE s typically range from 70 to 85 % [33, 78, 79, 80 ]. The perform ance of
CAES syste ms depend on the respe ctive system configuration. CAE S syst ems i n opera tion
achieve RTE s of 40-54 % [33] and are e xpecte d to inc rease t o 60 % [76, 81] . Adiabat ic CAES
systems with heat storage as well as isotherm al small-scale CAE S sy stems are expected to reach
spe cific ener gy
[Wh/ kg]
energy densi ty
[kWh/ m³]
round-trip e fficienc y
[%]
lifesp an [ye ars] scale [MW]
specific investm ent
costs [€/kW]
technical maturity
(TRL )
CAES PHS CES

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
36
RTE s of 70 % and higher [33]. These efficiencies are only approach able for CES sy stems with
the integra tion of waste cold or a com bustion process.
Cryogens (liquid air and nitroge n) were com pared t o hydrogen as an energy carrier and storag e
media by Ding et al. [74]. The RTE s of both ES t echnologies w ere found comparable, while
CES was eval uated and regarde d to be more environm entall y frien dl y. A num ber of char ging
and discharging technologies are possible for hy drogen-based ES . F or the generati on of
hydrogen, water electrolysis is t he most common process, reachi ng e fficienci es o f up to 70 %.
The dis charge process e.g. fuel cells reaches an efficiency of 40-70 %. Hence, hydrogen-based
ES reach RTE s as low as 30- 50 % [7 4, 82] .
The RTE o f CES systems does not decrease during the lifecycle, unlike battery -based ES. Th e
lifetime of CES system component s is expecte d to be more than 25 years and up to 60 years
[29, 37, 38], which is m ultiple times higher than for the compo ne nts of batteri es or hydrogen-
base d ES system s (5-15 years [37] , < 30 ye ars [8 3, 84]) [29, 82 ] . In contrast to a limite d cycle
life of batteries, the cycle fre quency has little effect on CES syste m performanc e. The low-
temperature energy supp lied by the cold storage i s limited, whi ch is why the cold storage
perform ance limits the “depth of dis charge” of CES systems . The p erformance of industrial air
liquefaction plants strongly increase s with the size (installed capacity) [74] . Hence, the scale of
the CES system also dete rmines the achieva ble RTE [3].
Due to the low RTE , the specific investme nt cost of CES is of great importa nce to CES
applicability, section 2.5.1, in particular, due to the rather low RTE . The specific capital cost
(per kW o f in stalled capacity ) for CES syst ems r eported in the literature vary strongly, Figure
2.7. CES technologies sp ecific costs r educe with size, accordin g to the “economy of scale”,
Figure 2. 8. The specif ic costs of CES are expecte d to decrease by 24.2 % whe n the power
capacity is doubled [32]. The larg e variation in t he considered CES power capacity m ay justify
the larg e cost r ange r eporte d in the literature [3].

Figure 2.7: CES specific cost per kW installed capacity reported in literature (a: [85], b: [64], c: [33],
d: [72] , e: [1 6] , f : [18] , g: [1 5] , h: [8] , i: [3 2] , j : [38 ] and k : [3 7] ).
0 1000 200 0 300 0 4000
source k, year 2 009
source j, y ear 2 010
source i, y ear 2 012
source h, year 2 013
source g, year 2 013
sourc e f, year 201 4
sour ce e, year 2015
source d, year 2 015
sour ce c, year 2016
source b, year 2 018
sour ce a, year 2018
specific investm ent cost of CES, €
2017
/kW
inst

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
37
High c apital investment costs als o characterize competing techn ologies: Compressed air e nergy
storage has a capital cost p er k W installed of 500 €/kW to 2,20 0 €/kW [33] . The investment
cost for PHS can be lower, about 350 t o 1,500 €/kW [33], but m a y reach value s up to
4,300 €/kW [86] depending on the site. In the industrialized co untries, economically feasible
sites for PHS are widely diminished. The specific capital cost o f C E S s y s t e m s i s r e p o r t e d t o
reach 500-2,400 €/kW and be c ompara ble with CAES, PHS, and flow batteries [ 29]. When CES
technology reaches matu rity, costs are exp ecte d to dec rease fur ther [3] .
Hydrogen-based ES lower investment cost limit is approxim ately 2,000 €/kW, accounting
520 €/kW for hydrogen st orage in salt cavern s, 500 €/kW for the e l e c t r o l y z e r , a nd 920 €/kW or
1500 €/kW for polymer e lectrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMS) or solid oxide fuel cell
(SOFC), respectively. The specifi c investm ent cos ts of hydroge n are thus significantly high er
than that of CES, as well as other bulk en ergy storage technolo gies CAES, and PHS [87].

Figure 2.8: Capital expenditure (CAPEX), specific co sts (per unit of power and unit of energy stored)
over CES system capacity based on cost estim ations published by Highview Ltd. [ 88].

Anothe r base for the compariso n of ES technologies can be the s pecific cost of storage (per
kWh of installe d ener gy capacity). In partic ular, batter y-base d ES technologies are commonly
compared based on th e specific capital cost of storage . Yet, for grid-scale ES technologies, the
comparison based on th e cost pe r unit of installed energy ca pac ity can be misleading due to the
dissimilar specific cost of the st orage unit. Larg e-scale reser voirs necessary for PHS and CAES
make up for a significant share o f the ov erall investment costs , whereas, cryoge nic tanks have
low specific costs in comparison to other CES equipm ent. The v a lues r eported for PHS fo r
example range from 5- 100 €/kWh [37] , 250-430 €/kWh [ 86] or 10-2 0 €/kWh [83] according to
different sources , Table A .1.
The construction lead-time of CES projects is expected to be on ly one or two years, which is
vastly faster than for CAES and PHS projects (5-10 yea rs) [ 15, 76]. Fast comm issioning paired
with an extensive economic life (2 5-60 years [20, 29, 37, 38]) i s i n f a v o r o f C E S e c o n o m i c
perf ormanc e.
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
0
200
400
600
800
1000
50 100 150 200 250 300
capital expendi ture, Mio €
specific costs, € /kW or €/kWh
installed di schar ge capa city , MW
inst
specific power cost [€/kW] specific e nergy cost [€/kWh] CAPEX [Mio €]

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
38
The en vironmental impact of ES technologies is as well regarded as an important decisio n
criterion. The m ajor n egative im pacts of ES technologies are, e .g. the occupation of large areas
for PHS [37 ], the use of scarce and toxic chemical materials in batteries [72 ], th e air p ollution
b y e x h a u s t g a s e s o f d i a b a t i c C A E S. In adiabatic CES systems, no chemical reactions take place.
T h u s , C E S i s o f t e n c l a s s i f i e d a s “low-carbon” or environmentall y friendly technology [45]. The
recovery of energy that else wou ld h ave been vented to the envi ronment as well as the gas
cleaning process in CES systems can be vi ewed as a positive env ironm ental impact [7 4].
The site-independe nt installation of the system s frees CES proj ects of geological risks that
o c c u r i n P H S a n d C A E S p r o j e c t s . A l s o , t h e h i g h - p r e s s u r e s t o r a g e of hydrogen im poses
potentia l safety hazard s [45] . High-pressure CAES systems in cavities face challenges, e .g.,
uplift failure [89] or gas enric hment and i gnition of resi dual hydrocarbons [90]. The storage of
cryogens implies fewer safety issues. CES i mplies common health h azards alike in cryogenic
ASUs or power plants, which may b e avoi ded by protective measur es, e.g., clothing and
equipm ent [18, 9 1].

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
39
2.5. Potential application and economic benefit
2.5.1. Applications suitable for CES systems
E n e r g y s t o r a g e s y s t e m s a r e c a p a b l e o f s u p p l y i n g b o t h p o s i t i v e ( supply -side) and negat ive
(consumption-sid e) control power to the grid. Therefore, ES tec hnologies h ave a broad range
of applications. ES applications can b e classified according to multi ple criteria. In Figur e 2.9
the classification according to th e capacity and discharg e du ra tion of E S systems is given. Three
types of applications can be differentiated: uninterruptible power supply (UPS) , grid support ,
and energy management applications .
 To provide power quality a pplications or UPS , the ES sys tem ne eds to be capab le
to supply one-fourth of its power capacity ( less than 1 MW) wit hin m illiseconds.
 To e nsure grid support , which i s also r eferred to as bridging power or ride-through
capability , the rated power is required to exceed 100 k W and the response time of
the storage system may be up to one second.
 For energy management applicatio n a slower res ponse of severa l minut es is
acceptable but capacities above 100 MW are necessary [ 3, 72].
D u e t o t h e s l o w s t a r t - u p t i m e , C E S s y s t e m s a r e n o t s u i t a b l e t o supply UPS o r ride-t hrou gh
capability applications. Energy management is, therefore, the only ca tegory o f applications,
which is suitable for CES systems [7, 37] .

Figure 2.9: Discharge period and pow er rating of va rious energy storage applications [3] based on
[72, 92, 93, 9 4].
Renewables forecast
/ hedging
Ti m e s h i f t
hours minutes seconds
power rating, [ MW]
0.1 1 10 100 1000 0.01
Energy Managem ent Grid support UPS
V oltage Support
Power qual ity
UPS
Frequency control
V oltage support
T ransmission s tability
Peak shaving
Primar y reser ve
Secondary reserve
Blacksta rt
Load levelling/f ollowing
Load f actor incre ase
Capacity deferral
Bulk ener gy trading
Arbritrage
Frequency excursion
suppression
Angular stability
V oltage st ability
Fluctuation suppression
Short duration power
quality
Dischar ge duration

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
40
The chara cteristics of the selected ES applications suita ble fo r CES are given in Table A .2
through Table A.5 in Appendix A. Bulk e nergy applic ations , selected ancillary services ,
transmission and dist ribution support as well as facilitating the integrati on of renew able ener gy
(RE) sources are among the energy m anagement applications relevant for CES.
Bulk e nergy appli cation r e f e r s t o t h e a p p l i c a t i o n s t h a t m a k e u s e o f t h e e l e c t r i c i t y p r ice
difference (trading) by electrici ty time shifting b etween the low-pri ced electr icity charg ed and
the discharge during high -price hours [95]. Both peak shaving and energy arbitrage a r e b u l k
energy applications su itable for the response time of CES sy ste ms (> 100 seconds). Peak
shaving is commonly instal led at the consumer end, whe reas , energy arbi trage ra ther takes
place at the supply side . The principle of energy arbit rage application is char acterized by the
economic benefit of electricity time shifting [3]. The main goa l of peak shaving is to supply
energy during peak load hours by leveling out the typical fluct uati on o f the demand curve [78] .
Peak shaving thereby does not h av e a primary economic target bu t improves the outlay of the
overall power system by red ucing t he requi red n omina l insta lled capacity [92] .
Ancillary services, also referred to as “grid operat ional support”, enable the m ai nte nance of the
power reliability and quality by facilitati ng the sm ooth operat ion of the power grid as well as
reducing efficiency lo sses [93]. CES has the potential to suppl y; reserve generating capacity,
load follo wing, tertia ry frequency regulation, and black start [3].
The presence of reserve generating capacity in the power system is indispensab le to
compensate for sudden changes in t he load curve or loss of oper ating generators. Reserve
generating capacity accounts as instal led capac ity but i s not u sed in norm al oper ation [ 92]. For
reserve generat ing capacit y; “spinni ng” reserves – imm ediately accessible, and “ non-spinning”
reserves – a vailable within 10-30 minutes [96] are differentiat ed. Only the non-s pinni ng reserve
application is suitable for CES systems. For non-spinning reser ve application, the CES systems
must enable discharge periods larger than one hour in order to bridge the power generatio n until
the nominal output is reinitiated, e.g. ,by the bac kup power sy stem [3, 92].
Load following assists in the maintenanc e of t he real-time balance b etween el ectricity supply
and dem and, also called regu lat io n cont rol . Preventing a s upply-demand mism atch at all times
brings along noteworthy technical and economic benefits [93] . T he c apability of load follow
was a key f indin g of t he first i ntegrat ed CES pil ot pl ant [1 6].
The frequenc y of the power grid is required to be continua lly p reserved within th e tolerated
l i m i t ( e . g . , 0 . 1 H z o r 0 . 2 H z , N o r t h o r M i d d l e E u r o p e [ 9 2 ] ) . E S systems can operate as frequency
regulators by amending a n y d e v i a t i o n a n d k e e p the freque ncy wit hin the regulatory rang e of
operation [71] . CES is appropriat e for tertiary frequenc y contr o l a p p l i c a t i o n [ 3 ] , w h i c h i s
manual ly cont rolle d by the system operator within 15 minutes (o r hours) subseq uent to a
frequenc y di sr uptive incident [71, 92].
When po wer is injected to a power system that suffere d a blacko ut, it is referred to as black
start capa city . Black start capacity facilitate s the start-up o f l arge pow er plants or re-energizes
the distribution lines [96]. CES response time and capacity ran ge are suita ble to pro vide this
applicatio n, yet the storage unit is require d to be capable to start operation autonomously.
During the discharge process of CES systems, pumping power is r equired before electricity can
be discharge d. To provide black start capacity, CES systems nee d to be ext ended , e.g., with
batter y stora ge [3, 92].

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
41
The integra tion of hi ghly fluc tuati ng RE gener ation to the grid is associated with technical
issues such as frequency and vo ltage irregularities [1]. The su c cessful integration of inte rmittent
electricity generation from RE s ources embodies the g reatest po tentia l of ES s ystems [95]. The
application of ES in fir ming, shifting, and smoothi ng the elect ricity generation fro m RE sou rces
may enable a higher shar e of RE generator s in the power syste m without endangering the supply
security [96]. Renewabl e ener gy capacity fir ming applicat ion, i n essence, aims to smooth both
the voltage and the power output of RE generators. This increas es the capacity credit of the
overall power system, which allows a higher penetratio n of RE g enerators and avoids the cost
of additional backup power [92, 95]. [3]
The dela y and at times entire avoidance of investment in upgrad es of the transm ission and
distribu tion sy stem is referred to as transmission and distri bution (T&D) support [97]. Such
upgrades include, e.g ., congestion relief, infrastructural upgr ades, and avoided load-shedding
due to access generation that ca nnot be incorporated by the inf rastruct ure of the T&D system
[3, 93].
To ensure a secu re and re liabl e power syste m op eration, congestion management i s o f g r e a t
impor tance [71]. T&D capacity extens ions are widely unable to k eep p ace with the r apid
increase in peak dem and. By eith er lowering the peak dem and or excess electricity gen eration,
ES systems facilitate the reduction, postponing or even waiving of congestion-related costs,
e.g., additional tran smission capacity ( transmission curtailment or upgrade deferral ) [96, 97].
Moreover, this application preve nts congested transmission line s and substati ons and avoids
the undesirable shut down of ex cess RE gener ation [78]. I n congestion management application,
the ES unit is required to enabl e a disc harge duration of m ulti ple hours. CAES h as been
identified to be compatib le with congestion management application. CES is expected to be
suitable as well, as the systems operate very sim ilarly [3, 78] .
The objective of load shifting ap plicati on is the avoida nce o f a number of technical operation
problem s of the T&D system that occur in case of a demand-suppl y mism atch and entail
economic drawbacks [1]. In operation, this applicatio n is v ery sim ilar to peak s having , energy
arbitrage, and renewable time shift . The key difference is that the serv ices are provi ded to
differe nt stakeholders. Thus, the econom ic value of sim ilar app lications vary, and must be
distinguished [3].

2.5.2. Economic benefits and value propositions
The applications that CES may pot entially supply h ave diverse m one tary com pensat ions. The
moneta ry compensa tion for providing a specific service is refer red to as “benefit” or “value
proposition”. The benefit of a p articular application is either d ete rmine d by the market rate
(e.g., ancillary service or elect ricity market clearing price) or the cost of the alter native solution
(e.g., grid extension). The econo mic benefits presented in this section are based on the US (and
Canada ) market due to t he availa bilit y of da ta [3].
In Figure 2.10, the potential “life cycle” value propositions o f multiple applic ations is shown
with the c orresponding discharge d uration. The life cycle value proposition of th e services that
a specific ES system can provide is the key driver for investm e nt in the technology, system or
project [97]. The applica tions within the dischar ge time range of CES (2-6 hours) enable the
highest potential e conomic benefit.

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
42
The specific value proposition (in €/kW) o f the applications su itable for CES are given in Table
A.7 in Appendix A [3]. The poten t i a l v a l u e a n d t h e v a l u e p r o p o s itions are calculated over an
ES l ifetime of 10 ye ars. V arious services are tr aded in markets and are acknowledged as
products, whereas the monetary val ue of other applications is h arder to assess. Therefore, the
value propositions in th e literature vary [98], Table A.7. The larg est un certainty in the value
proposition is associated with t ransmission curtailment and dis tribution upgrade deferral.
Reason for this is that the monetary value of the application i s determine d by the avoided
investment and may reach values of up to 1000 €/kW. Reserve cap acity reaches a rather low
value proposition of less t han 200 €/kW. RE integration (time s hift and capacity firm ing), as
well as peak shaving and energy a rbitrage, are more consistent and econom ically viable
applications for CES.

Figure 2.10: “Life cycle” value proposition of ES a pplications for various di scharge durations [3 ]
adapted from [99 ] based on [97 ] .

T h e i n v e s t m e n t i n a n E S s y s t e m i s o n l y f a v o r a b l e i f t h e v a l u e p roposition o f the potential
applications excee ds the cost as sociated with the ES system by a sign ificant margin. In o rder to
maxim ize the market value o f an ES technology, a number of serv ices that can be provided
simultaneously or successively are to be identified. The aim of i ncreasing the value proposition

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
43
of an ES by bundling multiple app lications is referred to as “b enefit aggregation” or “value
stacking” [100, 101].
The compatibility of different E S applicati ons is shown in Figu re A.2 in Appendix A. CES
potent iall y low spec ific cost per unit of ener gy and high energ y density make the technology
most sui table f or en ergy applications. Frequent energy applications, e.g., supply capacity, RE
time shift or energy arbitra ge, as well as infrequent energy applications such as T&D support,
are easily coupled with other app lications. For stacking b enefi ts, the main application is referred
to as the “anchor service” (or “anchor application”). The prima ry service should have a value
proposition at least as high as 25-50 % of the co sts associated with the ES [102 ]. Poten tial
anchor and secondary s ervices suitable for CES are shown in Fig ure 2. 11 [3] .
When an ES supplies a specific se rvice, e.g., with p ositive rea ctive power, for an extende d
amount o f time, not sufficien t ES capacity is available for fur ther discharge to supply another
application. ES applicati ons tha t require unlimited availabilit y o f t h e s t o r a g e c a p a c i t y f o r
sudden d ischarge, e.g., spinnin g reserve and black start, are, therefore, hard to combine with
other applications. While a numb er of other services can easily be provided simultaneously. To
evaluate the compatibility of di fferent ES applications energy system modeling is necessary to
account for the time series and st ate of charge required for different applications [3]. Moreover,
the combina tion of pote ntially appr opriate applica tions is requ ired to be mode led to i dentif y th e
stacked value pr oposition [103].

Figure 2.11: Potential primary (“anchor”) and secondary service s of CES [3] based on reviewed
literature [37, 72, 78, 84, 9 2, 93, 102, 103, 104, 105]

The value propositions (Table A. 7) are not additive. The aggreg ation of benefits is difficult as
there is not su fficient exp erience with value stacking [3] . There are various reasons for bene fit
aggregation not being com mon practice: technical a nd ope ratio nal c onflicts , the la ck of
engineeri ng standa rds and regulatory fram ework, unproven and ne w technology, weak or
missing price signals , and m ultiple stakehol ders t hat m ust to b e coordinated [ 3, 97].
Disregarding the still unfavorable market s ituation, potential value ranges for stacked value
propositions of selected ES app lications are approximated and s hown in Figure 2.12 based on
Primary (anchor) service
Load following
T&D upgrade defer ral
RE ti m e shift
RE cap acity f irm ing
RE capacity firm ing
Electric energy tim e shift
Electric supply capacity
Electr ic supply reserve capaci ty
Electric supply capacity
RE capacity firm ing
Electr ic supply reserve capaci ty
RE tim e shift
Secondary serv ice

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
44
Table A.7 in the Appendix A. To d etermine the exact stacked val ue p roposition an energy
system model is necessary [103]. A s compatible app lications hav e nearly additive stacked
value, Figure 2.12 show s the additive value propositions for se lected C ES app lication s.
With the exception of renewable energy time shifting applicatio n co mbin ed with eith er p eak
shavin g or ene rgy arbit rage, t he additive v alue of the value pr opositions of most o f th e poten tial
anchor a nd secondary s ervices for CES syste ms are higher than 1 ,000 € /kW reac hi ng va lues o f
up to 1,600 €/kW.

Figure 2.12: Value proposition for stacked benefits suitable fo r CES based on data presented in
reviewed literature [97, 106, 107, 108, 109]
The application-specific value propositions indicate that CES c osts should be lower than the
potential stacked value proposi tion. When reducing CES costs be low th e equivalent of
1,000 €/kW (10 years), C ES could cove r i ts investm ent by provid ing the proposed services. The
limiting factors to C ES economic v iability is thus, not only th e comparatively low RTE a n d th e
long response time but also the relat ively h igh specific co sts.

0 200 400 600 800 100 0 1200 1 400 160 0 1800
Loa d follow +
Renewable capaci t y firmi n g
T & D up g r ad e de fe rr al +
E n e r gy a rb i t ra ge
T & D up g r ad e de fe rr al +
Pea k s hav i ng
R e ne wa bl e time sh ift +
Ene r gy arbitrage
R e ne wa bl e time sh ift +
Pe a k s hav i ng
Renewable capaci t y firmi n g +
Pe a k s ha v i ng
Renewable capaci t y firmi n g +
RE t i m e s h i f t
stacked value propositio n, €/k W
Load fo ll ow +
Ren ewable cap acit y fi rming
T&D upgrade deferral +
Ener gy arbitrage
T&D upgrade deferral +
Peak shaving
Renewable tim e shift +
Ener gy arbitrage
Renewable tim e shift +
Peak shaving
Renewable capacity firming +
Peak shaving
Renewable capacity firming +
RE tim e shift

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
45
2.6. Summary of the literature review
Cryogenic energy storage is a th ermal bulk-electricity storage technology that has attracted
great inte rest in r es earch and app lication sin ce the in stallati on of the fi rst int e grated pilo t-scale
plant in 2011. CES is composed o f mature components with well-k nown applicatio n in power
genera tion, indus trial g ases, and LNG value chain. Thus rapid commercialization of CES is
expected.
The thermodynamic performance of CES systems has been subj ect t o m any publicat ions in the
past three years; an optimal CES system configuration could not be derived. The charg ing
process of CES is an inverse ther modynam ic cycle in which a gas , e.g., air, is liquefied. A
number of air liquefaction processes are in comme rcial operation, and different liquefaction
processes have b een considered for implem entation in CES system s. Despite, the co ld storage
bei ng the ke y com pone nt of the c harging system, the impact of c old storag e integ ration on the
selectio n and perform ance of the liquefacti on pr ocess has not b een subject to tho rough a nalysis.
The cold storage design and in particular safe and low-co s t s t o r a g e m a t e r i a l t h a t a l l o ws high
energy recovery i s subject to sev eral research pr ojects, especi ally in jo int research with industry .
For the overall system, only the low-temperature exergy recover ed, and the costs of the cold
storag e are of relev ance. For the discharge process , thus far, only the di rect expansion method
– a liquid air Rankine cycle has been considered for CES system s in literature and application.
Alternatives of using a secondary working fluid or combined methods are possible, similar to
the low-temperature exergy rec overy from re-gasifying LNG.
The integration of external he at sour ces and sink s (e.g., industrial w aste heat, low-tem perature
exergy from re-gasifying LNG or combustion) into CES sy stems wa s frequently suggested, but
no comparat ive analysis quantif y ing and comparing the effect on CES thermodynam ic and
economic perform ance was presented.
Due to its high power ratings and energy capacities (> 100 MW/1 0 GWh), CES is suita ble for
energy managem ent applications a nd prima rily competes with comp r e s s e d a i r e n e r g y s t o r a g e
(CAES), pumped hydro storage (PHS ) and hydrogen-based ES. CES m ost significant
advantage s are its hi gh volumetri c energy density, site-free st orage, low s torage losses, and long
lifetime. The specific investment costs of CES are comparable w ith PHS and CAES (500 –
2,400 €/kW) but are h igh c oncerning the rather low RTE of only 40-60 %. The slow response
time of CES limits its application to energy arbitrage and peak shaving, selected ancillary and
T&D support services. A single app lication cannot cover CES pro jected investment costs.
Providing the p roposed combined applications, e.g., load follow a n d R E c a p a c i t y f i r m i n g o r
T&D upgrade deferral and peak sh aving, a revenue o f up to 1,600 €/kW can b e retur ned ov er
10 years.

Chapt er 2 : State of t he ar t
46

Chapte r 3: Met hodolog y
47

Chapter 3: Methodology
This section aims to introduce the methods applied to achie ve t he objectives presented in
Chapter 1 . Different CES system config urati ons have been evaluate d and e nhanced in the
present work. The design and sim ulation of the anal yzed system s a r e d i s c u s s e d i n Cha pter 4 .
The methods applied for evaluati on are energetic and exergetic analysis, economic analysis,
exergoeconomic analysis, and optim ization.

3.1. Energetic analysis
For energetic analysis, the princi ple of energy and mass conservation is applied. For an open
system (control-volume), the global mass and energy balance are given in equati on (3.1) and
(3.2). Only stati onary processes are evaluate d, and the changes in kinetic and potential energy
of the s ystem are neglec ted.
𝑚
󰇗

,  𝑚
󰇗

, (3.1)
0𝑄
󰇗

𝑊
󰇗

 𝑚
󰇗

, ∙ℎ ,  𝑚
󰇗

, ∙ℎ  , (3.2)
The net rate of energy transporte d by mass (enthalpy flowrates) over the sy stem boundaries is
equivale nt to the net rate at which energy is transferre d by he at trans fer 𝑄 󰇗 and by power 𝑊 󰇗
[110] . For the air li quefacti on process in CES system s, the liq ui d yield 𝛾 is a measure of
perform ance [48] . The liqui d yiel d refers to the ratio of the mass flow that is liquefied
𝑚 󰇗   relative to the mass flow enter ing the high-pressure compresso r in the liquefaction
unit 𝑚 󰇗  .
𝑚
󰇗

 𝑚
󰇗

 
󰆄

󰆈

󰆈

󰆅

󰆈

󰆈

󰆆

∙  󰇗  𝑚
󰇗

 
󰆄

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆅

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆆

󰇛 󰇜∙ 󰇗 
(3.3)
𝛾 𝑚
󰇗

 
𝑚
󰇗

 (3.4)
The overall performa nce of an energ y conversion sys tem is defin ed by the ratio of the positive
effect (in terms o f energy, 𝑊 󰇗 o r 𝑄 󰇗 ) over the driving energy. For s im ple electricity storage, both
the positive effect and the drivi ng energy are electricity. In more compl ex ES conf igurat ions,
the supplied f uel or t hermal ene rgy needs to be accounted as pa rt of the driving energy. In Table
B.1 in Appendix B, the energetic efficiencies are defined for t h e d i f f e r e n t C E S s y s t e m s
evalua ted i n t his work.

Chapte r 3: Met hodolog y
48
The overall perform ance of an ener gy (electrici ty) stora ge syst em can be evaluated with its
roundtrip efficiency ( RT E) . The RTE i s d e f i n e d a s t h e r a t i o b e t w e e n t h e e l e c t r i c i t y c h a r g e d t o
the system and the electricity dischar ged by the s ystem :
𝑅𝑇𝐸  𝑊
󰇗


𝑊
󰇗

 ∙ 𝜏  𝜏 
 (3.5)
The charging duration 𝜏  and the discharge duration 𝜏  need to be accounted for a s the
charge -to-di sc harge ratio ( 𝜏  𝜏 
 ) may be unequal to one.

3.2. Exergetic analysis
Exergy is a measurem ent for the quanti ty and quality o r “true ther mod ynamic value” of energy
[111, 112] . Exergy is de fined as the m axim um useful work t hat w ould theoreticall y be obtained
when a given thermodynam ic syste m would be b rought into complet e thermodynamic
equilibrium with the environm ent wi th sole inte raction w ith the environment [113]. Maxim um
theoretical useful work is, for example, shaf t work or electric al work, w hile the heat has a lower
exergy content. When comparing s ystems operating at different t emperatures and integrating
different energy sources (e.g., fu el, heat or low-temperature e nergy), exergy is of greater
economic value as well as the best ground for analysis, optim iz atio n, and com parison of energy
conversion systems [112].
The total exergy of a system consists of four components when m agnetic, nuclear, surface
tension, and electrical effects are absent or negligible. The o verall exergy of a system 𝐸  can
be describe d as the sum of the chemical exer gy 𝐸  , the physical exergy 𝐸 
 , the potential
exergy 𝐸  , and the kinetic exergy 𝐸  .
𝐸  𝐸  𝐸 
 𝐸  𝐸  (3.6)
The specif ic exer gy on a mass ba sis is expressed with a lower c ase 𝑒 :
𝑒  𝐸  𝑚 
⁄ 𝑒  𝑒 
 𝑒  𝑒  (3.7)
The assumption of the system bei ng at rest in relation to the e nvironment ( 𝑒  𝑒  0 ) is
applicable for many engi neering appl ications [112] . In this wor k, the change s in kinetic and
potential exergy are not consi dered.
The physical exergy of a system o r stream is defined by t he sys tems deviation to the restricted
dead s tate , when the temperat ure and pressure are equival ent to those of the environment
( 𝑇 𝑇  , 𝑝  𝑝  ). At a given state 𝑗 , the specific physical exerg y can be expr essed by:
𝑒    ℎ  ℎ  𝑇  ∙ 𝑠  𝑠   (3.8)
Where ℎ , 𝑇 , and 𝑠 denote, respectively, the ent halpy, temperatu re and entropy of t h e s y s t e m .
The subs cript 0 denotes the prop ertie s when the system is at the restricted de ad state [112] .
The physical exergy of a materi al stream can further be split i nto the thermal exergy 𝑒  (its
temperature related part) and the mechanical exergy 𝑒  (its pressure relate d part) [112] :

Chapte r 3: Met hodolog y
49
𝑒     ℎ  ℎ , 𝑇  ∙ 𝑠  𝑠 ,     
󰆄

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆅

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆆

 
  ℎ , ℎ  𝑇  ∙ 𝑠 ,  𝑠      
󰆄

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆅

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆈

󰆆

 
(3.9)
Thermal and mechanical exergie s are calculated through consider ation of an a dditi onal stream
at state 𝐴 . State 𝐴 has the same pressure as the 𝑗 -th material stream but ambient temperature
𝑇  [114]. A s systems analy zed in this work partially operate below ( o r c r o s s i n g ) t h e t e m p e r a t u r e
of the environm ent, a distinctio n between pressure relat ed and temperature related physical
exergy becomes valuable.
The chemical exergy is defined b y the deviation of the che mical compositi on of the material
stream or system from that of th e thermodynam ic environment [11 3]. In other words, the
chemical e xergy is t he maxim um useful work that can be obta ined w h e n a s y s t e m t h a t i s a l r e a d y
a t t h e r m a l e q u i l i b r i u m ( 𝑇 𝑇  , 𝑝  𝑝  ) is brought into chemical equilibrium with the
environm ent [111] . The chem ical com positi on of the the rm odynami c envi ronment nee ds to be
define d (exergy- refer ence e nviro nment ) [112] . The chem ical exe r gies in this wor k are based o n
Szargut’s standard model for chemical exergies [115] .
The exer getic anal ysis appl ied in t his wor k is based on Beja n e t al. [112] and fo llows the “fuel
and product” approach. Exergetic analysis aims to identify the cause, the magnitude and the
location of thermodynamic ineffici encies in a thermodynamic sys tem [111] . In cont rast to
ener gy analys is, exe rgy is not conserved but c an be dest royed [ 112] . Exergy destruction refers
to the true thermodynamic ineffi ci ency that occu rs within a sy s tem due to i rrevers ibili ties [111].
Under steady-state condition ( 𝑑𝐸  𝑑𝑡
⁄ = 0), the exer gy balance f or a controlle d volum e (o pen
syst em) is exp ressed as:
0 𝐸
󰇗

,  𝑊
󰇗

  𝑚
󰇗

 ∙𝑒   𝑚
󰇗

 ∙𝑒  𝐸
󰇗

 (3.10)
The rate a t whic h exergy is des troye d in the s ystem (or contr ol led vo lume) 𝐸 󰇗  d u e t o
irreversibilities is the dif ference between the rate at which e xergy is transf erred into and the rate
at which exergy is trans ferred out of the system. Exer gy can be transferred over the system
boundaries by matter, heat 𝐸 󰇗 ,  o r w o r k 𝑊 󰇗  (oth er than flow work ) [112]. The exergy
associated with heat transfer is given by
𝐸
󰇗

,   󰇛 1𝑇  𝑇 
⁄󰇜
∙𝑄
󰇗

 (3.11)
The temperature 𝑇  is the thermo dynamic average temperature at w h i c h t h e h e a t i s supplied.
The exergy tr ansfer rate associ ated with the heat tran sfer ( 𝐸 󰇗 , 𝑄 󰇗 
⁄ ) is displayed as a function
of the temperat ure dif ferenc e 𝑇  𝑇  i n Figu re 3 .1.
At the same temperature differe nce to am bient tem perature | 𝑇  𝑇  | , the exergy transfer rate
associat ed w ith th e h eat tran sfer ( 𝐸 󰇗 , 𝑄 󰇗 
⁄ ) is higher at a therm odynamic m ean temperature
below the environmental temperature ( 𝑇  𝑇  ) than above the environm ent ( 𝑇  𝑇  ) . Hence,
the exergy conten t of thermal en ergy stored below the ambient t em perature is higher t han above
the environmental tem perature at the same ∆𝑇 .

Chapte r 3: Met hodolog y
50

Figure 3.1: The exergy transfer rate a ssociated with the heat transfer ( 𝐸 󰇗 , 𝑄 󰇗 
⁄ ) over the temperature
difference 𝑇  𝑇  , based on [112 ] ad opted from [39 ]

The thermodynamic performance of a n y g i v e n e n e r g y conversion sy stem or system component
can be evaluated with the exe rgetic efficien cy 𝜀 . Th e d efinit ion o f th e exergetic efficien cy 𝜀
necessitates the def inition of the fuel (expended resources) and the product (the desi red eff ect)
of the r especti ve system (or c ompone nt) expr essed in term s of e xergy [112].
𝜀 𝐸
󰇗


𝐸
󰇗

 (3.12)
The overall performance of the CES system is evaluated with the RTE , the en ergetic
efficiency 𝜂 a n d t h e e x e r g e t i c e f f i c i e n c y 𝜀 , in ord er to assess v alues given for the CE S efficien cy
in the literatur e. The definiti on of 𝜀  of the analyzed system s are given in Table B.1. The
definitions for the exergetic effi ciency on the comp onen t level can be derived fro m Table B.3 .
The summ ation of the exergy destr ucti on 𝐸 󰇗  , the exergy o f the product 𝐸 󰇗  and the exe rg y loss
𝐸 󰇗  am ou n t t o t he e x ergy o f fuel 𝐸 󰇗  of the system. The definition o f fuel and p roduct is further
discusse d in section 3.4 and definiti ons on th e c om ponent level are given in Table B.2 to Table
B.3 i n Appe ndix B.
𝐸
󰇗

 𝐸
󰇗

 𝐸
󰇗

 𝐸
󰇗

 (3.13)
The exergy loss 𝐸 󰇗  refers to the exergy transfer t o the environment [111, 112]. F or exerge tic
analysis on the component leve l, the com ponent boundaries are s et to environm ental conditio ns,
the exergy loss 𝐸 󰇗 , o f t h e 𝑘 -th component thus amounts to ze ro. To identify the components
with g reater s ignifi cance to the ov erall sy stem e nhan cement, th e exergy destruction ratio 𝛾 , 
and the exergy d es truction rate 𝛾 , 
∗ can be c alculat ed.
𝛾 ,   𝐸
󰇗

, 
𝐸
󰇗

,   (3.14)
𝛾 , 
∗  𝐸
󰇗

, 
𝐸
󰇗

,    (3.15)
0
1
2
3
-200 -100 0 100 20 0 300
𝐸 󰇗
,
𝑄 󰇗

⁄ 𝐸 󰇗
,
𝑄 󰇗

⁄
Exe r gy tr ansfe r rate 𝐸 󰇗
,
𝑄 󰇗

⁄ , -
T emperatu r e differ ence 𝑇

𝑇

, K

Chapte r 3: Met hodolog y
51
3.3. Economic analysis
The economic analysis of an energ y conversion system in the d es ign phase serves three main
purposes: the evaluation and im provement of the overall project profitability , the evaluation of
various desi gn opt ions and the optimization of the system param eters [116] .
The economic analysis p resented in this wor k was performed acco rding to the Total Revenue
Requirement (TRR) m ethod [111, 112 ]. The TRR met hod originated from procedures adopted
b y t h e E l e c t r i c P o w e r R e s e a r c h I n s t i t u t e [ 1 1 7 ] . F o r t h e c o s t e v aluat ion and optimizati on of an
energy conversion system the lev elized annual values for the ca pital e xpenditures, the f uel costs
and the operati on and m aintena nce need to be c ompute d and com pa red.
The TRR m ethod consists of three main steps:
 the estim ation of t he tot al capita l investm ent (se ction 3.3.1),
 the determination of p arameters necessary for the detailed cost calcu lation
(sectio n 3.3. 2),
 the calculat ion of the tot al revenue required and the levelize d cost of the final product
(sectio n 3.3. 3).
An additional step i s necessary to provide the input value to e xergoeconom ic analysis, the
calculation of the component cost rates (section 3 .3.5). In ord er to evaluate and compare the
results gained in econom ic analys is, the param eters set i n sect ion 3. 3.3 are var ied i n se nsiti vity
analys is to determ ine the cos t range of the le velized co st of t he final product (section 3.3.4).

3.3.1. Cost estimation
F o r t h e e s t i m a t i o n o f t h e t o t a l c a p i t a l i n v e s t m e n t , t h e s y s t e m design, parameters, and
components need to be known first. W ith the help o f the system design parameters, the bare
module costs ( BMC) of the compon ents can be es timated.
Estimation of bare module costs c an be base d on the foll owing o ptions: vendors quotations,
past purchase orders, c ost estim ating charts, or cost estimatin g equations. The optimal estim ate
of BMC can be acquired through quotations from vendors [111, 11 2]. As cryogenics-based
energy storage is composed o f ma ture components with w ell-known industrial-scale
applications in the LNG, industri a l g a s a n d p o w e r s e c t o r [ 1 5 , 1 6, 17, 18] , several sources can
be accessed for estimation of the BMC [2] . Cost estimati ng char t s f o r p r o c e s s a n d c h e m i c a l
engineering such as [118, 119], c ost estimating equations and c apital cost corre latio ns [39, 112,
116], as well as past purchase orders for CES [14, 32, 120], we re considered.
Potential supply cha ins for CES key components were evaluated i n [8]. Despite being based on
mature and commercially availabl e technology [15] li mits to the scale of single components
were identifie d [18]. Key components for CES sys tems of up to 1 00 MW are available from
power and process industry supply chains [16]. Consequently, th e base case system size was
kept to 100 MW dis . The scale was an important fact or for deciding the method of BMC
estimation fo r each component ty pe. When available, preference was given to past purchase
orders.

Chapte r 3: Met hodolog y
52
In o rder to estimate th e component co sts based on the known cos ts of a similar com ponent of
d i f f e r e n t s i z e [ 1 1 2 ] , t h e e f f e c t of size of equipment on costs can be accounted f or with the
following equation
𝐶  , 𝐶  , ∙  X 
X    (3.16)
where 𝐶  , is the known cost of the equipment of the size 𝑋  e x t r a c t e d f r o m l i t e r a t u r e a n d
𝐶  , is the desired BMC at the respective size 𝑋  . The equipment “size” 𝑋 i s thereby a
prim ary design variable depe ndent on the equipm ent type. For he at exchangers, the primary
design v ariable i s th e heat exchang er area 𝐴  i n m ² , w h i l e f o r t u r b o m a c h i n e r y i t i s t y p i c a l l y
the power capacity 𝑊 󰇗  in kW [118].
The scaling factor 𝛼 , is also dependent on the size and type of the equipment. For very sma ll
sized equipm ent 𝛼 is close to zero while at large scale when transport and assem bly of the
compon ent b ecome very cost ly, th e scaling factor 𝛼 approaches one [111]. As for equipment
types, the B MC of heat exchange rs increases rather linearly ( 𝛼 ≈ 0 . 1 6 … 0 . 6 6 ) w h i l e
turbomachinery (e.g ., compressors, turbines) follow the economy -of-scale ( 𝛼 ≈ 0.60…0.95)
[112] . The average value for 𝛼 across the chemical industry is about 0.6 [121] , which implies a
cost reduction o f 24.2 % at twice the size. The same value was rec ommende d to be used in the
absence of other values for 𝛼 [112] and was used by Highvie w Power Storage Ltd. [32] for
estimating the com pon ent c osts for t he demo nstratio n plant.
In cost estimating charts pu rchased -equipmen t base costs are ty pically p lotted versus the
equipment size on a graph that us es logarithmic scales on both axes (log-log plot) [111, 118,
119] and is based on equations si milar to equati on (3 .16) . Ap ar t f r o m t h e s c a l e , t h e p r e s s u r e
and temperature ranges were also t a k e n i n t o a c c o u n t , w i t h t h e c hoice of the material (e.g.,
stainless steel or aluminum) and equipment type ( e.g., cryogeni c pump, fin plate heat
exchangers) .
For consiste nt com parabilit y of the econom ic analysis, cost fun cti ons were develo ped to
estimate the BMC of the compone nts in t he evalua ted CES system s . The cost functions, design
variab les, assum ptions, and references are given for the most i m portant component types in
Table 3.1. The detailed information on t he com ponent design, range of operation, construction
material, potential s upply chain, and lim ita tions considered f o r the cost est imation a re give n in
detail i n Ap pendix B.
The reference cost data is extracted from a variety of sources w i t h d i f f e r e n t r e f e r e n c e y e a r s a n d
currencies. By using cost indice s, the data can be b rought to a comm on bas is wit h the fol lowi ng
equation.
𝐶  , 𝐶  , ∙ Index 
Index  (3.17)
The Chemical Engineeri ng Plant Cost Index CEPCI was used, being particularly suitable for
the type of equipment incorporate d in CES systems [116]. The Ch emical Engineering Magazine
regularly publishes the annual and monthly cost index [111]. Th e c o s t s i n t h i s w o r k a r e g i v e n
in € and are adjuste d to the CEPCI of the year 2017. T he histor ical d evelopmen t o f the C EPCI
is shown in Figure B.2 in Appendi x B. The conversion rates used for the conversion o f the
currencies a re gi ven i n Figure B. 3 in A ppendi x B.

Chapte r 3: Met hodolog y
53

Table 3.1: Cost functions devel oped for t he estimation of the B MC of the CES system components.
Compon ent Desi gn variabl e C ost func tion
󰇟 ′000 €  󰇠
Assumpti ons Adopted
from
Compressors ca pacity , 𝑊
󰇗

 󰇟M
W

󰇠 795 ∙ 󰇧 𝑊
󰇗


8 𝑀𝑊 󰇨 .
Centri fugal [32],
[119]
Expand er capacity , 𝑊
󰇗

 󰇟M
W

󰇠
𝑓

 ∙ 1,795 ∙ 󰇧 𝑊
󰇗


0.001 M
W

󰇨 .
𝑓

,  = 5.0,
𝑓

,  =
3.0

[118]
Turbines capacity , 𝑊
󰇗

 󰇟M
W

󰇠
max 45 MW [8]
𝑓

 ∙ 3,945 ∙ 󰇧 𝑊
󰇗


0.0001 󰇨 .
𝑓

,  = 3.5,
𝑓

,  = 6.0,
𝑓

,  = 8.0, axial

[118]
Combus tio n
chamb ers
Outlet te mperat ure,
𝑇  󰇟
K

󰇠 , mass flow,
𝑚
󰇗

 󰇟kg/s󰇠 󰇭 67.49
0.995  𝑝 
𝑝


󰇮∙𝑚
󰇗

 ∙ 1𝑒 󰇛 .∙  . 󰇜 
[112]
Cryopu mps cap acity, 𝑚
󰇗

 󰇟kg/s󰇠
max 50 kg/s 644 ∙  𝑚
󰇗


23 kg/s  . recipr ocating
pump
[32]
Storag e
tanks
capacity , 𝑉  󰇟 m³ 󰇠
50,000 m³
𝑓

 ∙
𝑓

 ∙ 󰇛0.0458 ∙ 𝑉 
 117.80󰇜
𝑓

,  = 2.0…3.0,
𝑓

,  = 1.0
[119]
Inte rcoolers,
Reheat ers
HE area,
𝐴

 󰇟m²󰇠 
𝑓

 ∙ 1.3  1.88 ∙ 57.64 ∙
𝐴


1,000
𝑓

 = 1…1.3,
shell/tu be, cs/cs
[118]
Cryogeni c
heat
excha nger s
(MHE )
MHE area,
𝐴

 󰇟m²󰇠 󰇡91.28  45.64
𝑓

 
𝑓

 󰇢
∙
𝐴


2,000

plate- fin,
𝑓

, 
=2.3,
𝑓

 =
1.2…1.3
[118]
cs carbon steel, ss stainless steel

3.3.2. Assumptions made
For the d etailed cost c alculation, the economic parameters need to be determined first. The
assumptions made for econom ic an alysis are summ arized i n Table 3.2. CES indust rial p rojects
are expected to have a relatively fast construction lead-tim e o f only one or tw o yea rs [76] . The
economic life of CES projects is expected to be higher than tha t of other ene rgy pr ojec ts. CES
economic life is expected to reach more than 25 years and up to 60 years [29, 37, 38]. Both
faster comm issioning and a long economic life favor the economi c perform ance of CES
syst ems.
All system s analyzed are daily cycling uni ts, designed to suppl y electricity for u p to four hours
of peak d emand at a charge-to-d ischarge ratio of 2/1 and 1460 a nnual hours at full load
dischar ge operation. The operation and mai ntenance costs (OMC) are accoun ted for as 4 % o f
the fixe d capita l inves tm ent (FCI) per annum. The compa ny Air P roducts and Chemicals, Inc.
rates the CES OPEX at approximat ely 105 €/MW [20] annually, whi le [8] estimated OMC at
1.5 % to 3 % of the purcha se costs of CES and the compa ny Expan sion Energy claimed CES
OMC lower than those of natural g as-fired power plants [20] . The system is assumed to operate
at low electricity prices.
The price of electricity of 20 € /MWh at the beginning o f the fi rst year of operation was set
based on the assumption that the CES system charges at average day-ahead market price in

Chapte r 3: Met hodolog y
54
Germany for the 2,920 lowest pr iced hours in the year 2016-2018 , see Figu re B.1. In th is work,
ES system s are assum ed to be exem pted from the taxes on electr i c i t y , R E a c t l e v y ( E E G
Umlage) as well as distribution and grid charges. The plant ope ration is schedu led for
01.01.2021, and the co nstruction and comm issioning tim e is two years. The changes in the
prices, e.g., electricity and f uel, were accounte d for in ele va te d char ges for the cont inge ncy of
15 % of BMC. Contingencies refer to the add itional costs added to the project budget taking
into account the potential v ariation from the initial cost esti mate, as all cost estimates are
uncertain. As CES system param et ers and associated cos ts are st ill to be proven, a higher val ue
was assumed [121].

Table 3.2: Assumptions made in the economic analysis.
Parame ter Assumpti on
Effective inter est r ate 10 %
Plant econom ic life 40 yea rs
Averag e gen eral in flati on ra te 2.5 %
Daily char ging/dis charg ing duration, 𝜏  /𝜏  8 h/4 h
Annua l full -load disc harging opera tion, 𝜏  1,460 h/a
Base electr icit y pr ice, 𝑐 , 20 €/MWh
Natural g as price, 𝑐  , 262 €/ton
Servi ce faciliti es and architec tural wo rk 30 % of B MC
Conti ngencie s 15 % of BMC
Annual OMC 4 % of FCI

3.3.3. Total revenue requirement method
The sum of sales of products in a year needs to cover the annua l exp enditures. This annual
revenue requirem ent (TRR) of a system consists of carryi ng char ges and expenses. The carrying
charges 𝐶𝐶 represent the indebtedness associated with the initial capital investment, a ccounting
for the cap ital recove ry (capital lent from investors), the ret urn on investment (debt, stock, and
equity) as well as t axes and i nsuran ces.
𝑇𝑅𝑅  𝐶 𝐶  𝐹 𝐶  𝑂 𝑀 𝐶  (3.18)
The fuel costs 𝐹𝐶 a n d t h e operation and main tenance costs OMC a r e t h e m o s t p r o m i n e n t
examples of expenditures that als o need to be estim ated over th e economic life of the system
[ 1 1 1 ] . T h e s e r i e s o f a n n u a l e x p e nditures (FC and OMC) and costs associated with carrying
charge s CC is not uniform. Al l costs are thus levelized to con s tant annuities over the systems
economic lif e, e.g., w ith the help of the ca pital re covery f act or (CRF).
𝐶𝐶  𝑇 𝐶 𝐼 ∙ 𝐶 𝑅 𝐹 (3.19)
The total capital invest ment (TCI) is gained from the fixed cap ital investment (FCI), which
represe nts the direc t and indirect c ost associ ated wit h the des ign, constr uction, a nd installat ion
of the plant and the alterat ions needed for the preparati on of the plant site [121] . The direct
costs are on- and offsite costs associated with the permanent e xpenditu res such as the BMC,

Chapte r 3: Met hodolog y
55
the installation of equipment, t h e l a n d , a n d o t h e r r e s o u r c e s a n d labor costs required for the
system. The indirect costs ref er to the costs as soci ated w ith t he desi gn and cons truc tion phas e,
e.g., engineering and supervisio n, cons tructi on costs, a nd c ont inge ncies. The TC I is the sum of
the FCI, and other outlays such a s the allow ance for the funds nee ded during constr uction time,
the working capital, the licensi ng costs, and the start-up cost s.
The exp enditures (FC and OMC) are escalated und er th e assu mptio n of a constant escalation
levelization factor CELF .
𝐹𝐶  𝐹 𝐶  ∙𝐶 𝐸 𝐿 𝐹  𝐹 𝐶  ∙𝐶 𝑅 𝐹 ∙ 𝑘  󰇛1  𝑘  
 󰇜
󰇛1  𝑘  󰇜 3.20
T h e f u e l c o s t a t t h e b e g i n n i n g o f t h e f i r s t y e a r 𝐹𝐶  is converted in to c onstant annuities
accounti ng f or both the cost o f m oney a nd the c onsta nt esca lati on. T he OMC are escalated and
levelized in the sam e manner.
Finall y, when the T RR is determine d, the pr oduct costs can b e c al c u l a t e d , an d t h e f e a s i b i li t y o f
the investm ent can be ev aluated.

3.3.4. Economic sensitivity analysis
The fin al product of the CES systems i s th e electricity gener at ed in the dischar ge process and
fed back into the grid or supplie d to a custom er. The levelized c o s t o f e l e c t r i c i t y d i s c h a r g e d
𝐿𝐶𝑂𝐸  can directly be calcu lated from the annual TRR and the annuall y generated
electricity 𝐸  .
𝐿𝐶𝑂𝐸   𝑇𝑅𝑅
𝐸   𝐶𝐶  𝐹 𝐶  𝑂 𝑀 𝐶 
𝐸  (3.21)
An economic sensitivity analysis was conduct ed to evaluate the economic param e ters stated in
literature and identif y the depe ndency o f economic viability on economic parameters
independent of the system design.
For th e economic sen sitivity analysis, the most significant par ameters were identified and
varied. The economic life, th e discharge capacity, the RTE , the FLH of the discharge unit, the
OMC as sha re of the T CI, the interest rate, a nd the BMC were va ried in a range o f 20-60 years,
25-200 MW, 31.5-46.5 % , 720-2920 h/a, 1-8 % TCI, 5-15 % and € 6 0-130 m illion,
respectively. In o rder to compar e the weighted effect of parame tric changes on the overall
economic viability measured by the LCOE dis , the parametric changes are normalized to the
initial value of the respec tive base case param eter. Finally, t he LCOE dis is compared to LCOE dis
of other bulk ES technologies re ported in the literature under similar assumptions for the
economic param eters.

Chapte r 3: Met hodolog y
56
3.3.5. Determinati on of cost rates
When the economic anal ysis is conducted as part of an exergoeco nomic an alysi s, the lev elized
cost rate 𝑍 󰇗  o f each component k and the spec ific cos t per uni t of e xer gy of t he f uel 𝑐  need to
be determined. The com ponent cost rate considers the contributi on of each respective
compone nt to the costs assoc iate d with the capital investm ent a nd the operation and
mainte nance cos ts. The c omponent c ost rate i s calcula ted as
𝑍
󰇗

  𝑍
󰇗

  𝑍
󰇗

   𝐵𝑀𝐶 
∑ 𝐵𝑀𝐶  ∙ 󰇛𝐶𝐶  𝑂 𝑀 𝐶  󰇜
𝜏  (3.22)
𝜏  refers to the annual operatio n time of the k -th compon ent, 𝐵𝑀𝐶  to the compon ents
investment costs and ∑ 𝐵𝑀𝐶  t o t h e s u m o f t h e b a r e m o d u l e c o s t s o f a l l c o m p o n e n t s i n t h e
systems. The c omponent cost rate asso ciated with the initial ca pi tal investm ent 𝑍 󰇗   is calculated
over the levelized carrying charges 𝐶𝐶  . The component cost rate ass ociated with the operation
and mainte nance costs 𝑍 󰇗   , respectively, over the 𝑂𝑀𝐶  .
The specific costs of all stream s entering the system need to b e ident ified fo r th e
exergoeconomic analysis. The speci fic costs associated with the exerg y rate of the fue l to the
system are given by:
𝐶
󰇗

  𝐹𝐶 
𝜏 (3.23)

Chapte r 3: Met hodolog y
57
3.4. Exergoeconomic analysis and optimi zation
In this work, exer go economic optimization is applied to deter mi ne t h e e f fe ct o f pa r a met r ic a nd
conception al ch anges on the cost- effectiv eness of CES systems t o minim ize the c ost of the fina l
product. Exergoeconomic optimizat ion follows the approach o f Be j a n e t a l . [ 1 1 2 ] . T h e l o g i c
flowchart for the methodology f ollowed is shown in Figure 3.2. The optimization is performed
in several iterations.

Figure 3.2: Logic flowchart for the exergoeconomic optimization applied in this work [36 ] .

After the definition o f the init ial design parameters of the ba se case sy stem, th e system is
s i m u l a t e d i n A s p e n P l u s ® . I n t h e s i m u l a t i o n , t h e m a s s a n d e n e r g y balances are fulfilled, and
the en thalpy and the entr opy v al ues at all given states are cal c ulated. The exergy values are
calculate d wit h the help of an integrat ed Fortran routin e.
For exergetic analysis, the exergy o f the fu el 𝐸 󰇗 ,  , the exergy o f the product 𝐸 󰇗 , , the exergy
destruction 𝐸 󰇗 ,  a nd the exergeti c effici ency 𝜀  are determined on the com ponent and the
system level. The exergy of the losses 𝐸 󰇗 ,   of the overal l system are calculated.
Com p on ent a nd
stre am va lu es
𝑠, ℎ , 𝑒  𝑒  + 𝑒 
Exerge tic analysis
EES
𝜀  ,𝐸 󰇗 , ,𝐸 󰇗 , ,
𝐸 󰇗 ,  , 𝐸 󰇗 ,    𝑇𝑅𝑅 , 𝑇𝐶𝐼
→𝑍 󰇗   ,𝑍 󰇗  
Economic ana ly sis
Excel
Exer goeco nomic analy sis
EES
𝑓  ,𝑍 󰇗  ,𝐶 󰇗 ,  ,𝑐 , ,
yes
no
yes
Change des ign
parameter to
𝜀  ↑
Stop
𝑐 ,  , 
𝑐 , ,
no
no
yes
Change
system design
Change d esign
parame ter to 𝑍 󰇗  ↓
Start
Sim ulation
ASPEN Plus
𝑖  𝑖  1
𝑖  𝑖  1
Design p ara meters
𝑝  ,𝑇  ,𝑚 󰇗 
𝑖  𝑖  1
𝑓

≫𝑓
,  
𝑓

≪𝑓
,  

Chapte r 3: Met hodolog y
58
The cost rate of the com ponents 𝑍 󰇗  are determined in economic analysis. Exergoeconomic
analysis corresponds to the combination o f the exergetic and co st analysis and discloses the
costs associated with thermodynam ic inefficiencies ( exergy dest ruction) 𝐶 󰇗 , . The
exergoeconomic factor 𝑓  is the decision variable u sed to determine whet her to adj ust t he design
param eters to:
 increase the ex ergetic effi ciency 𝜀  (reduce the exergy destruction 𝐸 󰇗 , ), or
 decrease t he investm ent cost 𝑍 󰇗  of the respective com ponent.
After eac h change in the design param eters, a new itera tion (si mulation, exergetic, economic,
and exergoeconomic analysis) is conducted. As l ong as the cost o f t h e f in a l p ro d u ct i s r ed u c ed ,
the changes are continue d ( 𝑐 , ,  𝑐 ,  ,  ). When parametric changes do not reduce the
cost of the final product any furt her, changes in the system de s i g n a r e a p p l i e d . If changes in
system design do reduce the cost f urther and the exergoeconomic factor of the co mponent s is
close to the optimum , the optimizati on is disc ontinued. The fin a l p r o d u c t o f t h e C E S s y s t e m s
𝑐 ,   i s t h e d i s ch a r g e d e l e c t r i c i ty . A s a r e s u l t , t h e t e rm s average cost of the final product 𝑐 ,  
and levelized co st of discharged electricity LCOE dis are used interchange ably i n this work.

3.4.1. Exergy costing
The exergoeconomic analysis aims to determine; the costs associ ated with thermodynamic
ineffici encies, th e mai n c ontribut ing comp onents to th e co sts o f t h e o v e r a l l s y s t e m , t h e c o s t -
effective ness of a system, and the potential for reduction in c os ts. This correlati on between
thermodynam ic performance and costs is ach ieve d by applying exergy costing [112].
In exergy costing, each stream w ith an ass ociate d exergy transf er rate 𝐸 󰇗  , e.g., matter, work or
heat , is denoted an av erage cost per un it of ex ergy 𝑐  , e.g.
𝑐    󰇗 
 󰇗  (3.24)
𝑐    󰇗 
 󰇗 (3.25)
𝑐    󰇗 
 󰇗  (3.26)
The specific costs are determ ined in cost balances . For each com ponent 𝑘 , the differe nce of the
sum of the cost rates 𝐶 󰇗  ( associated with the 𝑚 exiting and 𝑛 entering stream s of the matter) is
equal to the sum of the cos t rates associate d with the heat su p pl ied to the component 𝐶 󰇗 , and
the work done by the com ponent ( 𝐶 󰇗 ,  ) as wel l as the cost rate of the respective com ponent 𝑍 󰇗  .
𝐶
󰇗

 ,

  𝐶
󰇗

,

 𝐶
󰇗

,  𝐶
󰇗

,  𝑍
󰇗


(3.27)
All costs associat ed with t he streams entering the systems n eed to be known. Auxili ary
equations ar e necessar y when m o re than one st rea m exits the com ponent. For t he defini tion of
fuel and product, the SPECO approa ch [122] was follo wed. Follo w ing the “fuel and product”

Chapte r 3: Met hodolog y
59
approach the cos t balance can also be expressed with t he cos t r ate associated with the fuel 𝐶 󰇗 , 
and the product 𝐶 󰇗 ,  of the component.
𝐶
󰇗

,  𝐶
󰇗

,  𝑍
󰇗

 , and (3.28a)
𝐶
󰇗

,   𝐶
󰇗

,   𝐶
󰇗

,    ∑ 𝑍
󰇗

  (3.28b)(3.28a)
The cost balances for the co mponent s in th e evaluated sy stems a re given in Appendix B. On
s y s t e m l e v e l t h e c o s t r a t e a s s o c i a t e d w i t h t h e e x e r g y l o s s e s 𝐶 󰇗 ,   n eeds to be consi dered as
well. The costs associated with th e ex ergy destr uction in the 𝑘 -th comp onen t ar e determined by
the average cost per uni t of exergy of the fuel 𝑐 ,  :
𝐶
󰇗

, 𝑐 ,  ∙𝐸
󰇗

,  (3.29)
The cost rate associated with the exergy losses 𝐶 󰇗 ,   is calculated similar to equation (3.29).
The exergoecono mic factor 𝑓  a nd the relative cost d ifference 𝑟  should be used for evaluation
of the c ost-e ffective ness of the 𝑘 -t h com ponent:

𝑓

  𝑍
󰇗


𝑍
󰇗

 𝐶
󰇗

,  (3.30)
𝑟   𝑐 , 𝑐 ,
𝑐 ,  (3.31)

3.4.2. Exergoeconomic optimization
After the e xergoec onomic a nalys is is perf orm ed on the Base Ca se system, the fi rst it erat ion of
the exergoeconom ic optimization is conducted based on [112]. A i m of the exe rgoe conomic
optim ization is t he si gnificant reduc tion of the average cost of exer gy of the produ ct 𝑐 ,   . The
exergoeconomic optimization does n ot intend to identify a singl e mathematical optimum b ut
operates with a knowle dge-based iterative a pproach to limit sys tem com plexity and account for
availabi lity and safety . The op tim ization can be broken down in three main steps :
1. Identif y the componen ts with the highest cost im portanc e ( 𝑍 󰇗  𝐶 󰇗 ,  )
2. Ide ntify the potential source of the high cost s in the respecti ve components by
reviewing:
a. the relative cost difference 𝑟  ,
b. the exergoeconom ic factor 𝑓  and
c. syst em design .
3. A pply cha nges to t he system design:
a. conception al changes o r
b. pa rametric c hanges .
By ranking the com ponents accordi ng to the sum of costs associa ted with t he initial investment
of the c ompone nt Z 󰇗  and the costs a ssoc iated wit h the exerg y des tructi on C 󰇗 , prior ity is give n
to the components with the highest contribution to the cost of the exergy of th e product of the
sy stem.

Chapte r 3: Met hodolog y
60
The cause of the high costs cause d by a componen t or component g roup can b e id entifi ed by
review ing the exergo economic parameters ( 𝑟  , 𝑓  ) o f t he co mp one nt ( s ) a nd the overall system
design. The relati ve cost diffe rence 𝑟  indicates whet her the com ponent is the ori gin of t he high
costs associated with th e exergy destruction 𝐶 󰇗 ,  or whether the average cost of the exergy of
the fuel to the comp onen t 𝑐 , is relatively high . If th e 𝑐 ,  i s relatively high, the comp onents
prior to this component and t he system design shou ld be inspect ed first. Reviewing the
exergoeconomic factor 𝑓  two recomme ndations can be drawn:
 when 𝑓  is elevat ed, th e cost s asso ciat ed w ith the initial investment of the component
𝑍 󰇗  dominate and shoul d be reduced despite a potential reduction i n efficien cy 𝜀  , and
 when 𝑓  is low, the costs associate d with the exergy destructi on 𝐶 󰇗 ,  dominate and the
exerget ic efficiency 𝜀  should be increased (exergy des truction 𝐸 ,  ↓ ).
In general, the initial i nvestm ent of th e compon ent Z 󰇗  and the cos ts assoc iated with t he exergy
destruction C 󰇗 , should be in the sam e m agnitude ( 𝑓  → 0 . 5 ) . H o w ev e r , t h e “optimal” value for
the exergoeconomic factor ( 𝑓 ,   in Figure 3.2) differs according to the type of component.
For turbomachinery fo r instance an elevate d exergoeconomic fact or is characteristic, e.g.,
𝑓  = 0.6-0. 7. Apart from identifyi ng parametric changes on com pone nt level, changes in system
design should also be considered . If t he effect of the parametr ic change is positiv e, it can be
continued until no eff ect can be identified.

3.5. Summary of th e methodology
For the ev aluation o f cryogenic ener gy storage sy stems presente d in this work, exergy-based
methods based on Bejan et al. [ 112] were applied. The “fuel and p roduct” approach was u sed,
and the physical exergy was split into its pressure related ( me chanical exergy 𝑒  ) and
temperature related (therm al exergy 𝑒  ) pa rt. Thes e m ethods were a pplied f or severa l reasons :
 CES systems p artially operate bel ow the environmental tem peratu re.
 For th e analysis of the in tegrated CES systems, the qu antity an d quality of differe nt
energy sources need to b e considered .
 The relationship between thermodyn amics and costs should be ana lyzed, and a cost-
optima l C ES syst em des ig n shou ld b e iden tified.
The econom ic a nalysis follows t he Tot al Re venue Re quirem ent (T R R) method [111, 112]. Cost
estimati on is based on past purchase orders from previous CES p rojects and potential supply
chains from LNG, industrial g as , and power industry. Lim itation s for commercial availabilit y
of components were ac knowledged. For this reason, the design si ze o f the evaluated CES
systems was kept to 100 MW of discharge capacity. The exergoeco nom ic optimization
present ed in this work operates with a knowledge-b ased iterativ e appr oach to limit system
complexity and acc ount for availabili ty and safety.

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
61

Chapter 4: Design and simulation
The methods described in Cha pte r 3 were applie d to different CES system configur ations. A
number o f design confi gurations are p ossible for the charge, th e s torage, and the disch arge unit
of a cryogenic energy stor age syste m. Moreo ver, CES syste ms hav e g reat po tenti al for system
integrati on with internal and ex t e r n a l h e a t s o u r c e s a n d s i n k s ( “cold sources”). In this section,
the assumptions made in simulatio n, the process design, the sel ectio n of com ponents, w orking
fluids, and parameters are descr i bed. The design opt ions t hat were considered and a pplie d for
the pre-design , the base cases, and the integrated systems are shown in F igure 4. 1.

Figure 4.1: Schematic of the system con figurations considered for this work.

In the pre-desi gn phase, different design options were reviewed and compared in simulation.
The design options that are indicated in white color in Figure 4.1 were consider ed in the pre-
design phase but were finall y not implem ented in the Base Case systems for var i ous reasons,
Cryogenic ener gy storage
Charge
Liquefaction process
Claude-based
Li nde-ba se d
Cold source
Cold storage
LNG integration
Storage
Cold storage
Se nsible st ora ge
La tent and sensib le
Heat storage
Compressed water
Therm al oil
Discharge
Discharge process
Direct expansion
Secondary power cycle
Heat source
Hea t storag e
Com bustion
W aste heat
Le gend:
Im plemented in Base cases
Ap plied in sy stem integrat io n
Pre-design phase

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
62
e.g., the systems thermodynam ic performance, or economic feasib ility. The design of the
charge, the storage, and the di scharge unit of the stand-alone adiabatic CES are described in
section 4.3.1, 4.3.2 and 4.3.3, respectively.
The integrated systems are based o n the adiab atic CES syst em de sign but were extended w ith
e x t e r n a l h e a t s o u r c e s a n d s i n k s . F o r s y s t e m i n t e g r a t i o n , w a s t e heat and internal combustion
were considered as e xter nal hea t s ources. LNG as well as cold s torage were considered as heat
sinks. The design of the integrated system s is discus sed in se c tion 4.4.

4.1. Simulation and data management software
Aspen Plus® [123] was c hosen as a suit able software for process simu lation. Aspen Plus
softwar e i s ch aracte rized by several advantag es amo ngst other i ts years of experience and close
cooperation with the chemical i ndustry, its p ractical user inte rface w ith appropriate
computa tional basis, an extens ive model library, and the possib ility for integration of u ser-
specific modules, e.g ., in FORTRAN, Excel o r V BA. With the aid of the simulation software,
all mass and energy balances are fulfilled, and the specific en thalpy and entropy values of all
streams and substances are calculated. The Peng-Robinson eq uation of state was selected, and
the simulation was performed und er steady-state conditions. FOR TRAN-based user property
subroutines 2 were integrated with Asp en Plu s to calculate ex ergy values as input for the
exerge tic analysis. F or the e xecution of e xergy-ba sed analysis, the Engineeri ng Equatio n Solver
(EES) [124] was u sed. The cor e ben efit of the softw are p ackage EES is its built-in, extensive,
and accurate thermodynam ic database.

4.2. General assumptions made in the simulation
The ambient temperature is assum ed at 15 °C and a mbient pressur e at 1.01325 bar according
to the Inter national Sta ndard Atm osphere [125]. Both liquid ni t rogen and liquid air are w idely
consi dere d as w orkin g fl uid i n CE S systems as their thermo-phys ical properties are similar [8,
37]. The inlet air to the compression process is modele d with a molar fraction of 0.79 for
nitroge n and 0.21 for oxygen. The real opera tion of the turbo ma chinery was assum ed with
isentropic efficiencies; the v alu es were chosen according to th e literature reviewed, see Table
4.1.
Table 4.1: Isentropic efficiencies presumed for the turbomachin ery.
Isentro pic efficie ncies Value Ref.
Compr essors 0.85 [42]
Cold expander 0.84 [57, 126]
Cryogenic p ump 0.75 [57]
Turbi nes 0.90 [39]

The i sentropic efficiency of the cold expander in the liquefact ion process was reported to have
efficiencies as low as 0 .60-0.78 [126] , while recent enhancemen t i n t h e d e s i g n o f c r y o g e n i c

2 Developed and revised in the Cha ir for Energy a nd Environmenta l Protection at Technisc he Universität Berlin

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
63
turbines enabled isentropic efficiencies as high as 0.88 in t es t ing [5 7]. Sensit ivity analysis
showed that varying the isentropic efficiency 𝜂  , between 0.78 and 0.88 has no significant
effect on the performa nce of the system . While when 𝜂 , is reduced furthe r, the roundtrip
efficiency ( RTE ) is reduced signi ficantly, Figure C. 1 i n A ppendi x C.
The he at excha ngers in the sys te m s can be divide d into two type s of heat ex changers:
 the cryogenic m ulti-stream heat e xchangers – the main h eat exch ange rs (MHE1, MHE2)
of the charge and the discharge unit, and
 two-stream heat excha ngers, e.g., intercool ers and reheaters th at op erate abov e 𝑇  .
The assumptions made for the pinch temperat ure differe nce ∆𝑇  , the press ure drop ∆𝑝 and
the design parameters for the he at exchangers are given in Tabl e 4. 2. Two Cases are
differe ntiate d: the Base Case and the Optimized Case . Th e Base Case refers to the in itial design
param eters of the two system con figurations for the stand-alone a diabatic CES: the Ba se Case A
and the Base C ase B. After perfo rming exergoeconomic optimizati on on th e two base case
system s, the Optimized Case was derived. The integrated systems a r e b a s e d o n t h e d e s i g n
param eters of the Optimized Case.

Table 4.2: General assumpti ons a nd design parameter for the heat exchangers.
Compon ent Unit Ba se Case Optimized Case
Inte rcool ers
Hot end exit temperature, 𝑇  , °C 18 18
Pinch temperature difference, ∆𝑇  , K 2 3
Relative pressure drop (liquid/gas), ∆𝑝  % / K
0.02 0.02
Reheat ers
Hot end tempe rature approach, ∆𝑇  , K 2 6
Pinch temp diffe rence, ∆𝑇  , K 2 6
Pressure drop (liquid/ga s), ∆𝑝  % / K
0.02 0.02
Main heat exchanger 1
Hot end exit temperature, 𝑇  ° C
- 17 7 - 17 7
Pinch temperature difference, ∆𝑇 , K 1 3
Pressure drop (e vaporation/liquefac tion), ∆𝑝  %/K 0.04 0.04
Main heat exchanger 2
Pinch temperature difference, ∆𝑇 , K 1 .3 4
Pressure drop (e vaporation/liquefac tion), ∆𝑝  % / K 0.04 0.04

For the cryogenic h eat- exchangers, a min imu m approa ch tempe ratu re ∆𝑇  , o f 1 K i s
realizable. In the MHE1 and the MHE2 of the base case systems, the ∆𝑇  , w a s
approache d. The pressure drop in a given sys tem is affected by various factors, in particula r,
the type of flow (e.g ., laminar or turbulent ), the den sity of t he working fluid, and the geom etry
of the section in heat exchangers. The pressure drop assum ed in the heat exch angers accounts
for the type o f heat e xchanger (two-stream or multi-s tream) and w h e t h e r p h a s e - c h a n g e d o c c u r s ,
adopted from [127].

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
64
4.3. Adiabatic cryogeni c energy storage systems
In this sec tion, t he desi gn and sim ulatio n of the overal l stand - alone a diaba tic CES sys tem s are
discusse d. The schemati c flowsh eet of the adiabatic CES (a-CES) syste m is shown in Figure
4.2; the d iffere nt process ste ps are denot ed wit h (a) to (g). T h e d e c i s i o n s m a d e i n t h e p r e - d e s i g n
phase for the simulati on of the charge, the storage, and the di scharge unit are specified in the
subsecti ons 4.3.1 to 4.3.3. The properties of the streams displ a y e d i n F i g u r e 4 . 2 a r e g i v e n i n
Table C.1, and Table C.2 in the Appe ndix C. The a-CES system s a re designed for a power
capacity o f the discharge unit of 100 MW el and an energy capacity o f the storage unit o f
400 MWh el . The systems are daily cycling units, enabling four hours of d aily disch arge at full
load cap acity during p eak dem and at a charge-t o-disc harge rati o of two (8h/4h).
The charging process is a conventional air l iquefaction process cons isti ng of the gas cleanin g
and purification unit, the compre ssion and the final expansion and liquefaction process (a)-(c )
in Figure 4.2. In the charging p rocess, the pre-treated air is compressed in three compression
steps with inter -stage cooling – (b) compression process . The liquefaction process is based on
the Kapitza process for Base Cas e A (str eam 7a -13 in Figure 4 .2 ) and th e Heyl andt process fo r
Base C ase B (stream 7b-13) w ith one cold expander – (c) liquefaction process . T h e h e a t
rejected in the intercoolers is recovere d and stor ed to enha nce the performance of the discharge
unit – (f) heat recove ry and storage .

Figure 4.2: Flowsheet of the stand-alone adiabatic CES system (Base Cases A and B).

(e) expansion process
1
𝑊 󰇗

𝑊 󰇗

23 45
6
37 38 33 34
MHE2
ST
𝑊 󰇗

18
19 P
HE
IC IC IC
RH RH RH RH
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29
30
CM CM CM
TTTT
HS
(b) compre ssion process
𝑊 󰇗

7b
8
9
11
10a
12
13
15
14
16
17
9a
8a
10b
7a
35 36 31 32
MHE1
FL
TV
EX
(c) liquefaction process
(d) pressurization and evaporation
(f) heat rec ove ry an d st ora ge (g) cold sto ra ge
20
DISCHARGE ST ORAGE CHARGE
ambient
air
air
HS m edia
R218
m ethanol
(a) gas cleaning

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
65
I n t h e d i s c h a r g e p r o c e s s , t h e e x e r g y s t o r e d i n t h e l i q u i d a i r i s recovered in a simple direc t
Rankin e cycle. The liquid air is pumped to super critical pressu re and supplied to the second
main heat exchanger (MHE2). In t he MHE2 the liquid air is evapo rated and heated in heat
e x c h a n g e w i t h t h e c o l d s t o r a g e m e d i a – (d) pressurization and evaporation . The low-
temperature exergy released duri ng e vaporati on of the pr essuriz ed liquid air is recovered in the
cold storage. The cold storage is realized thr ough two circulat ing wor king fluids in l iquid sta te
– (g) co ld storag e . The recovered cold is supplied to the first main heat exchang er (MHE1) to
i n c r e a s e t h e s h a r e o f l i q u e f i e d a ir i n the liquefaction process of the subseq uent char ging process.
The slightly subcooled liquid air is stored in a simp le insu lat ed storage vessel at near ambient
pressur e (1.1 bar) and a temperat ure of - 194 °C. The mass flo w in the d ischarge process is
twice as large ( 𝑚 󰇗  = 2 ∙𝑚 󰇗  ) as in the char ging process. The high-pr essure air is super hea te d
and expanded in four gas turbine stages with reheating – (e) expansion block . The different
proc ess steps ( a) to (g) are d es cribed in mo re de tail in the fo llowing subsections.
In a c omparati ve a nalysis, t he syste ms were eva luated wi th unif orm design parameters. Either,
 the comp re ssion p ressu re and mass flow rate 𝑚 󰇗  in the compr essors ( 𝑊 󰇗  = const.) or
 the discharge power 𝑊 󰇗  ( 𝑊 󰇗  𝑊 󰇗  ) and the energy stored 𝐸  ( 𝑊 󰇗  ∙ 𝜏  )
were kept c onsistent f or all system s in com parative analys is.

4.3.1. Charging unit
Gas cleaning and purification unit (block (a) in Figure 4.2)
Prior to compression and liquef action, any contaminants and unw anted components of the inlet
air, e .g., hydrocarbons and elemen t s w h i c h m a y d i s r u p t t h e l i q u efaction process, such as
freezing water and CO 2 , are removed in the gas cleanin g and pu rification p rocess (Fig ure 4.3)
[18, 75]. In cr yogenic air separation units, thi s i s c omm only r ealized by feeding filtered ambie nt
air at slightly elevated pressure (e.g., 1 .03 bar) to a direct c o n t a c t c o o l e r a n d a v e s s e l w i t h a
fixed bed of ads orbent, e.g., molecu lar sieve unit [128] or ac t ivated alumina [91 ]. After all trace
contaminants have been removed th e purified air i s fed to t he c om pressors .

Figure 4.3: Flowsheet of the gas cleaning and purification unit adopted from [128 ] .
Filter
Compressor
Direct
contact
cooler
Adsorbent
unit
Ambient air
Purified air

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
66
The air pu rification c ontributes to th e energy requi rement of t he li quefact ion unit. The therm al
energy required for the regenera tion of the absorbe nt used to r emove the undesirable
components contributes about 10 % of the energy requirement in the air liquefaction process
[129]. This process step cannot b e avoided. The air purificatio n process does not need to be
simulate d fo r the dif fere nt s ystem conf igura tion, b ut t he energ y c onsum ption a nd c osts nee d to
be accounted. The air exiting the gas cleaning and purification p r o c e s s i s e s t i m a t e d w i t h a m o l a r
fraction of 0.79 for nitrogen an d 0.21 for oxygen at ambient te m perature and press ure.

Compression process (block (b) in Figure 4.2)
I n t h e l i q u e f a c t i o n p r o c e s s , t h e a i r i s c o m p r e s s e d t o h i g h p r e s sure, cooled a nd expanded to
achieve low temperatu res (< - 192 ° C) and reach the due-point. The com pression process is
considered separately from the liqu efaction pro cess in th is the sis due to its role in heat recovery
and stora ge. In adiabatic CES systems, the heat of compression that is reje cted i n the
intercoole rs (IC) i s rec overed an d stor ed to be supplied to the d ischarging proce ss, superheating
the air at the inlet of the turbines. The lower the number of c ompress ion-s teps and the higher
the com pressio n-press ure ( 𝑝  ), the higher the temperat ure rec overed in the IC as well as th e
higher the turbin e inlet temperat ure (TIT) in the discharging p rocess.
For the base cases, a three-stage com pression process with inte rcooling was selected. After each
compression step, the air is coo led to 18 °C. An isentropic eff iciency of η is,CM = 85 % [ 42] was
selected for the com pressors. Lower values f or η is,CM increase the temperature at the com pressor
outlet. The compression pressure was s elected according to cond u cted sensitivity analy sis of
the maxim um liquid yiel d 𝛾 achieved and th e minim um specif ic work require d for the
liquefact ion pr ocess for dif ferent c harging press ures (70 – 140 bar), Figure 4.4.

Figure 4.4: Minimum specific work requirement 𝑤  and maximum liquid yield 𝛾 of the charging
process over the compression pressure 𝑝  for the Base Cases A and B.

The specific work requirement ref ers to the work required to li quef y one kg of air 𝑤  . The
liquid yield 𝛾 is define d as the ratio between the mass flow of the air lique fied and the mass
900
950
1000
1050
1100
1150
1200
1250
0,3 0
0,3 5
0,4 0
0,4 5
0,5 0
0,5 5
0,6 0
70 80 90 100 110 12 0 130 140
w_m i n B a se C ase A w _ m in Base Case B max y B a s e C a se A max y Ba s e Ca s e B
1,200
950
1,000
Specific work, 𝑤 𝑘𝐽/𝑘𝑔
1,250
1,050
1,100
1,150
900
Liquid y ield, 𝛾 
Press ure, bar
0.60
0.35
0.40
0.45
0.50
0.55
0.30
𝛾

– Base Case A 𝛾

– Base Ca se B 𝑤

– Base Case B 𝑤

– Base Case A

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
67
flow exiting the last compression step 𝑚 󰇗  ( Eq. (3.4) ). B oth the spec ific work 𝑤  and the
liquid yield 𝛾 a r e i n d i c a t o r s f o r t h e p e r f o r m a n ce of the liquef action process . The two base cases
use different liquef action processes and thus achieve their bes t performance ( 𝑤  , 𝛾  ) at
differe nt pressures. The operation pressures were chosen at 85 bar and 120 bar, for the Base
Cases A and B, respectiv ely, when the specif ic work required to liquefy a kg of air reaches its
min i mu m 𝑤  .

Liquefaction processes (block (c) in Figure 4.2)
The performance of the liquefact ion process has a significant i nflu ence on th e overall
perform ance and cost-ef fectivenes s o f t h e C E S s y s t e m . H e n c e , a number of air liquefaction
processes w ere consi dered and evaluated f or appl ication in a dia batic CES sy ste ms.
Most c ommerci al air li quefacti o n plants opera te with th e Clau de proc ess and its m odificati ons
due to their high effi ciency [48], section 2. 2.3 (a). The lea di ng CES developer , Highview Ltd.,
base their charging station on the Claude process, relying on t he matur ity of the proces s and the
trouble-free scale-up [18].
Despite Claude-based sys tems lead ing in industrial air liquefac tion, other liquef action processes
are of interest for implementati on in adiabatic CES sy stems. Th e Linde process, for example,
has ofte n be en propose d for CE S, see Table 2. 1 in Cha pter 2.
In the com parati ve exergy-base d analysis, three liquef acti on pr ocess based on the Linde
process, and three Claude-based processes were evaluated:
 the simple Linde process,
 the pr ecooled Linde pro cess,
 the dual-pressure Linde process,
 the simple Claude process,
 the Kapitza process, and
 the Heylandt process.
The simulated systems are shown in Figure 4.5 and Figure 4.6, t he stream values are reporte d
i n T a b l e C .3 a n d T a b l e C . 4 i n A p p e ndix C. A second bypass turbi ne was found to be redundant
regard ing RTE , liquid yield and costs in a pr evious study. The Collins p roce ss was, therefore,
not fur ther i nvestig ated i n this work [ 51].
At first, the liquefaction processes were m anually optim ized an d later modifi ed to accommoda te
the cold sto rage. The operation p ressures for th e different liq uefaction processes deviate [48].
For com parison, the liquefac tion pressure was kept to p max,CM = 2 0 0 b a r [ 4 8 ] f i r s t a n d l a t e r
p max,CM was varied in a sensitivity ana lysis (80-200 bar). The system s w ere simulated with and
without cold storage. The modeling and assumption for the cold st orage and recove ry are
described in s ection 4.3.2.

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
68
Linde-Hampson
Consisti ng of only four sets of compone nts: the compressor(s ), the main heat ex changer (MHE),
the throttli ng valve (TV) and the flash tank (FT ), the Linde-Ha mps on process is the most
straightf orward of all liquefacti on processes. In the Linde pro cess, F igure 4.5 (a), purifie d
com pres se d air is c oo le d ( 1- 2) a nd undergoes isenthalpic expans i on ( 2-3) in a throt tlin g valve,
bein g brought to its dew point by the Joule-Thom son effect [47] . The tempe rature of the hig h-
pressure air is reduced to a val ue b elow - 100 ℃ in heat exc han ge with the recurring stream (5-
6). The recurring stream is the gaseous air that exits the flas h tank after b eing separat ed fr om
the liquefied air (3-4-5).

Precooled Linde
The tempe rature of the air at the inlet of the throttlin g valve (2) strongly influences the
efficiency of the Linde-H ampson proce ss. By reduci ng this tempe rature with th e help o f a
secondary refr igeration cy cle, th e precooled Linde p r o c e s s ( F i g u r e 4 . 5 ( b ) ) a i m s t o a c h i e v e
higher liquid y ields. Carbon diox ide, ammonia, o r Freon compoun ds are comm only used for
the compres sion refri geration process [ 48]. In t his work, R32 ( Difluormethane) was used.

Dual-pressure Linde
By introducing a second p ressur e level, the h eat transfer in th e MHE1 is improved. In the dual-
pressure Linde process, the air is compressed to an intermediate-pressure bef ore entering the
liquefaction process (1). Further, the pressure of the air is e le vated to the high-press ure level
(2-3) afte r being mixed with the recurring gaseous stream exiti ng the intermediate-pressure
flash tank (1-12-2). The air is cooled in the M HE1 before under going isenthalpic expansion to
the interm ediate-pre ssure level (4-5). The l iquefied air exiting the interm ediate-press ure tank i s
fed to th e second pressure-stag e (6 -8). In the dual-pressure Linde p rocess, the sp ecific wo rk
required to liquefy the air is r educe d a t the ex pense of t he l i quid yield, with resp ect to the simp le
Linde process.

Figure 4.5: Flowsheets of the Linde-based ai r liquefaction processes with cold recycle [46].
Liquid  air
Air
Work
Methanol
R218
R32
(a)  Simple  Linde ‐ Hampso n (b)  Dual ‐ pressure Linde
(c)  Precooled Linde
2 1
3
4
5
6
3
4
5
6
2 1
2
1
3
9
4
5 6
7
11
8
10
12
MHE1 MHE1 MHE1
TV
TV
TV
TV
FT FT
FT

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
69
Simple Cl aude
The Claude process was develope d to reduce the liquefaction pre ssure. The Claude process
proposes a solution with two exp ansion mechanism s, a throttling v alve, and a cold expander.
The cold expander is located al ong a bypass [51] . The pressuriz e d a i r t h a t u n d e r w e n t t h e
isentropic expan sion in the cold expander is used to provide a low-temperature cold recycle
stream ( 𝑚 󰇗  ) to further reduce the tem perature before the thrott ling proce ss [14]. The expander
thus does not replace the throttl ing valv e (4 -5) be fore the fla sh tank. The additi on of a col d
expander a voids part of the exer gy de structi on in t he thr ottlin g process and reduces the required
power for liquefaction by the p ower output of the expander ( 𝑊 󰇗   ∑ 𝑊 󰇗   𝑊 󰇗  ) while
allowing lower worki ng pressures than in t he Linde process.

Figure 4.6: Flowsheets of the Claude-based ai r liquefaction processes with cold recycle [46].

Kapitza
The Kapitz a process i s adopted f rom the Claude pr ocess, yet, th e low -temp erature h eat
excha nger is elimina ted. In other words, stream 7 is not fed ba ck to the MHE1 before being
mixed with stream 10, a voiding the third partit ion of the MHE1. The dif fere nce in the
perform ance of the Claude and the Kapitza process is comm only l ittle, due to the rather small
temperature difference of the t wo mix ing stre ams (7 and 10 ).

Heylandt
The Heylandt p rocess can either be seen as analogous to t he Cla ude process or as a variation of
the precooled Linde-Hampson proce ss using air as a refrigerant. In the Heylandt p rocess, the
first parti tion of the MHE1 in the Claude syst em is eliminate d. A p a r t i t i o n o f t h e a i r i s f e d t o
the cold expander directly (at ambient temperature) instead of being fed to the MHE1 first to
be prec ooled. The split ting of the c ompresse d air before enter i ng the MHE1 impr oves the heat
transfer process in the MHE1 [48] .

(b)  Kapitza (c)  Heylandt
(a)  Sim ple  Claude
2 1
3
4
5
6
7 8
9
10
11
12
2 1
3
4
5
6
8
9
10
12
7
2
1
3
4
5
7
8
9
Liquid  air
Air
Work
Methanol
R218
MHE1 M HE1 MHE1
FT
FT
TV
EX EX
EX
TV TV
FT
6 10

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
70
Splitting r atio r for Cl aude- based sys tems
The perform ance of the C laude- based process es is dependent on t he splitting ratio 𝑟 . The
splitting ratio is defined as t he mass flow t hrough the expande r 𝑚 󰇗  over the mass flow exiting
the com pression proce ss 𝑚 󰇗  .
𝑟 𝑚
󰇗


𝑚
󰇗

 (4.1)
The splittin g ratio, therefore, influe nces the share of air liq uefied in the liquefactio n process.
W h e n a s m a l l e r s h a r e o f a i r b y p a s s e s t h e M H E 1 a n d i s f e d t o t h e e x p a n d e r , t h e t e m p e r a t u r e
differe nce in the MHE1 is decreased, and a larger share of air is fed to the throttling process
and liquefie d. The splitti ng rati o is constrai ned by the minim um pinch temperature of the MHE1
( ∆𝑇 , → 1 K ) . W h e n t h e s p l i t t i n g r a t i o i s r e d u c e d t o i t s m i n i m u m , t h e liqui d yield is
max i miz ed ( 𝛾  ) and the specif ic liquef action w ork is m inimized ( 𝑤  ).

4.3.2. Storage unit
Heat storage (block (f) in Figure 4.2)
Aim of the r ecovery and storage of the com pression heat is to s upply additional thermal energy
t o t h e d i s c h a r g e p r o c e s s – i n c r e a s i n g t h e T I T a n d t h e p o w e r g e n erated i n the expansi on process.
The h eat r ejected in the intercooling process is recover ed wi th a s i n g l e h e a t t r a n s f e r a n d s t o r a g e
medium [18] . Pressurized wate r or therm al oil can be employed a s working media [ 12].
In the sim ulatio n, press urized wate r (25 bar) was utilize d as h e a t t r a n s f e r , a n d s t o r a g e m e d i a f o r
low-medium temperatures (T ≤ 200 °C) and therm al oil (6 bar, Do wth-01) was used for
medium -high temperatures (200 °C < T ≤ 500 °C). The heat losses in the heat st orage were
accounte d for with 5 K /c ycle. The mass flow of the heat transfe r fluid is ada pted t o reduc e t he
temperature after each compressio n step to 18 °C. Accordingly, t h e m a s s f l o w o f t h e f l u i d i s
determ ined by the com pression pressure 𝑝  and the mass flow rate of the air 𝑚 󰇗  .

Cold storage (block (g) in Figure 4.2)
The “col d” (low -tempe rature exer gy) re jected in the evapora tion proc ess of the liquid air
Rankine cycl e (discharge pro cess) can be recovered and stored. Supplying this low-tem perature
exergy to the liquefaction proc ess significantly decreases the sp ecific work required for
liquefaction and increases the RTE .
Two di fferent sto rage configura tions have been d iscussed in the context of CES. Either, gravel-
based pack ed bed storage (PBC S) or fluid storage with methanol and propane (or R218) were
considere d, see Table 2.1. The cold storage of the Base Case CE S systems w as mo del ed with
two fl uid ta nks, a s suggested in [ 39 , 40, 41, 43].
Reason for this is that the cold storage (CS) media are kept in a liquid state in contrast to dry
air being the secondary working fluid in the PBCS. The work req uired in the cold storage is
expected to be much lower whe n p umping the liqui d w orkin g fl uids in com parison to the work
necessar y to overcome the pressure drop in the PBCS configur ati on. Moreover, the use of d ry

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
71
gas, e.g., nitrogen would require gas storage, which would decr ease the volumetric energy
densit y of the storage – the main advantage t owards com peting tec hnologies, see sectio n 2.4. 2.
Several refrigerants were reviewe d and evalua ted concerning: th eir boiling and freezing
temperatures, their toxicity and flammability and comm ercial us e, Table 4.3 . Being neith er
toxic nor flammable, R218 was f ound to be more suitable to reco ver the high-grade cold as
Propane. Pr opane was sugges ted by [ 22, 39, 43] . For recupe ratin g the low-g rade cold M ethanol
is more appropriate as its boiling point is higher than the ambient temperature. The same
conclusion was derived by [39]. The cold recovery is thus reali zed with these working fluids
circulating on two t emperature levels :
 Perfluoropropane C 3 F 8 (R218), between -180 to -61 °C, 2 b ar
 Methanol (CH 3 OH), betwee n -21 t o -59 °C, 5 ba r
T h e p r e s s u r e o f t h e c o l d s t o r a g e m e d i a i s s l i g h t l y e l e v a t e d t o avoid air le akage and ensure
improve d heat exchange. The amount of lo w-te mperature ener gy re covered is d eterm ined by
the amount of air liquefied i n the li quefac tio n proce ss. The ma ss flow rates of the c old s tora ge
media are therefore determined by a share of the mass flow rate of the liquefied air 𝑚 󰇗   :
𝑚
󰇗

 2 . 2 9 ∙ 𝑚
󰇗

  (4.2)
𝑚
󰇗

 0 . 4 6 ∙ 𝑚
󰇗

  (4.3)
The ratio is adjusted to th e op t i m a l h e a t t r a n s f e r b e t w e e n t h e evaporating liquid air and the cold
storage media. According to [14] t he e f f i c i e n c y o f the cold sto r a g e m a y r e a c h v a l u e s o f 𝜀  =
9 5 % [ 1 4 ] . S t ö v e r e t a l . [ 1 2 ] e s t i m a t e d t h e C S e f f i c i e n c i e s a t 85-95 %. Thermal losses in the
cold storage were accounted for with 4 K/cy cle and 2 % ma s s of boil-o ff losses. The integ ration
of the cold storage w ith the two main heat exchangers is di spla yed in Figure C.2.
The T, ∆ H 󰇗 - d i a g r a m o f t h e e v a p o r a t i n g l i q u i d a i r a n d t h e c u m u l a t i v e c u r v e of the CS media in
the MHE2 is displayed in Figure 4.7. The pressure of the liqui d air was varied from subcritic al
pressur es of 20- 30 bar to supe rcritica l pressures of 40-150 bar . Air reaches the c ritical point at
- 140.5 °C an d 37.4 bar.

Table 4.3: Refrigerant properties compared to air [ 39, 58].
Refrige rant no. Name Chemical formula Boilin g point
at 1 bar
Freezi ng po int
at 1 bar
R-218 Octafluoropro pane C 3 F 8 - 38 - 183
R-29 0 Propane C 3 H 8 - 42 - 190
- Methanol CH 3 OH 65 - 97
R-729 Air - - 196 - 21 0
R-732 Oxy gen O 2 - 196 - 216
R-728 Nitr ogen N 2 - 183 - 218

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
72
Liquid air storage
The li quefie d air is store d in a sim ple ins ulate d storage t ank as standa rd for bul k stora ge in the
industrial gas and the LNG indust ry ( e.g. double-wall flat-bott om tank) [15] . At a size larger
than 1,000 tons, liquid gases ar e stored at about ambient press ur e [32] . Storage vess els for LN G
can contain m ore than 5 ,000 t ons of liquid air [15]. According to reported values, boil-off losses
in low- pressure tanks range from 0.05 % up to 0.2 % by volume p er day d ecreasing with tank
size [12, 16, 18, 39, 130].
The storage vessel simulated h as a pressure of 1 .1 bar and temp erature of - 192 °C with boil-
off losses o f 0 .2 % Vol per cycle. Being physically indepe ndent, the charge and the di scharge
unit may be sized inde pende ntly [75]. The st orage tank size is depe ndent on the amount of air
liquefie d in the charging process ( 𝑚 󰇗  ∙𝜏  ) . W i t h a n e s t i m a t e d c h a r g i n g d u r a t i o n o f
8 hours, the tank size amounts t o approximately 3,000 tons for all considered system s.

Figure 4.7: T, ∆ 𝐻 󰇗 -diagram of the main heat exchanger in the discharge process (MHE2) for different
pressures of the liquid air evaporating in heat exchan ge to the cold storage media (cumulative curve).

4.3.3. Discharging unit
Pressurizing and evaporation (block (d) in Figure 4.2)
During discharge, the liquid air undergoes a Rankine cycle. At first, t he subcooled l iqui d air is
brought to high pressures in a cry ogenic pump before b eing evap orat ed, superheated, and
expanded for electricity generati on. In the s imula tion, the liq uid air enters the c ryopump slightly
subcooled (1. 1 bar, -192 °C) to av oid cavitation.
A cryopump is a vacuum pump that seizes liquid gas by surfaces cooled to cryogenic
temperatures (< 120 K) [131] . Bot h centrifugal and positive dis placement pumps may operate
as cryogenic compression pumps, and at large-scale, high-pressu re positive dis placement
-200
-180
-160
-140
-120
-100
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
0 0 ,2 0 , 4 0 ,6 0 , 8 1 1 ,2
tem perature, T [°C]
enthalpy rate, ΔH [MW]
Co ld st o r a
g

150 b ar
130 b ar
120 b ar
100 b ar
90 bar
70 bar
60 bar
50 bar
40 bar
30 bar
20 bar
0.0
Liquid air at
CS m edia
0.4 0.2 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
.

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
73
pumps operate at pressures h ighe r t h a n 2 0 0 b a r [ 4 7 ] . A m u l t i - s t age centrif ugal pump out of
aluminum and stainless steel with copper windings in the m otor was suggested for commercial-
scale CES systems to enable disc harge pressures of up to 200 ba r and mass flowrate s of up to
300 kg/s [8]. Brett and Barnett [ 18] stated that 200 bar and ma ss flow rates necessary for
commercial size are th e long -term ta rgets for CES further dev el opmen t, while a single
cryogenic pum p can already achieve flowrates greater than neces s a r y f o r 2 0 M W ( 5 0 k g / s )
dischar ge capacit y and pressur es > 100 bar, e.g., applied in L N G regas ification termina ls.
The power output of the discharge unit 𝑊 󰇗  increases with the pumping pressure 𝑝  until a
threshold is reached above which the additional power generated in the turbines ∑ ∆𝑊 󰇗 
counterparts the additional pumpi ng power necessary to increase t h e p r e s s u r e ∆𝑊 󰇗  . The
threshold depends on the dischar ge c onfiguration. Additionally, the am ount of c old recycled in
the evaporation proce ss reduces w ith increas ing pressure, reduc ing the effectiven ess of the
charging process [16] , Figure 4 .7. In Figure 4.8, the roundtrip efficie ncy is displaye d over the
pumping pressu re (< 200 bar).

Figure 4.8: RTE over pumping pressures for Base Case B.

Ameel et al. [10] stated that the enhancement in power output f or pressure increase between
100 and 500 bar is insignificant. Morgan e t al. [16] identified the threshold b etween 150-200
bar. Several other feed p ressures were suggested in the literat u r e , T a b l e 2 . 1 . I n t h e e v a l u a t e d
system, this power threshold i s reached at a pressure above 200 bars. The feed pressure o f the
Base Case was set to 150 bar, an d the isen tropic efficien cy i s assumed with 0.75 [57]. The
isentropic efficie ncy was estimated low in comparison to values s u g g e s t e d i n t h e l i t e r a t u r e
(0.75-0.80 [16, 42, 39, 51] ) bas ed on a recommendation from the industry.
The pressurized liquid air is sub sequently fed to the second ma in heat exchanger (MHE 2) and
re-gasifie d. The heat exchange i n the MHE2 is shown in Figure 4 .7 for different pumping
pressur es. The air is fu rther heated in heat excha nge with the stream exiting the e xpansio n line
(HE4) an d supe rheate d in heat e xcha nge wit h the hea t stora ge me dia (HE 5), Figure 4.2.

20
25
30
35
40
45
50
10 35 60 85 110 135 160 185
R T E, %
pumping pressure, bar

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
74
Expansion process (block (e) in Figure 4.2)
The high-pressure high-temperatu re g as is expanded in four g as turb ine stag es with reh eating.
The superheating occur s w i t h t h e a i d o f t h e h e a t s u p p l i e d b y t h e heat storage. The isentropic
efficiency of the turb ines is es timated at 90 %. Values propose d in the literature on CES system s
reached 90- 92 % [14, 57] . The spec ific e nergy gene rate d per kg of liquid air increases linearly
with the turbine inlet tempe rature (T IT), Figure 4.9.

Figure 4.9: Specific work of the discharge unit per kg of liquid air, RTE, and η over the TIT based on
the assumptions made for the integrated systems (section 4.4, 𝑤  = 1,200 kJ/kg).

For an adiabatic system with heat recover y and storage (TIT  200 °C), the specific energy is
approximately 475 kJ/ kg while with the integrat ion of waste hea t at 350-450 °C values of 650-
750 k J/kg are reached. The integra tion of heat sources a nd sink s is further discussed in
section 4.4. 1. Energy densities and efficiencies reported in th e literature are give n i n Ta ble 4. 4.
The values range from 360 to 900 kJ/kg, whic h are realizable wi th waste h eat integration and
TIT of 175-600°C. The RTE accordingly would range from 37 to 70 %, [17] and [18] claim t o
reach even higher v alues. In o rder to reach higher RTE at en ergy densi ties that ar e simi lar to
those achieved in adiab atic CES sys tems or with waste heat inte gration are only realizable with
integrat ed systems, e.g ., with LNG wa ste cold. In tegrated syste ms are sub ject to the following
sectio n 4. 4.

Table 4.4: CES energy densities and efficiencies reported in the literature.
Energy density Effici ency S ource
[kJ/k g] [ %]
540-900 40-60 [37]
360-720 70 + [17]
360-515 60, 70+ [18]
540 47-57 [ 16]

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
150 200 250 300 350 400 45 0 500 550
efficiency , %
specif ic work w
dis
, kJ/kg
TI T , ° C
spec work, kJ/kg RTE , %
ƞ

, %

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
75
4.4. Integrated systems
The reduction of the energy requ irement in the l iquefaction pro cess and the increase of the
specific power output of the disc harge process were identi fied a s t w o p r i m a r y r e s e a r c h a n d
development ob jectives, that need to be met to p repare CES tech nology for the market [20].
The integration of CES sy stem s with internal/external thermal e nergy sources aim s for such
enhancement in performance. Aim of the exergy-ba sed evaluation of the “integrat ed sys tems”
is to ident ify the pote ntial of inte grate d CES syste ms concer ni ng thermodynam ic and economic
perform ance .
In this sectio n, the desig n and simulat ion of the system s with the in tegration o f d ifferent h eat
sources and sin ks is discusse d. A total of ten syst em confi gura tions were assesse d i n this w ork
(Figure 4.10). Waste heat (TIT 350-450°C) and in ternal combusti on are considered an
alternative to heat storage in th e a-CES system. The integratio n of LNG waste cold instead of
or in combin ation with cold st orage is also consi dere d. Two adi abatic CES systems, one without
cold stora ge (a-CES w/ o CS) and one with CS (a-C ES). The a-CES system s were compared to
two systems with waste h eat inte gration at 350 °C and 450 °C, f our systems with LNG waste
cold integration and two diab atic CES sy stems with combustion .

Figure 4.10: Flowsheets of the integrated systems (a) based on the adiabatic CES system and (b) based
on the diabatic CES system.

Adiabatic system s:
 a-CES w/o CS: (a) 𝑚 󰇗

= 0, 𝑄 󰇗

= 0,
𝑚 󰇗

= 𝑚 󰇗

= 0
 a-CES: (a) 𝑚 󰇗

=0 , 𝑄 󰇗

=0
(a) Sys tems based o n the a-C ES
a2
a1
a3
a4
a5
NG
1
𝑊 󰇗

𝑊 󰇗

𝑊 󰇗

LN G
2
LN G
1
a6
NG
2
a2
𝑊 󰇗

a1
a3
a4
a5
𝑊 󰇗

𝑊 󰇗

𝑄 󰇗

𝑊 󰇗

LNG
2
LNG
1
a6
(b) Systems based on the d-CES
Internal Combustion:
 d-CE S: (b) 𝑚 󰇗

=0 , 𝑚 󰇗

=0
 d-C ES 2: (b ) 𝑚
󰇗


=0
Air
HS media
R218
Methanol
LNG
W aste heat integratio n:
 WH 35 0, WH 450 : (a) 𝑚 󰇗

=0 , 𝑄 󰇗

>0
LNG integrated systems :
 LNG w/o CS: 𝑄 󰇗

= 0, 𝑚 󰇗

= 𝑚 󰇗

= 0
 LNG integration: (a) 𝑄 󰇗

= 0
 LNG and WH integration: (a) 𝑄 󰇗

> 0
 LNG d-CES: (b) 𝑚 󰇗

= 0

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
76

For exerge tic analysis the compression pressure and mass flow r ate 𝑚 󰇗  i n t h e c o m p r e s s o r s
(com pression w ork 𝑊 󰇗  ) were kept uniform for all s yst em configurations. In economic
analysis, the r esults for
a) a comm on mass f low rate 𝑚 󰇗  = 200 kg/s, and
b) a c omm on disc harge capacity of 𝑊 󰇗  = 100 MW,
were compare d. All considered syste ms are b ased on the design p aram eters of the Optimize d
Case (Table 4.2) and the general assum ptions made for the isent ropic efficien cies of th e
turbomachinery (Table 4.1).
T h e s t r e a m v a l u e s o f t h e s y s t e m s p r e s e n t e d i n F i g u r e 4 . 1 0 a r e g iven in Table C.5 and Table C. 6
in Appendix C. The power and hea t capacities of the work and he at flows indicated in the
Figure 4. 10 are g iven in Table 4.5. The system s are descri bed i n d etail in the follo wing
subsecti ons.

Table 4.5: Power and heat capacities in MW for all work and hea t flows indicated in Fi gure 4.10 for
the ten systems considered in comparative analysis.
System Abbrev. 𝑊
󰇗

. 𝑊
󰇗

 𝑾
󰇗

𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓 𝑄
󰇗

 𝑊
󰇗

.  𝑊
󰇗

 𝑾
󰇗

𝒅𝒊𝒔
Adiabatic CES systems
without cold storage a-C ES w /o CS 138.2 21.2 117.0 - 59.1 2.9 56. 1
with cold storage a-CES 138.2 11.2 127.0 - 105.2 5.2 100.0
Waste h eat in tegra tion
with TIT of 350 °C WH 350 138.2 11.2 127.0 222.1 141.0 5.2 1 3 5 . 8
with TIT of 450 °C WH 450 138.2 11.2 127.0 329.7 164.0 5.2 1 5 8 . 8
LNG integrat ion
without cold storage LNG w/o CS 138.2 20.1 118.0 - 64.6 3.2 61.4
with cold storage LNG 138.2 2.8 135.4 - 144.1 7.1 137.0
with waste heat LNG + WH 138.2 2.8 135.4 290.0 224.7 7.1 2 17.6
with combustion LNG d-CES 138.2 2.8 135.4 - 297.4 4.1 293.4
Diabatic C ES systems
with single combustion d -CES 138.2 11. 2 127.0 - 21 7.4 3.0 214.4
with double combustion d-CES 2 138.2 11.2 127.0 - 188.7 3.0 185.8

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
77
4.4.1. Waste heat integration
R e c o v e r y o f “ wa s te h e a t ” w as i de n t i f i e d a s o n e o f t he c o r e p o t e ntials of CES (section 2.3) [8,
10, 14, 37]. As the heat of com pression rec overed in a-CES syst e m s , m a y e x c e e d T I T o f 2 0 0 ° C
and waste heat (WH) integration entails the colocation to th e w aste h eat source, only high-
temperature WH higher than 300 ° C is considerable for CES syste m s.
The sources for high-temperature waste heat are limited. The qu ality of waste heat from
electricity production was found i nsufficient in terms of exergy content and temperature level
(< 100 °C). The European annual waste heat potential in the tem perature range of 200–500 °C
was estimate d higher than 75 TWh [60] . In t he industry and tran sportation sector s, h igh-quality
waste heat (> 300 °C) is disp osed of [132]. For application in CES, only industrial waste heat
is of potential. Apart from the quality of the waste heat, the thermal carrier of the waste heat is
also of im p ortance. T he heat reject ed f rom industria l processe s is contained i n various therm al
carriers, e.g., exhaust gases, low-qua lity steam, hot oil, cool ing water, or comm oditie s such as
hot steel [60]. Among the numero us industrial processes and sec tors, the quantity o f waste heat
varies strongly [133] . The i ndust rial sectors with the highest pot ential of hi gh-grade waste heat
(200-500 °C) are iron and steel, non-m etallic m ineral, and chem ical indu stry [60]. In Germany
alone, the high-grade waste heat potential of iron and steel in dustr y is estimat ed larger than
45 TWh annual ly [60].
In the simulation, high-grade waste heat nece ssary to e levate t he TIT to 350-450 °C was taken
into conside ration. The power output of the discharge unit incr eases linearly with increased
T IT , F ig ure 4. 9. Th e f lo ws he e t f or CES wi t h w as te he at i s s im il ar to that of the ad iabatic C ES
system except for an additional heat rate 𝑄 󰇗  , that is supplied to the heat storage, Figure 4.10 (a).
R e a s o n f o r t h e w a s t e h e a t b e i n g s u p p l i e d t o t h e h e a t s t o r a g e i s that the waste heat is disposed
of continuous industri al processes, which h ave operation hours independent from that of the
dischar ge process of the CES system. Due t o the high tempera tur es, the heat transfer and stora ge
media of the sys tem with waste heat integrati on is therm al oi l (Dowth- 01) a t a pressure of 6 bar.
The power and heat capaci ties o f t he sy stem s w ith waste heat in tegration (WH 350, WH 450)
are compared to the adiabatic CES system in Table 4.5. The stre am valu es indicated in Figure
4.10 (a) are given in Ta ble C.5 in A ppendix C.

4.4.2. Diabatic CES with combustion
As an alternative, a CES can contain a combustion process in wh ich fuel is burned to supply
additional heat, increasing the t empe rature of the high-pressur e gas before the expansion
process [ 12, 134]. The c ombustion of natura l gas ( NG) causes th e le ast specific GHG e missions
and pollution. Being the relativ ely “clean est” convention al fue l, NG is used in the combustion
of the e valuate d d-CES system s. The NG was simulated with CH 4 an d a l o w e r h e a t i n g va l u e o f
50 MJ/kg.
T w o d i a b a t i c C E S s y s t e m s w e r e c o nsi dered in the analys is: d-CES , with a single combustio n
c h a m b e r , a n d d - C E S 2 , w i t h t w o c ombustion chambers. The flowshe et of the diabat ic CES
systems are shown in Figure 4.10 (b), the corresponding stream v a l u e s a r e g i v e n i n T a b l e C . 6
in Appendix C. The pres sure drop in the com bustion chamber (CC) is esti mated w ith 4-8 % of
the inlet pressure adopted from [127], depending on the size of the CC.

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
78
In the CES sys tems tha t employ c ombus tion, heat st orage ca n be avoided. As a result, a higher
mass f low rate of pr essurized wat er at ambie nt tem perature is u se d as a cool ing m edium in the
intercoole rs.
With increasing m ass fl ow o f the fuel, th e RTE and the exergetic efficiency of the d -CES system
rise, Figure C.3. The mass flow rate of the fuel was adjusted t o the max imu m o per ating
temperature of the construction m aterial of the turbines (metal alloys, < 1100 °C [118] ) to avoid
excessively expensive e quipment. The total mass flow of the fue l for both systems w as kept
consiste nt for c ompari son of the sys tem s performanc e and c ost-e f f e c t i v e n e s s . W i t h a m a s s f l o w
rate of 𝑚 󰇗  = 4.5 kg/s the temperature at the inlet of the subsequent turbi ne is augmented to
1,100 °C in the d-CES 1 system. I n the d-CES 2 sy stem, the TIT of the two turbines is 720 °C
and 730 °C. The reason for introducing a second combustion cham ber is to use ch eaper
materials for t he turbines wh ile achieving comparable power cap acity of the disc harge unit.
The power a nd heat capa cities of the d- CES s ystem s (for 𝑚 󰇗  = 200 kg/s) are com pared to t he
a-CES syste m in Table 4.5. The liqui d air is pumped to 80 bar instead of 150 bar i n the d-CES
systems, reducing the energy req uire ment of the cryogenic pum p. The d-CES sys tems achieve
approximately twice th e power capacity and RTE than the a-CES. The performance o f the d-
CES 2 system i s by 13.4 % lower.

4.4.3. Integration of LN G low-temperature exergy
The most p rom inent waste col d source is the regasif ication proc ess of LNG. Natural gas is
globally transported by ship in th e form o f LNG in c ryogenic st orage vessels at about
a t m o s p h e r i c p r e s s u r e a n d a t e m p e rature of approximately - 160°C [ 1 3 5 ] . T h e N G i s f e d b a c k
to the transmission grid at press ures between 30-70 bar [136]. For the transmission grid, a
p r e s s u r e o f 7 0 b a r i s r e q u i r e d , while local distribution requir es lower pressures. The mass
flowrates in LN G terminals may ex ceed values of 1 50 kg/s [137].
In the conside red sys tem s, the LNG is fed to the MHE1 of the li que factio n proc ess with a
pressure o f 32 bar and a tempera ture o f - 158 °C. Four differen t systems were simulated and
evalua ted in this work. L NG regas ificatio n was i ntegrate d into:
 an a-CES system without col d storage (LNG w/o CS),
 an a-CES system with c old stor age (LNG),
 a CES system with waste heat int egration at 450 °C (LNG + WH), and
 a d-CES system with NG com busti on (L NG d-CES), s ee Figu re 4 .1(a ) and (b).
The effect of integrating LNG to t h e a d i a b a t i c C E S s y s t e m i s d e picted in Figure 4.11. With a
higher mass flow of LNG fed to the system , the splitting ratio can be reduce d, and a higher
share of the air m ass f low is fed to the MHE 1 an d li quefied. T h e splitting ratio and liquid yield
are limited by the minim um temperature difference in the MHE1, section 4.3.1(c). The RTE
and the exergetic effici ency o f th e sy stem ɛ tot i ncrease linearly at first. When the mass flow of
the LNG reaches approximately 9 % of the mass flow of the co mpr e s s e d a i r , t h e m a x i m u m
value for th e RTE and the ɛ tot is reached.

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
79

Figure 4.11: RTE and exergetic efficiency over the specific mass flow of LNG.

W i t h t h e fu r t h e r s u p p l y o f L N G , t h e RTE st a y s co n s t an t . T h e e x e rg e t i c e f f i c i e n c y d e c l i n e s w it h
higher mass flows 𝑚 󰇗  , as the exergy of fuel–the low- tem perature exergy supplied by the
LNG fed to the system –increas es fur ther, while the exer gy of th e p r o d u c t s t a y s c o n s t a n t . F o r
the LNG systems, the mass flow of the LNG was set to 8.8 % of t he mass flow of the air to
a c h i e v e ma x i m u m e x e r g e t i c e f f i c i e n c y f o r a l l s y s t e m s w i t h t h e e xception of the sys tem without
c o l d s t o r a g e ( L N G w / o C S ) . F o r t h e L N G w / o C S s y s t e m , t h e m i n i m um splitti ng ratio and
maximu m effi ciency is achiev ed at a mass flo w rat io ( 𝑚 󰇗  /𝑚 󰇗  ) o f 2.8 %.
The stream v alues for the states i n d i c a t e d i n F i g u r e 4 . 1 0 a r e g i v e n f o r t h e L N G i n t e g r a t e d
systems in Table C.7. The LNG leaves the MHE at a temperature o f – 4 °C and a pressure o f
30 bar, to be fed to the local d istribution grid [136] . The sha re o f th e liquefied air is increased
b y 1 0 % ( w / o C S ) a n d b y 4 0 % i n r e s p e c t t o t h e a - C E S s y s t e m s a f ter the integration of LNG
waste cold. Th e resul ts of the comp arative analys is o f the inte g r a t e d C E S s y s t e m s a r e d i s c u s s e d
in Chapter 5.3.

0.0
38
41
43
46
48
51
53
ef ficiency , %
roundt rip efficie ncy ( RTE)
exergetic effi ciency ɛ
0.2 0.1 0.3 0.4
𝑚 󰇗  𝑚 󰇗 
⁄ , -
0.1

Chapte r 4: Design and sim ulation
80
4.5. Summary of the de sign and si mulation
Several design options exist f or t he cha rge, stora ge, an d disch arge process of C ES systems. In
the pre-design phase, different d esign options were assessed an d are discusse d in this chapter.
Two types of systems can be differentiated:
 the adiab atic stand -alone C ES systems, and
 the integrate d CES system s.
Two sets of assumptions are presented for the Base Case(s) a n d t h e Optimized Case(s) . The
B a s e c a s e s r e f e r to th e t wo st a n d - a l o n e a d i a b a t i c C E S sy s t e ms t hat are undertaken comparative
exergetic and economic analysis f ollowed by exergoeconomic anal ysis and optimization. The
integrated system s are adopted from the final design of the Optim ized Case configur atio n and
are extended with extern al h eat sources and sinks. Waste heat and internal combustion were
integrated as heat sources. As heat sink, the integration of LN G instead o f o r in combin ation
with c old st orage wa s consi dered.
For correct comparability, the capacities were kept consistent i n t h e c o m p a r a t i v e a n a l y s i s .
Either the compression work 𝑊 󰇗  , or the discharge power 𝑊 󰇗  were kept constant as co mmon
ground. The processes simulation was undertaken in Aspen Plus® software, while the
evaluation was commenc ed in the Engineering Equation S olver (EE S).

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
81

Chapter 5: Results and discu ssion
5.1. Evaluation of different cha rging proc esses for adiabatic C ES
This section presen ts the results from the evaluation of differ ent charging process
configur ations in a diabatic CES system s with exergy-based m etho ds. At first, the performance
of six different liquef action pr ocesses is compare d using ener g e ti c a n d e xe rg et ic a na ly s is wi th
and without the integration of co ld storage. Subs equently, the effect of cold storage on di fferent
system param eters of the liquefact ion pr ocesses is q uantifie d. Concern ing the three liquefaction
processes with the highest exerg etic efficien cy, fu rther sens it ivity analyses are und ertaken to
identify the optimal system pressure. The three systems are com pared, applying an economic
analys is at optim al system p ressur e.

5.1.1. Energetic and exergetic evaluati on of the liquefaction processes
T h e r e s u l t s o f t h e e n e r g e t i c a n d e x e r g e t i c a n a l y s e s o f t h e s i x analyze d lique facti on conf igur ati on
before and af ter the integrati on of cold stora ge are presented in Fi gure 5.1. The int egration of
cold storage significantl y increa ses the liquid yield 𝛾 (Figure 5.1 (a)). The liquid yield of the
simple Linde and the dual-pr essure Linde is tripled. The liquid y ield in the Claud e-based
systems is increased by 80-90 % . The exe rgy of t he product incr eases correspondingly.
With an increase in the mass fl o w r a t e o f t h e l i q u e f i e d a i r 𝑚 󰇗   , the low-temperature
exergy supplied to the liq uefacti o n process by the cold storage 𝐸 󰇗  increases proportionally.
With the addit ion of cold stora g e, also a substantial reduction of the specific work required to
produce one kg o f liquid air ( 𝑤  ), by 30 to 70 %, is obser ved for all processes. Thus, the
cold storage augmen ts the exerge tic efficiency c onsiderably by up to 200 %, as s hown in Figure
5.1 (b ) and (c).
Despite th e more significant redu c t i o n i n t h e s p e c i f i c w o r k r e q uirem ent in the Linde- based
configurations, th eir overall p erformance cannot co mpet e with t hat of the Claude -base d
configur ations. The simple Claud e process, the H eylandt process , a nd the Kapitza process reach
the highest exergetic efficiencies (69-72 %), have t he lowest s pec ific work requirem ent (1,435-
1,533 kJ/kg) and reach the highest li quid yield s (0.566-0.601).
For the most efficient liquefaction configurations – t h e C l a u d e -based processes – a sensitivity
analysis was conducted. The compression (liquefaction) pressure w a s v a r i e d ( 𝑝  = 70-
140 bar), and the s plitting ratio 𝑟 was reduced to its absol ute minim um value. The effect of
these variations on the exergetic efficiency 𝜀 can be seen in Figure 5.2. The exerget ic
efficiencies f or the res pective li quefa ction press ure are give n over t he spli tting rati o for (a) t he
Claude and the Kapit za process and (b) the Heylandt proces s.

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
82

Figure 5.1: Results of the energetic and exergetic eva luation for the liquefaction processes with/without
integrated cold storage (CS).

With increasing liquefaction pres sure, lo wer splitting ratio s a re achievable (Figure 5.2). The
share of air liquefied in the process incr eases with a reductio n in the value of th e splitting ratio
( 𝑟 𝑚 󰇗  𝑚 󰇗 
⁄ ), as a greater mass flow enters the MHE1 and the throttling pr ocess. The
temperature difference in the M HE1 decreases with a reduction i n “cold feed” ( 𝑚 󰇗  ) and a
simultaneous increase in “hot feed” ( 𝑚 󰇗  𝑚 󰇗  ) . T h e m i n i m u m s p l i t t i n g r a t i o i s t h e r e f o r e
restricted by the minim um pinch temperature ( ∆𝑇 , → 1 K).
By minimizing th e sp litting ratio the maximum liquid y ield 𝛾  , the ma xi mum e ffi ci ency
𝜀  , and the minim um specific liquefaction work 𝑤  are obtained f or the res pective
pressure. The m aximum exergetic efficiency curve s are indicated i n F i g u r e 5 . 2 w i t h a s o l i d
black line. The thermodynamic pe rform ances of the Claude and Ka pitza processes are non-
d i f f e r e n t i a b l e . R e a s o n f o r t h i s i s t h e t e m p e r a t u r e d i f f e r e n c e o f only 2 K o f the two mixing
streams (Figure 4.6) and that the minimum pinch temperature in t h e M H E 1 w as s e t t o 1 K f or
all processes. The T, ∆ H 󰇗 -diagrams of the MHE1 for all proces ses are given in Figure D.1 and
Figure D.2 in A ppendi x D.
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
(c) exergetic efficiency
Sim ple L inde
+ sto rage
Ka pitza
+ storag e
Dual -pr. Linde
+ storag e
Precooled Linde
+ storag e
Sim ple Cla ude
+ storag e
Heylandt
+ sto rage
80
60
40
20
0
exergetic efficiency
𝜀 %
0
400 0
800 0
1 200 0
(b) specific liquefaction work
4,000
0
8,000
specific work
𝑤

𝑘𝐽/𝑘𝑔
Sim ple L inde
+ storag e
Kap it za
+ sto rage
Dual-pr. L ind e
+ storag e
Precooled Linde
+ stor age
Sim ple Cla ude
+ storag e
Heylandt
+ sto rage
0,000
0,200
0,400
0,600
(a) liqu id yield
0.60
0.40
0.20
0.00
liquid yiel d
𝛾 
without CS with CS
Sim ple L inde
+ storage
Kapitza
+ sto rage
Dual-pr. Linde
+ storag e
Prec ooled Linde
+ storage
Sim ple Cla ude
+ sto rage
Heylandt
+ sto rage
12,000

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
83

Figure 5.2: Sensitivity analysis results for (a) the Claude and the Kapitza proc ess and b) the Heylandt
process: the exergetic efficiency 𝜀 over splitting ratio r, for va rious liquefaction pressures.

The Heylandt process reaches lower splitting ratios (< 0.3) and higher exergetic efficie ncies
(> 8 0.5 %) t han t he Cla ude and t he Kapitz a process ( 𝑟 > 0.35, 𝜀  < 78.5 %), F igure 5.2. The
processes reach their maxim um ex erget ic efficien cy 𝜀 at different splitting r atios and pressur es.
This confirm s that comparing the s y s t e m s a t a s i n g l e p r e s s u r e l evel is not sufficien t. The
Heylandt process reac hes its maximum exergeti c efficie ncy 𝜀  o f 80.9 % at a sp litting ratio
o f 0 . 3 a n d a p re ss u re o f 1 2 0 b a r while the Claude and the Kapit za process reach 𝜀  = 7 8 .3 %
a t a s p l i t t i n g r a t i o o f 0 . 3 9 7 a n d a p r e s s u r e o f 8 5 b a r . I n F i g u re 5 .3, the change in the minim al
specif ic w ork r equire d for liquefac tion 𝑤  and t he maxim um liquid yield 𝛾  a r e g i v e n o v e r
the splitting ratio 𝑟 for the Claude and t he Heylandt process.

0,735
0,745
0,755
0,765
0,775
0,785
0,795
0,25 0,3 0 ,35 0 ,4 0,45 0,5 0 ,55
exer getic ef fi ci enc y , 𝜀 [−]
splitt ing rati o r , [−]
max exerg e t i c
7 0 bar - C l a
u

7 5 bar - C l a
u

8 0 bar - C l a
u

8 5 bar - C l a
u

9 0 bar - C l a
u

9 5 bar - C l a
u

100 ba r - Cl a
u

110 ba r - Cl a
u

120 ba r - Cl a
u

130 ba r - Cl a
u

140 ba r - Cl a
u

(a) Claude and Kapitza process
(b) Hey landt process
0,7 5 5
0,7 6 5
0,7 7 5
0,7 8 5
0,7 9 5
0,8 0 5
0,8 1 5
0 , 25 0,3 0 ,35 0 ,4 0 , 45 0,5 0 ,55
exer getic e f fi ci e n c y , 𝜀 [−]
splitt ing r atio r , [−]
max ex erg e tic
100 ba r - H e
y

105 ba r - H e
y

110 ba r - H e
y

115 ba r - H e
y

120 ba r - H e
y

130 ba r - H e
y

140 ba r - H e
y

150 ba r - H e
y

160 ba r - H e
y

160 bar
140 bar
120 bar
100 bar
90 bar
110 bar
140 bar
120 bar
100 bar
85 bar
80 bar
90 bar
110 bar
130 bar
70 bar
75 bar
.
.
𝜀
,
𝜀
 ,
0.785
0.735
0.745
0.795
0.755
0.765
0.775
0.785
0.795
0.755
0.765
0.775
0.805
0.815
exer getic efficiency 𝜀   exer getic efficiency 𝜀  
0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 0.55
0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 0.55

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
84

Figure 5.3: Minimum specific work required for liquefaction 𝑤  and maximum liquid yield 𝛾 over
the splitting ratio 𝑟 of the Cl aude/Kapitza process and the Heylandt process.

In Figure 5.3, the liquef action pressures are indicated w ith a secondary x-axis. The reduction in
the splitting ratio 𝑟 at higher pressures is less significant. The maxim um liquid yi eld 𝛾 
increases linearly with the re ducti on in the split ting ratio 𝑟 . Thus, at higher pressures the
increase in the m aximum liquid yi eld 𝛾  is less substa ntial. As a res ult, the minim al specifi c
work required for liquefaction 𝑤  i ncreases a t higher pressures as the additional compression
power outweighs the increase in air liquefied ( 𝛾  ). The minim al specific liquefac tion work
𝑤  thus reaches a minim um at 85 ba r for the Claude/Kapitza proces s and at 120 b ar for the
Hey lan dt p roc ess . Th e pro ces s par amet er s at the min imu m wo rk r e quirement are consistent
with that of the m axim um efficienc y 𝜀  .
The minim um work req uired to liquefy one kg of air in the Heyla ndt process amounts to
967 kJ/kg (120 bar). T he Claude /Kapi tza pr ocess requires more specific liquefaction work
𝑤  = 984 k J/kg (85 bar). For liquefacti on pressures lower than 95 bar, the Claude/Kapitza
process reaches lower values for 𝑤  and higher val ues for 𝛾  and 𝜀  than the Heylandt
process. While, for variable and higher pressure s , t h e a p p l i c a t ion of the Heyla ndt process in
CES systems is prefer able in term s of thermodynam ic performanc e , Figure D.3 in Appendix D.

0
0,1
0,2
0,3
0,4
0,5
0,6
0,7
90 0
95 0
10 0 0
10 5 0
11 0 0
11 5 0
12 0 0
12 5 0
min spec work - Heyland t
min spe c work - Cla ude & Kap itza
ma x l iq uid y ie ld - H ey lan dt
max liq uid yield - C laude & Kapi tza
0.30 0. 35 0.40 0.45 0.50 0.55
splitting ratio, 𝑟 
1,200
950
1,000
1,250
1,050
1,100
1,150
900
0.6
0.1
0.2
0.7
0.3
0.4
0.5
0
liquid y ield, 𝛾 
spec ific work, 𝑤

𝑘𝐽/𝑘𝑔
120 b ar
140 120 100 90 80 70 pressure, 𝑝 𝑏𝑎𝑟 Cl aude and Kapi tza
140 120 110 100 90 80 70
Heyland t
85 bar
110 bar
140 bar
90 bar
80 ba r
70 ba r
100 bar
120 bar
140 bar

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
85
5.1.2. Economic evaluat ion of the Claude-based liquefaction processes
The economic analysis was conduct ed for the optimal design of e ach of the three Claude -based
liquefact ion units. The desig n parameters are given in Table 5. 1. The liquefacti on capac ity o f
all processes was adjusted to supply a 100 MW/400 MWh a-CES sys te m. The results of the
economic anal ysis a re presente d i n T able 5.2. E xc e pt f o r t h e hi gher charging pressure 𝑝  o f t h e
Heyl andt system , all design parameters o f the Claude and the Ka pitza process-based systems are
similar. The liquid yields 𝛾 and specific work requirement of the liquef action processes co rrespond
to a RTE of ap p r o x im at el y 44.4-46.8 %, wh ich is within the expected ra n ge of 40 -60 % for st and-
alone CE S system s [37, 38].
The results of the economic analy sis for the Claude a nd the Kapitza process differ des pite their
identical des ign parameters a nd similar perf ormance in the ener getic and th e ex ergetic analy sis.
T h e s m a l l d i f f e r e n c e i n t h e s i z e o f t h e M H E 1 r e s u l t s i n a n o t a b le difference in com ponent costs.
The specific investm ent costs and the production costs per kg o f liquid air are lowest for the
Kapitza liquefaction pr ocess, Table 5.2.
When com paring the results of en ergetic and economic analysis o f the liquefac tion processes
with integration o f co ld sto rage to valu es for stand-alon e air liquefaction plants, the effect of
c o l d s t o r a g e b e c o m e s e v e n m o r e a pparent. The work required to p roduce one ton of liquid air
is reduce d to the half (~ 290 kWh /ton), the values reported in literature range from 5 20 to
760 kWh/ton [8, 50]. Th e production costs of liquid air are als o significantl y reduced,
amount ing to only 14-17 €/t on inst ead of 37-48 €/to n [8] withou t cold storage. The specific
costs associated with the initial investment for the liquefac ti on unit are also reduced by half,
compared to values repor ted in the literature f o r the Claude pr ocess of 1.640 €/kW [51].

Table 5.1: Design parameters for the three Claude-based CES sys tems compared in economic analysis.
Param eter Unit Claude process Heylandt pr ocess Kapitza pro cess
Liquefact ion pr essure bar 85 120 85
Chargi ng capa city MW 112 107 113
Liquefact ion capaci ty tons/day 9,256 8,985 9,256
Liquid yield - 0.503 0.559 0.501

Table 5.2: Results of the econom ic analysis performed on the th ree Claude-based liquefaction units.
Parame ter Unit Claud e process Heylandt process Kapitza process
Specific invest ment costs €/kW 8 07 959 803
Specif ic work r equireme nt 𝑤  kWh/ton 291 286 292
Product ion costs of liquid air €/ton 13 .8 1 6.4 13.7

The TRR of the liquefaction un its amounts to € 21.9, € 22.8 and € 20.8 million for the Claude,
t h e H e yl a n dt a n d t he Ka pi t z a pr o cess respectively. The most cos t-efficient system is based on
the Kapitza process with a specific production cost o f the liqu id air o f 𝑐   = 13.7 €/t on.
The highest-efficiency system, w hich is based on the Heylandt p rocess performed less well in
economic analysis and reached b y 20 % higher specific product c osts of 𝑐   = 16. 4 €/ ton.

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
86
5.2. Analysis and optimizati on of two adiabatic CES systems
In this section, two c omplete adiabatic CES syste ms based on th e cost-optimal and the highest-
efficiency lique faction pr ocess are evalu ated and optimized wit h exergy-based methods. The
system employing the Kapitza pro cess is henceforth r eferred to as Base Case A and the
Heylandt- based system as Ba se Ca se B . The two system configura tions are compared in the
exergetic, economic, and exergoe conomic analysis. The base case systems are further optimized
in iterative exergoeconomic analysis, and an optimal system con f igurat ion is i dentifie d.

5.2.1. Exergetic analysis
Both base case syst ems compar ed in this section were designe d f or the same exergy o f the
product 𝐸 󰇗 ,   – a d i s c h a r g e c a p a c i t y o f 1 0 0 M W . T h e r e s u l t s o f t h e e x e r g e t i c analysis on the
syst em level: the exergy of the fuel 𝐸 󰇗 ,    the exer gy destructi on 𝐸 󰇗 ,   , the exergy los ses 𝐸 󰇗 ,   
a s w e ll a s t h e e xe r ge t i c e f f i c ie n c y 𝜀  are given in Table 5.3. The exerg y values are given in
MWh per cycle, to avoid mislea ding results caused by the differ ent oper ating hours of t he
charge , storag e and d ischarge uni t. E ach d aily cycle entail s ei ght charging hours and four
discharging hours at full capacity . The exergetic efficiencies of selecte d com ponents ar e given
in Figure 5.4. Further results of t h e e x e r g e t i c a n a l y s i s o n t h e com ponent le vel are given in Ta ble
D.1 an d Table D. 2 in Ap pendix D.

Table 5.3: Results obtained from the exergetic evaluation of th e two base case systems.

𝐸
󰇗

𝐹,𝑡𝑜𝑡
[MW h/cycle ] 𝐸
󰇗

𝑃,𝑡𝑜𝑡
[MW h/cycle ] 𝐸
󰇗

 ,𝑡𝑜𝑡
[MW h/cycle ] 𝐸
󰇗

𝐿,𝑡𝑜𝑡
[MW h/cycle ] 𝜀 
[-]
Base Ca se A 900.9 400. 0 439.7 61.1 0.444
Base Case B 855.2 400 .0 393.9 61.3 0.468

Figure 5.4: Exergetic efficiency 𝜀 𝑘 of selected components of the two CES base case systems.
0 , 60 0 0 , 6 5 0 0,7 0 0 0 ,75 0 0,8 0 0 0 ,85 0 0, 90 0 0 ,9 5 0 1 , 00 0
Co mpre ssors
Intercoolers
Expa nder
Mixer
MHE1
Throttling valve
Storage ta nk
Cryogenic pump
MHE2
Super -heaters
Turbines
Heat storage
Cold sto rage
Base Case A
Base Case B
0.60 0. 65 0.70 0.75 0.80 0.85 0.90 0. 95 1.00
exerge tic efficienc y 𝜀

, 

Chapter 5: Results and discussion
87
The exergy of the fuel 𝐸 󰇗 ,    to the Base Case A is 45 MWh hi gher than that o f the Base Case B,
d u e t o t h e l o w e r e x e r g e t i c e f f i c i ency o f 44 .5 % in contr ast t o 46.8 %, Table 5.3. The exergy
losses 𝐸 󰇗 ,  in both systems are relatively low (7 % 𝐸 󰇗 ,    ). All exiting streams and the heat
vented from the heat s torage after dischar ge are accounted as l osses, while h eat losses and
l e a k a g e s o n c o m p o n e n t l e v e l , e . g . , i n t h e c o l d s t o r a g e , a r e c o n sidere d as exergy destructi on.
The exergy flow through the b ase case systems over the p eriod o f one cycl e i s p resented
Grassmann diagrams for the Base Case A and the Base Case B, in Figure 5.5 and Figure 5 .6,
respectively.

Figure 5.5: Grassmann diagram of the e xergy flow in the Base Case A system throughout one cycle.

The Base Case B system shows higher exergetic efficiencies in m ost comp onents excep t th e
expander, the throttl ing valve, a nd the m ixer in the liquefacti on process, Figure 5.4. The h igher
compression pressure o f the Base Case B not only improves the t herm odynamic perform ance
of t he c ompress ors and the heat exchange rs in the char ging unit (MHE1, IC) but also increases
the TIT and thermodynam ic performanc e of the turbi nes and the s uperheaters in the discharge
unit and the heat storage.
The high ex ergetic effi ciency in the MHE 1 in the Base Case B re sults from th e lower
logarithmic mean temperature difference (LMTD), Figure D.1. In the Base Case A, the high-

Chapter 5: Results and discussion
88
pressur e air is fed to the MHE1 to reduce the temperature to ap proximately - 40 °C before a
fractio n of the m ass flow is fed to the expa nder. In the Base C a s e B , t h e a i r i s s p l i t b e f o r e
passi ng the MHE1, and the air enters the expande r at about ambi ent temperature resulting in
the lower exergetic efficiency o f the expander. The stream exit ing the expander is mixed with
the recurring gas stream from th e flash tank to be fed b ack to the MHE1. In the B ase Case A,
the air exits the expander at approximately the same te mperatur e than the recurring stream
(- 191°C), almost completely avoiding exergy d estruc tion in the mixi ng process ( 𝜀  , =
99.9 % ). In the expa nsion process of the Base Case B, the air i s cooled down to only - 171°C
causing avoidable exergy destruc tion in the mixing process caus ed by the temperature
differe nce of the t wo mixi ng str eams.

Figure 5.6: Grassmann diagram of t he exergy flow in the Base Case B system throughout one cycle
[36] .

The cold expander serves two pu r poses in t he liquefaction proce ss. On the one hand, additional
low-tem perature exer gy is supplied to the MHE1. On the other ha nd, the exergy of the fu el to
the system 𝐸 󰇗 ,    is reduced by the electric ity ge nerated in the expa nsion pr oce ss . In both cases,
the expander supplies approximately 8 % of the 𝐸 󰇗 ,    despite the by 4.4 percentage points
lower exergeti c efficiency of th e expand er in the Ba se Case B ( 𝜀  , = 72.5 %).

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
89
The low-temperatu re exergy recovered from the evapor ating liqui d air i n the MHE 2 (discharge
process) and supplied to the lique faction process amounts to a significan t share of the exer gy
of the liqui d air of approxim ately 35 % (Fi gure 5.5 and Figure 5.6). The effect o f the heat
recove ry is also of ma gnitude t o the perf ormance of t he overall sys tem, am ounting to 37-39 %
of the exergy the fina l product of t he system 𝐸 󰇗 ,   .
The major contributor to the exergy losses are the 61 MWh/cyc le of thermal ex ergy vented
from the he at st orage t o the environm ent after the dischar ge pr ocess . Rea son fo r this i s that the
heat storage medium must be s upplied to the inter coolers at amb ient tem perature to re duce the
work requir ement in the compr ession process. The therm al exergy could be utilized in an
additional ORC, as reported in [41] .

Figure 5.7: Breakdown of the exergy destruction of the overall system 𝐸 󰇗 ,  shown by the exergy
destruction rates 𝛾 ,
∗   ,
 ,  for Base Cases A and B.

The exergy destructi on breakdown i nto the exergy destruction ra tes 𝛾 , 
∗ of selected compone nts
of the base cases are depicted in Figure 5.7. In both base case s , t h e c o m p r e s s o r s c a u s e t h e
highest share of the total exergy destruction in the system, ap proximately 23-24 %, despite high
exerget ic efficiency ( 𝜀  = 9 0 % ) . R e a s o n f o r t h i s i s t h e l a r g e e x e r g y o f t h e f u e l e n t e r ing th e
compression process of 850-900 M Wh/cycle. For the Base Case A, the second highest
contributi on to the exergy destructio n ori ginates from the M HE1 (14 % 𝐸 󰇗 ,   ) followed by the
expander (13 % 𝐸 󰇗 ,    ) and the throttling v alve (10 % 𝐸 󰇗 ,    ). In the Base Case B, the exergy
CM
24%
MHE1
7%
EX, 13%
TV , 14%
IC, 6 %
T, 1 1 %
SH, 1 1%
CP , 5%
MHE2,
4%
CS, 4% HS, 2%
other , 1%
CM,
23%
MHE1,
14%
EX, 13%
TV , 10%
IC, 5 %
T , 10%
SH, 10 %
CP , 4%
MHE2,
4%
CS, 3%
HS, 3% o ther , 1 %
a) Exer gy destruction in the Base Case A
𝐸 󰇗
D,tot
= 435.62 MWh/cycle
b) Exer gy destruction in the Base Case B
𝐸 󰇗
D,tot
= 393.92 MWh/cycle
Cha r ge uni t
CM the compressors
MHE1 the m ain heat exch anger 1
EX the ex pander
TV the th rottling v alve
IC the interco olers
Discha r ge unit
T the turbines
SH the s uperh eaters
CP th e cryogen ic pump
MHE2 the main heat exchan ger 2
Storage unit
CS the cold storag e
HS the he at st orage

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
90
destruc tion in the MHE1 is less dominant (7 % 𝐸 󰇗 ,   ), while the exergy destruction in the
throttl ing va lve (14 % 𝐸 󰇗 ,   ) is more significant.
The higher exer gy destr uction in the TV of the Base Case B is a r e s u l t o f t h e l o w e r e x e r g e t i c
efficiency o f 85.7 % ( 𝜀  , = 8 8 . 0 % ) a n d t h e l o w e r 𝐸 󰇗 ,   . The abs olute values of the exerg y
destruc tion in the com ponents of the discharge unit (e.g., the turbin es, the superheaters, the
cryogenic pump, the MHE 2) are smaller in the Base Case B despite the higher e xergy
destr uctio n r atio 𝛾 , , Figure D.5 in t he Appendix D.
I n b ot h B a s e C a s e s A a n d B , t he highest share of exergy destruc tion is caused in the ch arging
process (64-66 %) while the exergy destructi on in the d isc harge system amounts to only 28-
30 % of the exer gy destruction in the ov erall system. The high exergy destruction in the
charging process under lines the importanc e of the selecti on of th e liquefaction process to the
overal l exer getic effi ciency. The sha re of t he e xergy des tructi on in the storage unit amounts to
o n l y 6 % o f 𝐸 󰇗 ,  , indicating that CES systems allo w long storage durations at l ow losses.
Further results of the exergetic analys is on the compone nt leve l are given in Table D.1, Table
D.2 an d Figure D. 5 , in Appendix D.

5.2.2. Economic analys is
R e su l t s o f t h e e c o n o mi c a n a l y s i s r e v e a l e d t h at s i m i l a r t o t h e e conomic analysis on the charging
system s the TRR of the Base Case A is lower than that of the B a s e C a s e B . T h e T R R f o r t h e
base cases amount to 37.3 ˑ 10 6 € and 39.0 ˑ 10 6 €, respectivel y. Moreover, despite the lower
exerget ic effi ciency and RTE of th e Base Case A, a lower LCOE dis o f 2 5 5 € / M W h w a s a c h i e v e d ,
compared to 267 €/MWh in the Ba se Case B. In Figure 5.8, the LCOE dis of both base cases is
broken down into the cost associa ted with the levelize d carryin g charges of the char ging,
storage and discharg ing uni ts as wel l as the levelized O&M c ost s a nd the le velized f uel cos ts.

Figure 5.8: Cost breakdown of the LCOE dis into levelized carrying charges (CC), lev elized fuel costs
(FC) and levelized operation and maintenance costs (OMC) for the two base case systems.

Figure 5.8 shows that the l evel ized CC represen t around 53.3 % and 54.3 % of the LCOE dis of
the Base Cases A and B . The costs of the com ponents in the char ging system dom in ate in both
base case systems, while the cos ts assoc iated wi th the storage unit are rather insignific ant.
- 50 100 150 200 250 300
Bas e C ase B
Base Case A
levelized c osts, [€/MW h]
charging u nit storage unit discharge unit Levelized OMC Levelized FC
59
56 64
60 80
81
5
5
59
51
L evelized CC

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
91
The fuel to the systems refers t o th e electrici ty charged durin g the liquefac tion process. Varying
the price of e lectricity in sensitivity a nalysis showed that th e LCOE dis of the Base Case A is
smaller than that of t he Base Case B for electricity prices sma ller than 100 €/M Wh. For hig her
electricity prices, the Base Cas e B becom es more econom ically f easible t han the Base Case A.
The distribution of the bare modu l e c o s t s ( B M C ) o f t he m a i n s y s tem components is sh own in
Figure 5.9. The heat exchangers a re responsible fo r 62-64 % of the investment costs in both
Base Case system s. In the Base Case B, the two main heat exchan gers al one m ake up f or 51 %
of the total compone nt costs. The MHE 1 is the major reason for the cos t differenc e betwee n
both systems being twice as expensive in the Base Case B than i n the Base C ase A. The
intercoole rs, in contrast, are less costly in the Base Case B. The costs of all other co mponents
are similar for both base case system s. The s pecific investment cos ts am ount to 2,089 €/kW a nd
1,942 €/kW of instal led disch arge capac ity whi ch is wi thin the range for cost estimates
suggested by [16 , 18, 33, 64, 72].

Figure 5.9: Bare module costs of the Base Cases A and B with indicated cost shares of selected
components.

5.2.3. Exergoeconomic analysis and optimization
In the exergoec onomic anal ysis, the cost rate associated with t he exergy of the fuel 𝐶 󰇗 ,   , the
exergy of the product 𝐶 󰇗 ,    and the ther modynam ic ineff iciencies – the exe rgy destruction
𝐶 󰇗 ,   , and the exergy losses 𝐶 󰇗 ,    – a re ob t ai ne d. Th e r es ul ts o f the exergoeconom ic analysis
of the two base case sys tems are given in Table 5.4. The relati ve cost dif ference 𝑟  b e t w e e n
the specific costs pe r unit of exergy of the product and the ex ergy of the fuel is large. T he c ost
per exer gy unit of the produc t of the system ( LCOE dis ) is appr oximately ten times as high as the
cost per exe rgy unit of the fue l to the system. The exergoecono mic factor 𝑓  is elevated
( ≫ 0.5) which indicates that the cost rate associated with the in itial investment and the OMC
outsizes the costs asso ciated with the exer gy destruction in th e syst em.

0
20000
40000
60000
80000
100000
120000
140000
Base Case A Base Case B
other
EX
CP
RH
CM
MHE1
IC
T
MHE2
123.4 Mio €
1 15.2 Mio €
120
20
40
140
60
80
100
0
bare module costs [10
6
€]
other components
the expander
the cry ogeni c pump
th e re-/ su per-heat ers
th e com pre sso rs
the main heat exchanger 1
the intercoolers
the turbines
the main heat exchanger 2

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
92
Table 5.4: Results obtained in e xergoeconomic analysis for the two base case syste ms.
𝑍
󰇗

 𝐶
󰇗

,   𝐶
󰇗

,   𝐶
󰇗

,    𝐶
󰇗

,     𝑐 ,  𝑟 
𝑓


[ €/cy cle] [ €/cy cle] [ €/cy cle] [ €/cy cle] [ €/cy cle] [ €/MW h] [-] [-]
Base Case A 7 8.513 23,422 102 ,197 11,433 1,590 255 8.8 0.814
Base Cas e B 84.3 17 22,235 106,803 10,242 1,593 267 9.3 0.8 28

With the aim of identifying m eans to reduce the co st of th e fin al product, the components with
the highest associated total cost rate 𝑍 󰇗  𝐶 󰇗 ,  are prioritized in exer goeconomic analysis and
optimization. Five sets of components: the main heat exchangers , the turbines , the intercoolers ,
the co mp ressors and the reheater s , m a k e u p m o r e t h a n 8 0 % o f t h e s u m o f c o m p o n e n t c o s t r a t e s
in both bas e case systems.
In Figure 5.10, the component co s t r a te s of t he f iv e p r i or i t i z e d components are display ed. For
the majority of the components, the costs associated with the i nitial investment and OMC 𝑍 󰇗 
dominate, which is al so indicated in an e levated exergoeconom ic factor 𝑓  .

Figure 5.10: Exergoeconomic analysis results for the five components with the hi ghest total cost rate
𝑍 󰇗  𝐶 󰇗 , .
O n l y i n t h e M H E 1 a n d t h e r e h e a t e rs o f the Base Case A the costs associate d with the exergy
destr uction in the com ponents 𝐶 󰇗 ,  cause more than 50 % of the total cos t rate of the res pecti ve
c o m p o n e n t . F o r t u r b o m a c h i n e r y s u c h a s t h e t u r b i n e s a n d t h e c o m p ressors an elevate d
exergoeconomic factor e .g., 0 .6-0.8 is to b e expected, while in heat exc hangers the costs
associated with the exergy des truction commonl y takes over ( 𝑓  < 0.5).
- 10.000 20.000 30.000
Base Case B
Main HE2 - B a se Ca se A
Base Case B
Main HE1 - B a se Ca se A
Base Case B
Turbines - Base Case A
Base Case B
Intercool ers - Base Case A
Base Case B
Compressors - Base C ase A
Base Case B
Re-heaters - B ase Case A
Ba se

Case

B

𝑓

=
0

.
41

𝑓

= 0.48
𝑓 = 0.55
𝑓 = 0.71
𝑓 = 0.71 𝑓 = 0 .94
𝑓 = 0.93 𝑓 = 0.66
𝑓 = 0.65
𝑓 = 0.46
𝑓 = 0.76
𝑓 = 0.90
𝑓 = 0.91
𝑍
󰇗


[€/cy cle]
𝐶 󰇗
,
[€/c y cle]
cost rat es [€/ cy cl e]

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
93
The objective for the priorit ized c o m p o n e n t s i s t o d e c r e a s e t h e com ponent cost rate 𝑍 󰇗  w h i l e
accepting a lower t herm odynamic perform ance of the respective c omponent in order to reduce
the LCOE dis . The decision variables that we r e s e l e c t e d t o r e d u c e t h e i n i t i al inves tment cost of
the respective component are given in Table 5.5.
W i t h t h e ex ce p t io n o f t h e M H E 1 i n the Base Case A, the same cha nges to t he selecte d decis ion
varia bles were applie d to bot h sy stem s. The ite rati on in w hich the par ameters w ere chang ed is
given for both systems. The turbi nes and the com pressors were not listed despite being the
third and 5 th most cost-inte nse com ponents. R eason for this is that the redu ction i n component
costs through param etri c changes is not applicable. The investm ent costs of the turbomachinery
are determined by the power capac ity. The isentr opic efficiency of the purchas ed m achinery is
fixed. Reducing costs at the expense o f performance is theref ore practicall y not possible in that
sense unless components are purchased secondhand. For the com pr essors, the component cost
rate can only be red uced w hen th e RTE i s i n cr ea se d , a nd l es s c o mp re ss io n ca p ac it y is r e qu ir e d.
The capacity of the turbines i s fixed by the boundary condition s of a fixed dis charge capacity
for all syst em s of 100 MW.

Table 5.5: Decision variables for exergoeconomic optim ization o f selected components.
Compo nent Decis ion vari able P arametr ic c hange Bas e Cas e A Base Case B
MHE1 𝐿𝑀𝑇𝐷  ↑  𝑝  ↑ - 1 st itera tion
MHE2 𝐿𝑀𝑇𝐷  ↑ 𝑚
󰇗

 , 𝑚
󰇗

 ↓ 2 nd iter ation 2 nd iter ation
Inte rcool ers 𝐿𝑀𝑇𝐷  ↑ 𝑚
󰇗

 ↑ 3 r
d

iteratio n 3 r
d

iteratio n
Reheat ers 𝐿𝑀𝑇𝐷  ↑ 𝑇  , ↓ 4 th iterati on 4 th iter ation

The investm ent costs o f the heat exchangers are a function of t he heat exchanger design,
working fluid pr operties (e.g., pressure , temperature, heat cap acity), materials and heat
exchanger area 𝐴  . For cost reduction in t he heat exchangers, the 𝐴  can be reduced by
increasing the LMTD. Four dis tinct iterations were applied:
1 st iteration : To reduce the costs and increase the LMTD between the cumulati ve curves
of the MHE1 of the Base Case B, the compression pressure was g r ad ually increased.
The splitting ratio was k ept to its minimum.
2 nd iteration : The LMTD in the MHE2 is increase d by reducing the mass flow o f the
cold storage med ia ( 𝑚 󰇗  ↓ , 𝑚 󰇗  ↓ ).
3 rd iteration: By incre asing t he mass f low of the heat s torage m edia 𝑚 󰇗  the L MTD of
the intercoolers is i ncreased, decreasing the heat exchanger ar ea 𝐴  and 𝑍 󰇗  .
4 th iteration: For cost redu ction in the reh eaters, a lower exit t emperatur e 𝑇  , ( o r
TIT) is accepted to in crease the logarithm ic m ean temperature d ifference.
The parametric change and the e ffect of all performed optimization steps on the TRR, the
LCOE dis, and the exerge tic efficie ncy are g ive n in Table 5.6 and Table 5.7. The effect o f the
param etric changes on the RTE and LCOE dis a r e i n d i c a t e d i n F i g u r e 5 .12 and Figure 5.13 for
the Base Cases A and B, r espe ctively.

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
94
Table 5.6: Parameters and results of the optimization steps for the Case A.
Param eter Unit Base Case A 1 st 2 nd 3 rd iteration
𝑝  bar 85 85 85 85
𝑚
󰇗

 𝑚
󰇗


⁄ - 2.28 0 2.08 3 2.08 3 2.083
𝑚
󰇗

 𝑚
󰇗


⁄ - 0.450 0 .414 0 .414 0 .414
∆𝑇  K 2 2 3 3
∆𝑇  K 2 2 2 7
TRR 10 6 € 37.3 32.3 30.7 30.4
LCOE dis €/MWh 255 221 210 208
RTE - 0.444 0.397 0.386 0.381

Table 5.7: Parameters and results of the optimization steps for the Case B.
Param eter Unit Base Case B 1 st 2 n
d

3 r
d

4 th iteration
𝑝  bar 120 180 180 180 180
𝑚
󰇗

 𝑚
󰇗


⁄ - 2.28 0 2.28 0 2 .000 2.000 2.000
𝑚
󰇗

 𝑚
󰇗


⁄ - 0.450 0.450 0.40 0 0.400 0.400
∆𝑇  K 2 2 2 3 3
∆𝑇  K 2 2 2 2 6
TRR 10 6 € 39.0 33.6 28.8 28.6 28. 5
LCOE dis €/MWh 267 230 197 196 195
RTE - 0.468 0.449 0.415 0.399 0.394

In the 1 st iteration of the exergoeconomic optimization the pressure 𝑝  of th e comp ression
ratio of the compressors in the Base Case B, was gradually incr eased to reach a higher absolute
pressure in the liquefaction p rocess. The component cost rates of the Base Case B (120 bar) and
the cases with increased p ressure are shown in Figure 5.11. The a i m e d r e d u c t i o n i n t h e
investment costs of the MHE1 and the intercoolers was achieved while t he compone nt cost rate
of the MHE2 onl y decreased sli ghtly. The iteration was stopped at 180 bar to avoid more costl y
equipm ent and m aterials of subsequent co mponents.
The cost of the M HE1 was reduced by almost 7 0 % and the exergoe conomic factor of
previously 0.75 was reduced to 0. 42, due to the i ncrease in LMT D from 3 K to 9 K. The
increased co mpression ratio also lead s to a 60 K higher temp era tu re at th e outlet o f the
compress ors 𝑇  that can be recovere d in heat stora ge. The turbine inlet tempe rature TIT
increases, improving the ex ergeti c efficien cy 𝜀  and reducing the cost rate asso ciated with th e
exergy destruction in the tu rbines 𝐶 󰇗 ,  . The temperature level in the reheaters rises, which at
constant mass flow would decreas e their heat exchanger area. Ho wever , a t incr eased 𝑝  the
RTE drops and a highe r mass flow in the discharge unit becomes n ec essary, retaining the co st
rate of the reheaters. By increasing 𝑝  to 180 bar, the LCOE dis o f t h e B a s e C a s e B w a s
significantly red uced from 267 €/MWh to 230 €/MWh.

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
95

Figure 5.11: Component cost rates 𝑍 󰇗  of selected co mponents of the Base Case B (with increased
compression pressure from 120 to 180 bar).

The 2 nd iteration that is applied to bot h base case system s entails th e reduction of 𝑍 󰇗  . The
reduction of the mass fl ow rate of the cold storage working flu i d r e d u c e s t h e a m o u n t o f l o w -
temperature exergy that is suppli e d t o t h e M H E 1 . A t a c o n s t a n t splitting ratio, this leads to a
reduction in the LMTD and increa ses co sts of th e MHE1. Therefor e, the splitting ratio 𝑟 nee ds
to be increased to meet t he min imum temp erature difference ∆𝑇 , = 1 K a n d a v o i d a r i s e
in the inves tm ent costs of the MHE1. When the s plit ting rati o 𝑟 is inc reased, the l iqui d yield 𝛾
is redu ced and the exerget ic efficiency 𝜀 of the liquefaction process and the overall system is
reduced.
The mass flow rates 𝑚 󰇗  and 𝑚 󰇗  a r e r e d u c e d u n t i l t h e e x e r g e t i c e f f i c i e n c y o f t h e
charging systems drops so low, that the additional investment i n lar ger equipment in the
chargi ng unit exceeds the cost r educti on in the M HE2. For the B ase Case A system, the LCOE dis
wa s min i miz ed at 𝑚 󰇗  /𝑚 󰇗   = 2.083 and 𝑚 󰇗  /𝑚 󰇗   = 0.414. The ratios
reached lower values in Base Case B, Table 5.7. The LCOE dis of both system s is reduced by
13-14 % to 221 €/MWh and 197 €/MWh . A s th e spl itting ratio n eed ed to be increased from
0.39 to 0.46 ( 0.31 to 0.33), th e liquid yield of the system dec reases from 0.501 t o 0.445 (0.559
t o 0 . 5 3 3 ) i n t h e B a s e C a s e A ( B ) a n d t h e e x e r g e t i c e f f i c i e n c y 𝜀  ( RTE ) drops accordingly,
Figure 5.12 and Figure 5.13. T he reduction in performanc e i n t h e Base Case A is more
significa nt (10. 6 %) tha n in the Base Case B (7.6 % ).
By increasing the mass flow of the heat storage media 𝑚 󰇗  in th e 3 rd iteration , th e temp erature
diff erenc e withi n the i nterc oolers ∆𝑇  is inc rease d to a m axim um of 3 K. I ncreasi ng t he 𝑚 󰇗 
further in creases the LMTD while reducing the LCOE dis further. With an in creased mass flow
of the heat transfer media, the TIT decreases, reducing the exe rgetic e fficien cy of the tu rbine
and the reheaters and according ly, th e specific power output of t h e d i s c h a r g e u n i t .
Conseq uently, a minim um LCOE dis is reached when the additional investm ent in large r
equipm ent and fuel costs outweighs the cost reducti on in the in terc oolers. The LCOE dis i s
minim ized at a LMTD of the interc oolers of ap proxim ately 7 K (9 K) for Base Case A (B).
0
50 00
10 000
15 000
20 000
25 000
CM I C EX MHE1 ST CP MHE2 RH T
120 bar 130 bar 140 bar 15 0 ba r 16 0 ba r 170 bar 180 bar
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
𝑍 󰇗

, [€/cycle]
CM the com pressors
IC the intercoolers
EX the expander
MHE1 the m ain HE 1
ST the storage tank
CP the cryogenic pum p
MHE2 the main HE 2
RH the reh eater s
T the turbine s

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
96
The effect of cost red uction when increasi ng 𝑚 󰇗  is more significant in the Base Case A.
Nevert heless , Base Case B achieves a lower LCOE dis at considerably higher RTE , Figure D.6
in Appendix D.

Figure 5.12: RTE over LCOE dis for the optimization steps perf ormed on the Base Case A with an
indication of the changes applied to the d ecision variables in the respective iteration.

Figure 5.13: RTE over LCOE dis for the optimization steps perf ormed on the Base Case B with an
indication of the changes applied to the d ecision variables in the respective iteration.

In the final iteration perfo rmed on both systems, th e ou tlet tempe rature o f the rehea ters was
reduced res ulting i n a higher temperature difference ∆𝑇  betw e en the he at st orage m edi a an d
the TIT (2 K → 10 K). Th e minimum LCOE dis o f the base cases was a chieve d at 6-7 K, Table
5.6 and Tabl e 5.7 – 4 th iteration. The reduction in RTE in both cases is comp arable, 14 .1 % a nd
15.4 % for the Optimized Cases A and B , respectively. However, the cost reducti on is much
more drastic in the Optim ized Case B.
34
36
38
40
42
44
204 214 224 234 244 25 4
R TE, [%]
LC O E dis , €/MWh
2nd itera t io n
3rd it erat ion
4th iteration
m 󰇗

↓ , m 󰇗

↓
T
, 
↓ m 󰇗

↑
Base Case A
p

↑
m 󰇗

↓ , m 󰇗

↓
T
, 
↓
37
39
41
43
45
47
185 195 205 215 225 235 245 255 265
R TE, [ %]
LC O E
dis
, €/MWh
1s t it era ti on
2nd itera tion
3rd iteration
4th iteration
m 󰇗

↑
Base Case B

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
97
The effect of the parametric changes in the iterative exergoeco nomic optimization on the RTE
and the LCOE dis is depict ed in F igure 5. 12 an d Figur e 5.13. In each of the ite ration, a sensitivity
analys is of the RTE and the LCOE dis while gradually changing the respective decision variable
was conducted. The operation ste ps are p erformed successively . The param etric changes o f the
subseq uent iteration were app lied to the “best case” (lowest LCOE dis ) of the res pectiv e iteration.
The reduction of the cost of the final product in the system is more significa n t when adopting
changes to the c omponents with h igher cost-im porta nce (higher 𝑍 󰇗  𝐶 󰇗 ,  ). When the
liquefaction pressure or the mass flow o f th e co ld storag e medi um is gradually change d to
reduce the compone nt cost rates of the MHE1 and MHE 2, the reduc tio n in the LCOE dis i s m u c h
more noticeable than when changing the parameters of the less c ost- intensive co mponents such
as the in tercoolers and the reh eaters. For this reason, the cos t redu ction when applying furth er
changes is expected to be insignificant.
In Figure 5.14, the sum of the compone nt cost rates normali zed to the unit of p roduct exergy
( ∑ 𝑍 󰇗  𝐸 󰇗 , 
󰇜 is given over the sum of exergy destructi on and exergy losses per unit of product
exergy ( 𝐸 󰇗 ,   𝐸 󰇗 ,   𝐸
󰇗 ,  
 󰇛 1  𝜀
 󰇜𝜀

⁄ ) fo r the intermediate results of the
exergoeconomic optimization step s performed on the base cases. For both cases, the levelize d
costs are reduced at the expense o f a r e d u c t i o n i n e x e r g e t i c e f ficiency of the systems. Despite
lower levelized investment costs and LCOE dis of the B ase Case A, the Optimized Case B
achieves lower leve lized costs and the sum of exergy destruc tio n and losses per unit of product
exergy throughout th e iterative op timization. This underlines a gain the im porta nce of exer gy-
based m ethods w hen evaluati ng the system s in rega rds to cost -ef fectiveness.

Figure 5.14: Normalized capital investment cost (per unit of exergy of product) for the Cases A and B
during the iterative exergoeconomic optimiza tion over the relative exergetic efficiency.

130
150
170
190
210
230
250
1,0 1 , 2 1, 4 1 , 6 1, 8 2 , 0
Ca se A
Ca se B
Base Case B
Optim ized Case B
Optim ized Case A
Base Case A
1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 2.0
∑ Z 󰇗  E 󰇗 , 
 , €/MWh
E 󰇗 , E 󰇗 , E 󰇗 ,
 󰇛 1  𝜀  󰇜𝜀

⁄ , -

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
98
The exergoeconomic analysis resu l t s o n t h e c o m p o n e n t l e v e l o f t he optim ized cases a re
compared to those of the base cas es in Figure 5 .15. The objecti ve of reducing the costs
associated with the initial investment 𝑍 󰇗  w as ac hie ve d f or a l l of th e s el e c te d c om p on e nt s. Th e
met objective is indicated in t he reduction of the exergoeconom ic factor.

Figure 5.15: Exergoeconomic analysis results for the base cases and the optimized cases.

Due to the cos t re ductio n i n the overall s ystem , the spec ific c ost of t he e xergy of the fuel to the
turbines 𝑐  was r educed. Con sequently , the co sts associ ated with the exe rg y destruction in the
turbines 𝐶 󰇗 , were decreased. Nevertheless, a f ter the exe rgoec onomic optim iz ation is
complete d, the turbines becom e the com ponents with the highes t associated total cos t rate.
- 10.000 20.000 30.000
Opt. Case B
Base Case B
Opt. C ase A
Main HE2 - Ba se Case A
Opt. Case B
Base Case B
Opt. C ase A
Main HE1 - Ba se Case A
Opt. Case B
Base Case B
Opt. C ase A
Turbines - Base Case A
Opt. Case B
Base Case B
Opt. C ase A
Intercoolers - Base Case A
Opt. Case B
Base Case B
Opt. C ase A
Compresso rs - Base Ca se A
Opt. Case B
Base Case B
Opt. C ase A
Re-h eate rs - Base Case A
Opt. Case B
Base Case B
Opt. C ase A
Other components - Base Case A
cost rate assoc iated with the compone nt, €/cy cle
𝑓 = 0. 43
𝑓 = 0.41
𝑓 = 0. 48
𝑓 = 0.55
𝑓 = 0.71
𝑓 = 0.71
𝑓 = 0.94
𝑓 = 0. 93
𝑓 = 0.66
𝑓 = 0.65
𝑓 = 0.46
𝑓 = 0.76
𝑓 = 0.90
𝑓 = 0. 91
𝑓 = 0.46
𝑓 = 0.46
𝑓 = 0.43
𝑓 = 0.40
𝑓 = 0.71
𝑓 = 0.72
𝑓 = 0.85
𝑓 = 0.79
𝑓 = 0. 72
𝑓 = 0.75
𝑓 = 0.37
𝑓 = 0.60
𝑓 = 0.65
𝑓 = 0.73
𝑍 󰇗

[€/cy cle ] 𝐶 󰇗
,
[€/cy cle]

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
99
In the optim ized cases, t he BMC of t he tur bines am ount to a ppro xim ately 30% of the BM C of
the total system s. A cost re duc tion of the tur bines coul d thus reduce the LCOE dis considerably.
To compe nsate for the reduction in RTE in the optimized cases, th e compression power needs
to be augm ent ed, w hich res ult s in a n increase d tot al cost ra te of the com pressors. T he cha nge s
made to the parameters o f the Ba se Case A, reduce the exergoeco nomic factor of the MHE1
further.
In both systems, the interrelat ion of the com ponents is very st rong. An examp le o f this i s the
intercoole rs. Despite the exer goeconom ic factor suggesting a fu rther reduction in investm ent
costs at the exp ense of exerg etic effi ciency , any furth er reduc tion in 𝜀  w o u l d c a u s e t h e c o s t
of the final product to increase. Reason for this is, t hat in o rder to increase th e LMTD in the IC,
either the temperature at the outlet of the IC would need to be raised or the mass flow in the
h e a t s t o r a g e w o u l d n e e d t o b e i n creased which would reduce the TIT. In both cases, the work
requirem ent of the com pression process would be augmented and t he additional investm ent
costs for larger compressors woul d outwe igh the reduct ion in co sts of the intercooler s.
The objective of cost reduc tion of the costs associat ed with th e reheaters was also achieved.
Moreover, the sum of the total c ost rates of all othe r system c om ponents was reduced. The slight
increase in the exergoeconomic f actor o f the “other com ponents” to 0.46 indicated that the cos t
reduction mainly results fro m reduced costs asso ciated wi th the exergy destruction in the
componen ts. A s the comp onen t cost rat es of th e majo rity o f cost -intense com ponents are
reduce d, the specific cost per unit of exer gy of the fuel to th e subsequent components is reduced,
decreasing 𝐶 󰇗 ,  .

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
100
5.3. Exergy-based evaluation of C ES system integration
In this secti on, the r esults from the exergy-b ased evaluation o f sev eral C ES sy ste m
configur atio ns are presented, and the enhancement in the thermo dynamic and economic
perform ance of CES system s with integrati on of heat sour ces and sinks is quantified. The
integration of re-gasifying LNG was considered as a heat sink f o r C ES s y s te ms ins te a d of an d
in com bina tion with cold stora ge. Waste h eat at 350-450 °C and natural gas combustion were
considered as heat sources.

5.3.1. Comparative energet ic and exergetic analysis
Two adiabatic CES sy stem s and ei ght sy stems with integration of external heat and/or cold
sources were compared u si ng energe tic and e xergetic anal ysis on t he sys tem level. T he exe rgy
of t he f uel 𝐸  , the exergy o f the product 𝐸  and the exergeti c effici ency 𝜀  of sel ected systems
are represented in Figure 5.16. The exergy values are given in MWh over the duration of one
daily cycle ( 𝜏  = 8 h, 𝜏  = 4 h). The mass flow rate of the inlet air was s et to 200 kg/s fo r a l l
system s. As a result, t he compres sion wor k 𝑊  of 1 ,105 MWh is equal for all systems and is
indicated in the fig ure for com parison.

Figure 5.16: Exergetic analysis results for th e integrated CES system configurations.

The produ ct of all sy stems is disch arged electrici ty. The fuel to the system s is the sum of the
electricity charged ( 𝑊  𝑊  ) and the low-temperature exergy 𝐸 ,   (for LNG integration)
and/or t he exe rgy of the s upplied f uel 𝐸  (for com bustion) and/ or the high-te mperatur e exe rgy
𝐸 ,  (fo r waste h eat integra tion), Ta ble B.1. The results show that the integration of waste
heat does not have a positive effect on the exergetic efficienc y d e s p i t e t h e d e s i r e d i n c r e a s e i n
the specific power output of the discharge unit. The exergy con tent of the heat that needs to be
supplied in order to elevate the TIT to 350 °C and 450 °C, r esp ectively, is m ore significant than
the in crease in the dis charge po wer.
24
39
33
29
26
47
44
38
-
10
20
30
40
50
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
Adiabti c w o
cold st o ra ge
Adiaba tic
sys t em
W a s t e h e at
35 0
Wa st e hea t
45 0
LNG wi t hou t
CS
LNG with C S C om bus ti on C o m bus ti on
V2
E_F E_ P Eff
𝜀 %
exergy rate, 𝐸 󰇗 𝑀𝑊ℎ/𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒
exer getic efficiency 𝜀  , %
simple 350 ° C 450 ° C
LNG integration Combus tion
sim ple with CS
W aste heat Adiabatic
with CS single double
𝑊 󰇗 
𝑀𝑊ℎ/𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙 𝑒
𝐸 󰇗 
𝑀𝑊ℎ/𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙 𝑒
𝐸 󰇗 
𝑀𝑊ℎ/𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒
𝑊 󰇗 
𝑀𝑊ℎ /𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙 𝑒

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
101
The el ectricity charged to the LN G integr ated systems is slight ly higher than in the adiab atic
CES systems. Due to t he additi ona l low-temperature exergy, less a i r n e e d s t o b e f e d t o t h e c o l d
expander in the liquefaction pro cess, and the electricity gener at ed in th e exp ander is redu ced
( 𝑊  ↓ ). T he LNG i ntegra ted sys tem with CS re aches the highest 𝜀  of 47 %. Reason f or this
is that the cont ribution of the low-tempe rature exergy 𝐸 ,     to the exergy of the fuel 𝐸  in t h e
sys te m s wi th L NG int eg rat ion is re la ti ve ly s m all in c om par is on t o its s ig nif ic ant im pr ove m ent
of the yield of the li quefaction process.
The roundtrip, energetic, and ex ergetic efficiency of the ten e v a l u a t e d s y s t e m s a r e g i v e n i n
Table 5.8. The RTE gives the ratio between the electricity disch arged and th e ele ctricity charged
󰇛𝑊  𝑊 
⁄ ).The values of the RTE , conse quentl y, m ay e xcee d 1. The va lues of the RTE , the
energetic and the exerge tic efficien cy of the a diabatic sys tems are the same as no ex ternal h eat
source or sink, needs t o be accounted for in the energetic or exergetic evaluatio n (Table B. 1).

Table 5.8: Roundtrip, energetic, and exergetic efficiency of th e ten considered system configurations.
System Abbreviati on RTE 𝜂 𝜀 
Adiabatic CES without c old storage a-CES w/o CS 0.240 0.240 0.2 40
Adiab atic CES w ith c old storage a-CES 0.394 0.394 0.394
Waste h eat in tegra tion w ith TIT o f 350 °C W H 350 0.535 0.234 0. 332
Waste h eat in tegra tion w ith TIT o f 450 °C W H 450 0.625 0.194 0. 291
Diabatic CES wit h a singl e combusti on chambe r d-CES 0.845 0.448 0.438
Diabati c CES with two combustion chambers d- CES 2 0.732 0.388 0 .380
LNG inte gration withou t cold sto rage LNG w /o CS 0.260 0.251 0.2 54
LNG integration with col d storag e LNG a-CES 0.506 0.452 0.470
LNG integration and waste heat LNG + WH 0.804 0.253 0.376
LNG integrati on and comb ustion LNG d- CES 1 .084 0.480 0.47 7

The adiabatic CES syste m without cold storage (a-CES w/o CS) re aches efficiencies by 40 %
l o w e r t h a n t h e a - C E S s y s t e m . W i t h t h e i n t e g r a t i o n o f L N G , t h e RTE of the a-CES w/o CS
increases by only 2 % to 26 % and the 𝜀  increase s by 1.4 %. Even when the mass flow of the
LNG is increased, the RTE does not increase any fu rther due to the fixed ∆𝑇 , , while the
𝜀  is reduced (Figure 4.11). In con t r a s t , t h e a d d i t i o n o f c o l d s t orag e in creases the RTE by
64 %. Reason for this is, that the LNG enters the MHE1 at a tem perature of - 158 °C while the
high-gr ade co ld s torage suppl ies low-te mperatu re exergy at temp eratures as low as - 180 °C.
As a result, the int egration of re-gasifying LNG cannot replace the cold storage.
Integrating waste heat to the a- CES sy stem was found favorable for the RTE , incr easing fro m
39.4 % to 62.5 %, whil e the energetic and t he exergetic efficie nc y of the system s drop by 50 %
and 26 %, respectively. The low er energetic and exergetic effic ienc y can be explained by the
excess heat vented after the expansi on process. With waste heat integration, the amount and
temperature; and accordingl y, the exer gy conte nt of the vented he at is elev ated c ausing the
exergy losses of the system to increase.
The integrat ion of a combustion process augments all three effi ciencies. The RTE is doubled
and the energetic and exergetic efficiency increase by 5.4 and 4.4 percentag e points,
respectively. The valu es achieved for the RTE of 73 -85 % are significa ntly higher than values
stated in l iterature (55-60 % [ 15, 43]), which can be explai ned by a larger mass flow rate of the

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
102
fuel, see Figure C.3. The effi ciency of the double combustion c onfiguration is slightly lower
than the single combustion confi guration (d-CES 1 ). Due to decr eased TIT, t he RTE , ener getic
and ex ergetic efficien cy drop by approximately 15 % at the same total mass flow rate of the
fuel 𝑚 󰇗  . The introducti on of two smaller sized separa te combus tion cha m bers is expected to
lower the specific costs du e to lower maxim um TIT.
The integration of LNG to the a-CES system increases the RTE by 28 % and the
𝜀  by 6 percent age points. Re-gasif ying LNG is thus a therm odynam ically feasib le low-
temperature exergy sou rce when cold storage is p resent. The sys tem s with simple integration
o f l i q u e f i e d n a t u r a l g a s ( L N G , L N G w / o C S ) r e a c h e x e r g e t i c e f f i ciencies of 25-47 %, similar
to the v alue range proposed in litera ture of 33-43 % [62, 63, 6 4]. The RTE , in contrast, are
lower than antic ipated, instea d of reaching expected values of 63-70 % [8, 62, 63] the RTE o f
the LNG system reaches only 51 %. With additional waste heat in te gration, the sys tem reaches
a RTE of 84 %. While the CES sy stem with integration of LNG and comb ustion achie ves the
highest exergetic efficiency of 47.7 % and the highest RTE of 108 % under the gi ven conditions.

5.3.2. Comparativ e economic analysis
The effect of the integration of h e a t s o u r c e s a n d s i n k s o n t h e b a r e m o d u l e c o s t s ( B M C ) o f
selected components of the system s can be seen in Figure 5.17. All systems op erate with th e
same mass flow of inlet air and liquefac tion pressur e. The BMC of the com press ors are
therefore consta nt for a ll consi dered systems.

Figure 5.17: Bare module costs of the components of the integrated systems (C M – compressors, IC –
intercoolers, EX – expander, MHE – main heat exchan ger, ST – storage tank, CP – cryogen pump, RH
– reheaters, CC – combustion chamber(s), T – turbines, HS – heat storage, CS – cold storage and other
components).

The costs associ ated with the int ercoolers and the reh eaters ar e reduced in the systems with
waste heat int egration a s thermal oil is used as heat transf er and s torage medium and a smaller
heat exchanger area is necessary. The cost of heat storage incr eases accordingly.
0
10.0 0 0
20.0 0 0
30.0 0 0
40.0 0 0
50.0 0 0
60.0 0 0
70.0 0 0
CM IC EX MHE1 ST CP MHE2 RH CC T other
a-CES w/o CS a-CES WH 350 WH 450 LN G w/o C S
LNG LNG + WH LNG d-CES d-CES d-CE S 2
50
40
30
20
10
0
60
70
bare m odule cost s [10
3
€]

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
103
For the systems that do not cont ain cold recovery and storage, environm ental air is used as a
heat sour ce fo r th e ev aporation of t he l iquid ai r (d ischarge) . The LMTD of the MHE2 is
increased significantly , reducing the compon e n t s B M C t o o n e - t h i rd of th at o f th e a-C ES system.
The LMTD of the MHE1, in contrast, decreases without the low-te mperature exergy supplie d
from cold storage, increasi ng th e needed h eat exchanger area an d costs by 40% while a
significantly smaller share of air is liquefied. Due to the red uced liquid yield, the costs of all
components in the disc harge unit are reduced in the absence of c o l d s t o r a g e i n c o m p a r i s o n t o
all oth er CES sy stems.
With t he int egratio n of L NG to t he MHE1 of t he CES system , the 𝐴  a n d t h e B M C i n c r e a s e
t o m o r e t h a n t w i c e w i t h r e s p e c t t o t h e a - C E S s y s t e m . A s t h e a m o unt of air liquefied is increas ed
by up to 40%, the investm ent cost of the components in the disc harge unit increase alongside.
In order to account for both the effect on the economic and the thermodynam ic performance,
the levelized cos ts were calc ulate d in com parative economic ana lysis.
The TCI, the spec ific investment costs 𝑐  , and the LCOE dis of th e two adiabatic and eigh t
integrated CES system configurat ions are given in Table 5.9. T h e assumptions made in the
analys is are d escrib ed in secti on 3.2. The economic analys is wa s performed on two system
designs:
a) a constant mass flow rate of t he inlet air of 200 kg/s, and
b) a discharge capac ity of 100 MW.
The discharge capacitie s are given for the case a), as a refere n c e . T h e a d i a b a t i c C E S s y s t e m
with cold storage ( a-CES) reach es a discharg e cap acity o f 100 M W at a mass flow at the inlet
of the compression process of approxim ately 200 kg/s. Some syst ems of the system s reach
dischar ge capacities of two to three times h igher than the a-CE S s y s t e m w h i c h r e s u l t s i n l o w
specific inves tment cos ts 𝑐  and LCOE dis .

Table 5.9: Results of economic analysis for the ten CES system configurations.
System 𝑚
󰇗

 = 200 kg/s 𝑊
󰇗

 = 100 MW
TCI,
10 6 € 𝑐  ,
€/kW
LCOE,
€/MWh 𝑊
󰇗

 ,
MW
𝑐  ,
€/kW
LCOE,
€/MWh
a-CES w/o CS 61.2 1,835 295 56 1,719 283
a-CES 75.4 1, 269 195 100 1,269 195
WH 3 50 80.1 993 1 50 136 1 ,040 154
WH 4 50 83.4 884 1 31 159 9 50 138
d-CES 105 .7 830 1 28 214 9 77 140
d-CES 2 93.0 8 43 136 186 954 143
LNG w/o CS 65.4 1,735 274 63 1,647 265
LNG a -CES 104.1 1,278 181 137 1,32 3 186
LNG + WH 112.3 869 121 218 966 130
LNG d-CES 134.1 77 0 1 15 293 95 9 1 31

The specific investm ent costs 𝑐  are determined by the total capital investment (TCI) of the
syst em ov er th e in stalled discha rge capacity. The specific co st s o f C ES s y st em s de c r e as e w it h
s i z e . T h e s c a l i n g f a c t o r f o r t h e s y s t e m s w a s f o u n d t o b e b e t w e e n 0.81-0.92, which refers to a
decrease i n cos ts by 10-25 % w hen the capac ity of the sys tem is doubled.

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
104
The in tegra tion of cold stora ge reduc ed the LCOE dis by 32-34 % despite an additional
investment of approximately € 15 million. The integration of w a ste heat reduces the LCOE dis
furthe r, by 21-30 % compare d to the a-CES. The CES systems with n atur al gas firing reached
the lowest s pecif ic i nvestm ent costs 𝑐  whe n t he m ass flow is ke pt consiste nt and f o r an i nstalle d
dischar ge capacity of 100 MW. The lowest LCOE dis at th e g iven assu mp tion was achieved by
the C ES syste m w ith both w aste h eat and waste c old integration of 130 €/MWh, followed by
t h e d i a b a t i c C E S s y s t e m s a n d t h e C E S s y s t e m w i t h w a s t e h e a t i n t egration at 450 °C of 131-
143 €/MWh. The addition al costs assoc iated with the waste heat, combust ion a nd/or waste cold
integration are rather low r elative to the increase in RTE , resulting in a sign ificantly lower
LCOE dis of the respective systems.
Despite the sim ilar thermodynam ic pe rforma nce of t he tw o d-CE S systems, t he lev elized cost s
of the d-CE S 2 with t wo com bustion chambers a re lower. Re ason f or t his is the tem peratur e at
the outlet of the combustion cha mbers. The material of the TIT is selected according to this
temperature. To achieve the s ame power capacit y in the single c om bustion d- CES s ystem than
in the double combustion d-CES 2. The TIT of the d-CEs system w ill accordingly exceed that
of the d-CES 2 system and necessitate more expensi ve turbine ma terials wh ile th e additional
investment associa ted with the second combus tion chamber is rat her low in compar ison. The
sensitivity of the LCOE dis o f t h e d - C E S s y s t e m o v e r t h e m a s s f l o w r a t e o f t h e f u e l t o t h e s y s t e m
is given in Figure D.9 in Appendi x D . D e s p i t e t h e l o w e r i n v e s t m ent costs of the d-CES 2
system; the d-CES system achieves slightly lower LCOE dis . Reason for this is the by 15 %
higher RTE . The specific investment costs 𝑐  of all systems are represented over the RTE i n
Figure 5.18.

Figure 5.18: Specific investment costs over RTE of the ten CES systems for 𝑊 󰇗  = 100 MW.

The sy stems wi th high er RTE reach significantly l ower specific inve stm ent costs and LCOE dis .
Reason for th is is that the cha rging unit makes up for the high est share in the investment costs
and higher RTE significantl y reduce t he size o f the charging un it necessary t o suppl y 100 MW
of discharge power.
7 50
9 50
1 .150
1 .350
1 .550
1 .750
0 , 20 , 4 0 , 60 , 8 1 1 , 2 1 , 4
100 80 120 60 40 20 140
a-CES w/o C S
LNG w/o C S
a-CES
LN G
WH 350
d-CES
WH 450 L NG + WH 450 LN G d- C ES
d-CES 2
1,150
R TE [%]
1,350
1,550
1,750
750
950
specific inv estm ent costs, c
i
[€/kW]
𝑚 󰇗

󰇛𝜀

󰇜
𝑚 󰇗

2 · 𝑚 󰇗

󰇛𝜀

󰇜

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
105
F o r t h e s y s t e m s w i t h L N G i n t e g r a t i o n , a r a n g e f o r t h e LCOE dis i s i n d i c a t e d i n F i g u r e 5 . 1 8 .
Reason f or this is that sp ecific costs of the s ys tem s are a fun ction of the mass f low of the LN G
supplied. For exerget ic and preliminary economic analysis the m ass flow of the LNG was
adjusted to the value of h i ghest exerget ic efficien cy 𝜀  as describe d in section 4.4.3. The
sensitivit y o f the specific investment costs and the LCOE dis o ver the mass flow of LNG supplie d
is shown in Figure 5.19. For small mass flowrates of the LNG (< 9 % o f 𝑚 󰇗  ) , t h e s p l i t t i n g
ratio is gradually reduced, and the RTE increases linearly, Figure 4.11. The ∆𝑇 , i s
thereby fixed but the LM TD cha nges. When a s plitti ng ratio of r = 0.08 is reached, the splitting
ratio cannot be reduced further without violating the constrain t for th e ∆𝑇 , . As a result,
the RTE does not increase further w ith a n a m p l i f i e d m a s s f l o w r a t e o f the LNG. Still, the
additional low-temperatu re exergy increases the LMTD, hence, th e BMC of the MHE1 are
reduced. A s the MHE1 is the sec o n d m o s t c o s t l y c o m p o n e n t , t h e r eduction in BMC leads to
significantly lower specif ic investment costs. The LCOE dis reach es v alues lower th an
170 €/MWh at doubled ma ss flow, while the RTE s tays con stant at 51 % and th e exerg etic
efficiency 𝜀  d r o p s b e l o w 3 8 % . I n F i g u r e 5 . 1 8 , t h e s p e c i f i c i n v e s t m e n t c o s t s of the LNG
integrated systems are given for the maximum efficiency case ( 𝑚 󰇗  󰇛𝜀  󰇜 ) and the case o f
doubled flowrate. For further comp arison the results for the sy stems with twice as large mass
flow 𝑚 󰇗  than necessary t o reac h 𝜀  are considered.

Figure 5.19: Specific investment costs and LCOE di s over the specific mass flow of LNG.

In Figure 5.20, the LCOE dis is broken down into the cost shares associate d with the fuel c osts ,
the cost of electricity charged, the operational expenditure (O PEX) and the capit al expenditure
(CAPEX) related to the charging, t he s to ra ge, an d the dis chargi ng un it. The a- CE S wi th wast e
heat inte gration reached LCOE dis comparable with the CES system with com bustion. Also, their
specific costs are co mpetitive despite th e lower RTE , Figu re 5.18 . The waste heat integration
ma y becom e more promisin g whe n taki ng t he depende ncy on fuel p r i c e s a n d t h e e n v i r o n m e n t a l
impact of the combusti on gases into account.

160
165
170
175
180
185
190
195
200
1.000
1.100
1.200
1.300
1.400
0 0 ,1 0 , 2 0 ,3 0 , 4
LCOE
dis
[€/MWh ]
specific investm ent costs, c
i
[€/ kW]
m L NG, k g / s
specific i nvestment cos ts, €/k W
leve lized c ost of ele ctric ity , €/MWh
𝑚
󰇗


𝑚
󰇗


⁄ , [-]
0.4 0.0 0.2 0.1 0.3

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
106

Figure 5.20: The levelized cost of electricity of the ten CES system configuration with indicate d shares
of the costs associated with the CAPEX, the OPEX, th e cost of electricity charged and the fuel costs at
𝑊 󰇗  = 100 MW and 𝑚 󰇗   𝑚 󰇗  󰇛𝜀  󰇜 .

With increased 𝑚 󰇗  , the system s with LNG integrati on became even more competiti ve . To
draw a c omparis on bet ween t he diff erent CE S sys tem s at a single e l e c t r i c i t y p r i c e a n d N G p r i c e
is misleading. The LCOE dis o f the different syste ms is compa red for vario us electrici ty p rices,
FLH dis , natural gas prices and CO 2 emission prices in section 5.4.2. T he LCOE dis is highly
depende nt on t he i nitial assumpti ons made i n t he economic a naly sis. Thus, a sen sitivity analysis
was performed to evaluate the wei ghted effect of changes applie d to the initial economic
param eters. The results from economic sensitivity analysis of t he adiab atic CES system are
discusse d in section 5.4.1. In sec tion 5 .4.3 , th e results for C ES economic assessm ent are
compared to values repor ted in the literat ure an d val ues propos ed for com peting technologies.

0
50
100
150
200
250
300
a-CES
w/o CS
a-CES WH 350 WH 450 d-CES d-CES 2 LNG
w/o CS
LNG LN G
+ WH
LNG
d-CES
LCOE
dis
, [ €/ MWh ]
Fuel costs
Cost of electrici ty
OPEX
CAPEX discharge
CAPEX storage
CAPEX charge
283
125
195
154
138 140 143
237
173
122

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
107
5.4. Economic viab ility of CES systems
In this section, the economic vi ab ility of C ES sy stems is furth er assessed. The results from
economic sen sitivity analy sis pe rformed on the adia batic a nd th e integ rated syste ms ar e
presented. The parameters which affect the e conomic feasibility o f the systems are revealed.
The most suitable applications a re identified accordingl y. The results obtained in econom ic
analys is discusse d in secti on 5.2. 2 and section 5.3.2 are compa red to values prese nted in the
literature. Finally, CES econom ic performance is com pared to ot her bulk ES technologies.

5.4.1. Economic sensitivity analysis of the a-CES system
The weighted effect of change s i n t he ec onomic param eters on th e le velized cost of disc harged
electricity of the adiabatic CES system is shown in Figure 5.21 . The LCOE dis changes
proportionally to changes in the b are module costs (BMC), the O M C a n d t h e p r i c e o f
electricity 𝑐  . The annual full-load hour s of t he discharge unit FLH dis , the RTE , the capacity of
the dischar ge unit and the econom ic life have an inver se and no n-linear relationship to the
LCOE dis . Changes in the FLH dis have the stronges t influence on the LCOE dis .

Figure 5.21: Economic sensitivity analysis results of the a-CES system.
100
150
200
250
300
350
0% 50% 100% 15 0% 200%
LCOE
dis
, [€ /MWh]
param etric change, [-]
econom ic life i nterest rate BMC OMC
FLH capacity RTE electricity price
economic lif e
20 y ears 60 y ears
FLH
dis
720 h/a
2920 h/a
capacity
25 MW
200 MW
BMC
60 Mio €
130 Mio €
RT E
31.5%
46.5%
OMC
1% of TCI
8% of T CI
interest rate
5 %
15 %
FLH
dis

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
108
In principle, ES sys tems have significantl y lower op eration hou rs t han m ost pow er plants. The
CES systems assessed in this w or k have a c harge -to-disc harge ra t i o o f t w o , w h i c h r e f e r s t o t w o
charging hours for every hour of discharge. Consequently, even if the storage durat ion is zero
(when the dischar ge process takes place imm ediatel y after the c harging process) , the maximum
number of FLH of the discharge unit is 2,920 hours annually.
W h e n t h e F L H dis are further decreased in relation to the base case assum ption (1,460 h/a), the
LCOE dis increases significantly, exceed ing values of 250 €/MWh. Alread y a 10 % reduc tion of
the FLH dis , increases the LCOE dis by 8 %. Thus, only applicatio ns which comprise a freque nt
and extensive operation are econo mically feasible for CES s yste ms . Potential applications were
discussed in section 2.5, and th e characteristics (cy cles p er a nnum and discharge duration) o f
considered applicati ons are given in Table A.2 through Table A. 5. The ES applications whic h
were found to have annual operatio n hours s uitable for CES are; load s heddi ng or s hiftin g (720-
3,000 h/a [93]) or peak s having (up to 2,500 h/a [72, 37, 93] ), energy arbitra ge or RE tim e shift
(up to 3,000 h/a [103] ) and capacity f irming (1,200- 2,000 h/a [ 37]), secti on 2.5. T he operati on
as a reserve in standby, in contr ast, is economically not viabl e for C ES sy stems, desp ite thei r
low standby losses. Reason for t his is not only t he low num ber of operation hours, but also the
economic value for reserve capac ity and b lack start application is r at h e r l o w i n c om p a r i s o n t o
other applications (Tabl e A.7) [97, 106, 107]. T he majority of T&D support services are not
suitable for CES operation, due t o low operation hours and diff icult prediction of the revenue
streams.
The second strong est weighte d cha nge of the LCOE dis is ca used by cha nges in the B MC of the
system (Figure 5.21). The bare m odule costs (BMC) were varied t o show th e effe ct o f chang es
in the initial investment costs of the system on the LCOE dis . Investment costs commo nly tend
to be higher than in the initial cost estimation. For this reas on, the BMC were varied fr om 80 %
to 180 %. When the BMC are almos t twice as large, the LCOE dis reaches values higher than
290 € /MWh. Th e r e duction of investment co st is th erefore o f gre at importa nce to CES
economic feasibility. The validation of the c ost estimates i s o f im portance to t he concl usivenes s
and significance of economic valu es presente d in this work. The specific investm ent costs are
furthe r dis cussed i n secti on 5. 4.3.
The RTE al s o ha s a s tr o n g i n fl ue nc e o n t he LCOE dis , yet not as strong as the investment costs.
An i mprovemen t o f th e sy stem effici ency a t the expen se of an eq ually hig h (in percentile )
investment is conseque ntly not v iable. As an increase in RTE commonly is coupled w ith an
increase i n the investment costs, the RTE was varied only by +/- 20 %. A red uction of the RTE
also increas es the dependenc y on the p rice of electricity charg ed to the system. The effect on
the LCOE dis caused by changes in the electricit y price is only indicated w ith a dotted lin e in
Figure 5.21, as a reference in co m parison to t he ot her param ete rs. The behavior o f the LCOE dis
o f d i f f e r e n t C E S s y s t e m s w i t h v a r i o u s RTE for varying electricity prices and FLH dis is discussed
in the f ollow ing sec ti on 5.3.2 and can b e seen in Figure 5 .22 a nd Figure 5.23.
The specific costs o f CES systems are decreased by approximatel y 23 % with doubled capacity
( 𝛼 = 0 .8 2 ). The LCOE dis decreases accordingly with incre ased capacity (Figure 5.21). W ith the
assumptions made, a 200 MW a-CES system reaches a LCOE dis of 180 €/MWh. A change in
t h e in te r e s t r a t e a t w h i c h t h e a l l o w a n c e fo r f u n d s i s l e n t i s o f sim ilar significance than a change
in the RTE . When the interest rate is reduced by 20 %, the LCOE dis is reduced by approximately
13 %. At an interest rate of 5 %, the LCOE dis becomes as low as 165 €/MWh.

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
109
T h e O M C o f t h e C E S s y s t e m s a r e a s s u me d a s a s h a r e o f t h e T C I . A ccording to l iterature, OMC
for CES system s can be as low as 1.5- 3 % of the e quipm ent costs [8 ] o r e v e n l o we r [2 0 ] . W h e n
varyi ng the shar e from 1-8 % of TCI, the LCOE dis changes linearly w ith an increase/decrease
in O M C . OM C a s lo w as 1 % of TC I wo u ld a l lo w th e LCOE dis to drop below 170 €/MWh. T he
economic life o f the CES sy stem was found to have less influenc e on the LCOE dis , despite its
large value range.

5.4.2. Economic sensitivity analysis of the integrated CES sy stems
Electrici ty is trad ed in di ffere nt markets, and the electricity price changes significantly over
ti me , s ee F i gu r e B .1 a . Th e n u mb e r of h ou r s in a y e ar a t w h i ch e lectricity is available at a given
price is limited. To evaluate th e econom ic perform ance of the v a r i o us C E S s ys t e m s p r e s e n t e d
in s ection 5.3 , t he electricity price is given as a function of FLH of discharge.
In Figure 5.22, the LCOE dis o f t h e d i f f e r e n t s y s t e m s i s c o m p a r e d t o i n c r e a s i n g FLH dis . The price
of electricit y is given as a functi on of the operati on hours of t h e c ha rg in g s ys te m ba se d o n t he
German day-ahead market in 2018 [138]. The systems are assumed to operate in the hou rs of
the lowest electricity prices (see Figure B.1c). F or the natura l gas price, an average of the Henry
Hub natural gas spot prices in the year 2018 was used (c NG = 126 €/ton NG [139]).

Figure 5.22: LCOE dis over the FLH dis for the ten considered systems.

The higher the operation hours of the storage, the lower the LCOE dis of th e sy stem. With
increased FLH dis , the average price at which the e l ec t ri c it y i s c ha r g e d t o th e system increases.
For this reason, systems with higher RTE become more compe titive at higher FLH dis , despite
higher i nitial in vestm ent costs.
18
22
26
30
34
38
75
12 5
17 5
22 5
27 5
730 1230 1730 2230 27 30
LCOE
dis
, [€ /MWh]
FLH
dis
, h/a
a-CES w/o CS
a-CES
WH 350
WH 450
LNG w/o CS
LNG
d-C ES
d-C ES 2
LNG + WH
LNG d- CES
c
el
price of electricity c
el
, €/MWh

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
110
For FLH dis higher than approxima tely 1,730 h/a, the LCOE dis of the d- CES d ecrease below the
LCOE dis o f the a-CES system with waste heat integration at 450°C, the latter of whic h is mor e
competitive at lower FLH dis . The LNG systems with waste heat integra tion and with internal
combust ion also intersect but at higher FLH (2, 150 h/a). Despi t e the small difference in LCOE dis
of the two di abatic CES system s, the d-CE S 2 sys tem cannot c omp ete due to its inferior RTE .
The ten system s were also compared, taking into account CO 2 emission prices of up to
40 € /ton CO2 , Figure D.10. The CO 2 em issions amount to 0 .208 and 0.239 kg CO2 /k Wh dis for the
d-CES and the d-CES 2 system, respectivel y, similar to the CO 2 emissions of natural gas power
plants ( 0.2 kg CO2 /k Wh dis [ 1 4 0 ] ) . A l r e a d y a t a n e m i s s i on price of only 2.5 €/ ton CO2 , the
attractiveness of diabatic CES systems decreases s ignificantly as the LCOE dis o f t h e d - C E S
system s becom es highe r than that of the WH 450 sys tem. At highe r emission prices of 20-
40 € /ton CO2, even the WH 350 system becomes more economically feasible than the d-CES
syst em.
Electricity prices and natural gas prices are im po ssible to pre dict over 40 year s to c ome. Whe n
comparing th e sy stems at fixed daily operation hours ( 𝜏  /𝜏   = 8h/4h), the natural gas prices
and the electricity prices can b e varied more strongly. In Figu re 5.23 (a) and (b), the LCOE dis
of selected system s is compared o ver the price of the electrici t y c h a r g e d t o t h e s y s t e m s . T h e
price of elec tricity is onl y depicte d unt il 80 €/M Wh to make th e inters ections m ore visible. F or
higher electricity prices, the tr ends for the graphs stay consi stent. The cost-optim al system
(lowest LCOE dis ) is indicated with a black line for the di fferent electricity price intervals.
For negative el ectricity prices (< - 15 € /MWh) the LNG integrat ed CES system without CS is
most competitive, see Figure 5.23 (a). For positive electricity prices, only the two LNG
integrated systems with either waste heat or combustion compete f o r t h e l o w e s t LCOE dis . At
lower ele ctricity prices, the LN G + WH system is mo re comp etiti ve; the LNG d-CES becom es
more economical at high er electricity prices. With a higher nat ur al g as p ri c e o r CO 2 equivalent
emission prices, the intersection of the LCOE dis g raphs is shifted towar ds higher electricity
prices. For the given cases of 𝑐  =126 €/ton NG (average 2018) and twice as l arge costs of 𝑐  =
252 €/ton NG (black dotted line in Figure 5.23), the LNG d-CES system become s the cost-
o p t i m a l s y s t e m f o r e l e c t r i city prices higher than 𝑐  = 27 €/MWh and 𝑐  = 4 9 € / M W h ,
respectively.
Both, the potential for int egration of LN G and the r ecovery of waste heat are site dependent.
Especially th e availab ility of LN G waste cold is very limited. Only 23 large-scale land-based
LNG receiving terminals exist in Europe. As an alternative, onl y the system s without LNG
integrati on were compare d in Figur e 5.23 (b).
When only the CES system s withou t LNG in tegration are compared , th e a -CES withou t cold
storage is the cost-optim al CES sys tem for electricity prices l ower tha n - 23 €/MWh, followe d
by the waste heat integrate d system WH 450 and the d-CES system . Depending on the fuel
costs (126-252 €/ton NG ) the waste heat int egration (450°C) is m ore economically feasi ble than
the d-CES system until the price of electricity exceeds 20-46 €/MWh. The a-CES, in contrast,
is in none of the given scenari os as the cost-optim al solution. A s a r e s u l t , t h e w a s t e h e a t
integration is evaluated as the most suitable option, taking i nto account increasing CO 2 emission
prices and the dependency on fue l prices. Whereas, the d-CES sy stem is the best alterna tive
when a low-cost low-emission fuel becomes available.

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
111

(a)

(b)
Figure 5.23: LCOE dis over the price of electricity for (a) all ten analyzed systems, and (b) the systems
without LNG integration.
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
- 4 0 - 2 0 0 2 04 06 08 0
LCOE
dis
[€/MW h]
price of electrici ty char ged [€/MW h]
a-CES w/o CS
a-CES
WH 350
WH
LNG w/o CS
LNG
d-CES
d-CES 2
LNG + WH
LNG d-CE S
LNG w/o CS
LNG + WH
LNG d-CES
𝑐

↑
𝑐

= 126 €/ton
𝑐

= 252 €/to n
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
- 4 0 - 2 0 0 2 04 06 08 0
LCOE
dis
[€/MWh]
price of electricity char ged [€/MWh]
a-CES w/o CS
a-CES
WH 350
WH
d-CES
d-CES 2
WH 4 5 0
a-CES w/o CS
WH 4 5 0
d-CES 2
𝑐

↑
𝑐

= 126 €/ton
𝑐

= 252 €/ton

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
112
5.4.3. Validation and a ssess ment of results
The LCOE dis o f s e l e c t e d C E S s y s t e m s w a s c o m p a r e d w i t h t h e LCOE dis of othe r bul k ES
technologies to evaluate the compet itiveness of the CES sys tems presented in this work, see
Figure 5.24. The LCOE dis o f t h e p u m p e d h y d r o s t o r a g e ( P H S ) a n d t h e a d i a b a t i c a n d t h e d i ab atic
compres sed air ene rgy st orage ( C AES ) are based on t he data and the ass umptions presente d in
[87]. The same assumptions were a lso adopted for the calculatio n of the leveli zed cos ts of the
C E S s y s t e m s . H e n c e , t h e r e s u l t s s l i g h t l y d i f f e r f r o m t h e r e s u l t s presente d in Figure 5.20. The
values from the literature were co mpar ed to the a-CES sy stem a n d th e CE S syst ems wi th the
integration of waste heat (WH 450), combustion (d-CES) and re-g asif ying LNG d iscusse d in
sectio n 5.3.
Costs are very sensitive to the assumptions made in the estimat i o n o f t h e B M C a n d i n t h e
economic analysis (sect ion 5.4. 1). When comparing different g ri d-scale el ectricity stor age
technologies, the economic analysi s needs to be performed with the same method and
a s s u m p t i o n s . F o r t h e r e s u l t s s h o w n i n F i g u r e 5 . 2 4 , t h e i n t e r e s t rate wa s set to 8 %, and daily -
cycl ing op eration was ant icipated . Natur al ga s costs of 3.5 € ct / kW h a n d a C O 2 emission p rice
of 5 €/t CO2 w ere consi dered f or all system s [87] .

Figure 5.24: LCOE dis of PHS, d-CAES, a-CAES adopted from [ 87] and selected CES systems presented
in this work.

The levelized costs associated w ith the initial investm ent (CAP EX) and the operation and
mainte nance (OPEX) of the adiaba tic CES system is comparable to t h e a - C A E S s y s t e m .
However, the LCOE dis o f t h e a - C E S i s 2 8 % h i g h e r d u e t o t h e l o w R T E , d e s p i t e t h e r e l atively
low pr ice of electricity of 30 €/MW h. As a r esult, only the int e grated system s reach competitive
LCOE dis under the given assump tions . In pa rticul ar , the waste heat int egrated s ystem reaches a
LCOE dis similar to the d -CAES sy stem.
The in itial inve stment of th e CES systems p resented in thi s wor k are based on cost estimation
from various sources, s ee section 3.3.1. Hence, it is necessary to valida te the specif ic investm ent
c o s t s w i t h t h e a i d o f t h e v a l u e s f o r t h e s p e c i f i c i n v e s t m e n t c o sts reported in th e literature. In
Figure 5.25, the spe cific investment costs obtained in the econ om ic analysis of the base case
systems, the optimized systems and the i ntegrate d s ystems (CE S (res ults)) are c o mpared to the
-
40
80
120
160
200
PHS d-CAES a-CAES a-CES WH 450 d-CES LNG
LCOE dis , [€ /MWh ]
Cost of electr icity
OPEX
CAPEX dischar ge
CAPE X stora ge
CAPE X charge

Chapter 5: Results and discussion
113
specific investm ent costs reporte d in the literature for PHS an d CAES. The data for CES
specific investm ent costs given in the literature (Figure 2. 7 i n secti on 2.4. 2) is als o show n as a
reference in Figure 5. 25 (CES (literature)).
The data is presented in a box-pl ot diagram; differentiating th e lower, middle, and upper quartile
with a box containing 50 % of the data points. The middle quart ile or “median” indicates that
half o f th e values are less or e qual (and half are higher or eq ual) to the value. The arithmetic
mean value is also indicate d in Figure 5.25. The data for the P HS and the CAES are extracted
from an e xtensi ve indepe ndent re view on ES technologies [ 68].

Figure 5.25: Box-plot diagram of the specific cost s of PHS, CAES [68 ] , and CES extracted from
literature compared to values achieved in the analysis.

The values reported on PHS specif ic investm ent cos ts vary more strongly than for CAES and
CES, w hich can b e e xpla ined by the lar ge num ber of P HS p roj ects installed w orldwi de, ra nging
in size and economic conditions. O n l y a f e w C A E S s y s t e m s e x i s t [ 76] and the inve stm ent costs
reported in the literature are r ather ba sed on e stimates than a ct ual plants.
The value s for t he spec ific investm ent cos ts of CE S system s det ermined in this thesis are within
t h e c o s t r a n g e r e p o r t e d i n t h e l iterature [6, 13-14, 16, 30-31, 34-35, 60, 68, 79] . The investment
costs eval uated in this work vary less significa ntly tha n the v alues suggested in the literature.
The majority of the systems in t his thesis were designed for either 200 kg/s or for 100 MW of
dischar ge power, and the specific investment costs of CES syste ms reduce with increased
capacity (economy of scale). Hen ce, the deviation of the values g iven in the literature from the
specific investment cost s comp uted in th is work can be exp laine d by the larger capacit y range
of CES sys tem s from 10 to 500 MW
dis
[7, 16, 17, 29, 72] . The appr oach for the est imation of
the BMC a nd econom ic assessm ent of CES s ystem s that has been u s ed is therefor e valida ted.
Despite PHS reaching significantly higher va l ues f or the s pecif ic investment costs, the m edian
value of PHS specifi c investm ent costs is compara ble with that o f C E S ( F i g u r e 5 . 2 5 ) . D u e t o
the similar cha racteristics, CES is s uitable for simila r applic ations of PHS and CAES.

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
114
The specific investm ent costs of approximately 1, 000 €/kW (1,27 0 €/kW for the a-CES) are
comparable with the ma jority o f value propo sitions introduced i n secti on 2.5. 2. Howe ver, the
identified value propositions do not return the total revenue r equired, which is necessary to
cover also the OMC, and the cost of the charged electricity of the CES systems. The total
revenue requirement for the CES syste ms presen ted in this work range from 1 ,900 -2,850 €/kW
over 10 years while the additive value propositions for the sam e period reach a maximum of
1,600 €/kW [97, 106, 107, 108, 109].
With reg ard to the resu lts of th e economic sensitivity anal ysis , the specific investment costs,
and the stac ked value propositi on, tw o sets ES appl ications can be identified to have the highes t
potential for CES:
 load follow tog ether with ren ewab le ene rgy ca pac ity firming, or
 rene wable en ergy cap acity fir ming in parallel with pe ak sh aving (Figure 2.12).
In Figure 5.26, the LCOE dis obtained in the analysis is compared t o competing tec hnologies for
an installed capacity o f 100 MW/ 800MWh. The values presented a re adopted from a broad
study on energy storage costs [141], which was extended with CE S by Highview Ltd. [142].
The comparison shows that batter y-bas ed technol ogies (e.g., Li- I o n , Z i n c ) c a n n o t c o m p e t e a t
large capacities. PHS reaches a higher LCOE dis than in the previous com parison as the econom ic
life was kept to 20 years, while in the previous study 80 years were estimated for the PHS
system. The higher value for the LCOE dis o f th e PHS system in [141 ] (compared to [87]) can
also be explained by t he lar ge value range f or the specific cos ts of PHS sy stems (Figure 5.25).

Figure 5.26: LCOE dis of selected CES systems compared to values from the literature [141, 142 ] .

In general, a large number o f studies investigating the LCOE dis ( o r l e v e l i z e d c o s t o f s t o r a g e
LCOS) of different ES technologie s have been publi shed lately [ 8 7 ] . D i f f e r e n t s t u d i e s a p p l y
different r esearch approaches and various assumptions, e.g., in t e r m s o f E S s y s t e m d e s i g n ,
performance, and size, or economic parameters. The LCOE dis reported for PHS range from 120
to 185 €/MWh. LCOE dis value ranges of 100-175 € /MWh a r e a n t i c i p a t e d f o r C A E S a n d 5 0 -
500 €/MWh ( or 200-700 € /MWh [143]) for battery technologies [10 2 , 1 4 3] . T h e v a l u e r a n g e s
100 150 200 250 300 350
CES-LN G
d-CE S
CES-WH
a-CES
CAES
PHS
CES
Zinc
Li -Ion
this work literature
LCOE
dis
, [€/MWh]

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
115
of the LCOE dis of PHS and CAES based on review ed literature are given in a bo x diagram in
comparison to CES in Figure D.12.
Despite the deviatio n of the resul ts for the LCOE dis in the diverse studie s, general concl usions
can be m ade that were c onsisten t i ndepende nt of the study pe rfo rmed and can also be obse rve d
in Fi gure 5. 26:
 the stand-alone adiabatic CES ca nnot compete with CAES and PHS i n t e r m s o f t h e
LCOE dis .
 the integrate d CES system s achieve LCOE dis values com parable w ith PHS and CAES,
 battery-based and hydro gen-based ES cannot c ompete at large sca les and reach
significantly highe r va lues for the LCOE dis than CES.
Due to the absence of geogra phical cons traints and the specifi c investm ent costs being similar
to other bulk ES technologies, the CES technology m ay still be competitive. This is particularly
t h e c a s e w h e n e i t h e r t h e i n v e s t m e n t c o s t s a r e r e d u c e d f u r t h e r o r the RTE is increased, which
can be achieved by the integration of exter nal heat s ources and sinks to CES systems.
Thus far, CES systems are expected to be able to compete for th e selected frequ ent ES
applications (with high discharge durations and a large number of c ycles per annum) and creat e
revenues tha t cover t he in itial investment costs.

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
116
5.5. Summary of the resu lts and di scussion
Evaluation of the charging processes
Three Claude-based and three Linde-bas ed air liquefactio n proce sses are compared in exergy-
based a nalys is, and two c harging c onf igurations were ide ntified :
 the most cost-efficient liquefaction process, the Kapitza proce ss, and
 the proc ess with the bes t therm odynamic perf ormance, t he Heyla n dt process.
The perf ormance enhancem ent of the s ix l iquef actio n processes t hrough the integration of cold
storage w as quantif ied: the l iqui d yield 𝛾 was significantly increased by 80-200 %, the specific
power requirement 𝑤  was reduced by 30-70 % and the exergetic efficiency 𝜀 of all
liquefaction processe s assessed was considerably improved by up to 200 %. The Claude-based
syst ems reach ed th e h ighest ex er getic efficienci es, the lowest specific work requirement and
the highest li quid yi elds. S ensitivit y anal ysis showed tha t for lower liq uefacti on pressure s (< 95
bar) the Claude and the Kapitza pr ocess are superior to the Hey landt process. The minim um
work requir ed to l iquef y one kg of air in t he Heyl andt pr ocess amounts to 967 kJ/kg at 120 bar,
reaching an exergetic efficiency of 81 %. The Claude /Kapi tza pr ocess required more
liquefaction work ( 𝑤  = 984 kJ/kg, 85 ba r), and reached 𝜀  of only 78.5 %. T he econom ic
analysis revealed t hat the Kapit za proce ss-ba sed sy stem has b ot h the lowest specific investm ent
cost and total r evenue requirement of a ll three sy stems under t he given cond itions.
Evaluation of the adiabatic CES systems
Two stand- alone adiabatic CES systems (100 MW/400 MWh) based on t h e c o s t - o p t i m a l
liquefaction process ( Base C ase A ) and the highest-efficiency liquefaction process ( Base
Case B ) w e r e e v a l u a t e d a n d o p t i m i z e d w ith ex ergy-based metho ds. The b ase case systems
reached exergetic e fficiencies o f 44.5 % and 46.8 %. The exergy d estruction in the charging
process dominated with a sha re o f 64-66 % of the exerg y des troy ed in the overall system, which
puts emphasis on the importa nce of the selecti on and performanc e of the liquefactio n process.
The discharge system and the storage system made up only 28-30 % and 6 % of the overal l
exergy destructi on, respec tivel y. The exergy losses are caused almost exclusively by the
thermal exergy vented from the heat storage to t he envir onm ent after the discharge process. The
effect of cold storage and heat storage were found significant to the performance of the overall
sy stem.
The total revenue requi rement for the Base Cases A and B amount ed to € 37.3 million and
€ 39.0 m illion annually, respectively. The heat exchangers were found to cause 6 2–64 % o f the
investment costs in both b ase case system s. The higher costs of t h e Ba s e C a s e B w e r e m a i n l y
attributed to the cost of MHE1, which is tw ice exp ensive if c om pared to that of Base Case A.
Desp ite the low er exerg etic efficien cy and RTE of the Base Case A, a lower LCOE dis o f
255 €/MW h was ac hieve d, com pared to 267 €/MWh in the Base Case B . T h e B a s e C a s e A w a s
expected to stay more economically v i a b l e t h a n t h e B a s e C a s e B , under the given condition and
for electricity prices l ow er than 100 €/ MWh.
In the iterative exergoec onomic analys is, the five sets of com p one nt s wh ic h c au se th e maj o r ity
of costs in both systems w ere identified: the main he at exchangers , the turbin es , th e
intercooler s , the compressors, and the re heat er s . T h e c o s t s a s s o c i a t e d w i t h t h e i n i t i a l
i n v e s t m e n t a n d t h e O M C a r e s i g n i f i c a n t l y h i g h e r t h a n t h e c o s t s associated with the
thermodynam ic ineffici encies (exergy destruc tion) in the m ajori ty o f components. The decision

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
117
variab les necessar y to be change d for cost reduction of the inv estment costs were ide ntified an d
applied in four iterations. In each of the iterations, a sensit ivity an alysis of the RTE a n d t h e
LCOE dis was conducted. In both systems, t he interrelation of the compo nents was found to be
very strong. Changing parameters w i t h t h e i n t e n t i o n o f c o s t r e d uction in a single com ponent
had a great influence on the perform ance and costs of other com ponents. The objective of
reducing the costs a ssociated with the i nitial investment Z 󰇗  was achieved for all of the selecte d
components.
The Optimized Case B achieved low e r l e v e l i z e d c o s t s a n d h i g h e r exergetic efficiencies
throughout the iterativ e optimization. The LCOE dis o f the Base Case A was reduced from
255 €/MWh to 208 €/MWh at the expe nse of a reduc tion in the exe rgetic effi ciency from 44.4 %
to 38. 1 %. The LCOE dis of the p rior less cost-effective Base Case B was reduced to 19 5 €/MWh
( 𝜀  = 39.6 %).
Evaluation of th e integration of heat sources and sinks to CES
Eight sys tem s with i ntegrat ion of externa l heat a nd/or c old sou rces were compared in energetic,
exerg etic and econo mic analy sis to two adi abatic CES syst ems. T he inte grat io n of LNG wast e
cold as an alternativ e to cold storage was found therm odynamica lly infeasib le. The low-
temperature exergy suppli ed by th e LN G in creased 𝜀  by only 1.4 %, while cold stora ge
increases 𝜀  by more than 60 %. When introduc ing LNG in addition to cold st orage, the
amount of air liquefied increases b y another 40 %. Waste heat i ntegration was found to be o nly
benefi cial to t he RTE (39.4 % → 62.5 %). The energetic and ex ergetic efficien cies decrease by
up to 50 %. Desp ite the additional invest ment , the integrated s y stems reach significantly l ower
specific investm ent costs and LCOE dis due to the increas ed RTE concerning the a-CES system.
The CES s ystem wit h both waste he at and w aste col d inte grati on achieved the lowest LCOE dis
of 130 €/ MWh . The d iabat ic C ES syst ems a nd th e sy stem w ith wast e heat integration (450 °C)
reached comparably low LCOE dis o f 131-143 €/MWh. CO 2 e m i s s i o n p r i c e s o f only 2 .5 € /ton
woul d make the d-CES inferior to the waste heat integrate d s yst em. The costs of the LNG
integrated system s were found to decrease with an increased mas s f l o w o f L N G , d e s p i t e n o
further increase in RTE (51 %). With an increase of the 𝑚 󰇗  from 10-20 % o f 𝑚 󰇗  , the
LCOE dis is reduced by 10 % and reaches values l ower than 122-170 €/MWh .
Economic sensiti vity analysis
Changes in the full load hours o f the discharge unit were revea led to have the strongest influence
on t he LCOE di s . Therefore onl y fre quent ene rgy applicati ons were eval uated to be econom ically
vi ab le fo r CE S s yst em s, e.g . , l o ad shedding, energy time shift or capa cit y firm ing. Des pite the
low storage losses, the operatio n as a reserve is uns uitable fo r CES s ystem s. As changes i n the
investment costs also have a s t r o n g i n f l u e n c e o n t h e LCOE dis , the specific investment cost
obtained in economic analysis w as valida ted in c omparis on to va l ues re ported i n the l iteratu re.
CES s ystems are a ble t o achie ve c ompeti tive specif ic investm ent cos ts ( 1,000 €/kW) sim ilar to
PHS and can compete for the same applications. The adiabatic CE S was found inferior to
comp ressed a ir energy stor age (C AES) and pumped hydro storage ( PHS ) in terms of the
LCOE dis due to t he lower RTE . The integrated systems, in cont rast, achieved competitive val ue s
for the LCOE dis but entail site de pendency. Potential m ethods of int egrati ng he at sources and/or
sinks to CES systems require a more thorough investigation in t erms of av ailabi lity and costs.
None of the stacke d value propositions identif ied in section 2. 5.2 based on the reviewe d
literature cover the to tal revenue required f o r t h e C E S s y s t e m s presented in this work (1,900-
2,850 €/kW).

Chapter 5: Resul ts and dis cussion
118

Chapte r 6: Con clusi on and outl ook
119

Chapter 6: Conclusion and outlook
Cryogeni c energy stor age is a grid-scal e energy storage con cept with pro mising characte ristics
such as; b eing based on mature technology, high volumetric ener gy den sity, ab sence of
geograp hical constra ints, long cyc le life, and low storage loss es. The largest drawback of the
technology that limits its commercialization and successful app lica tion (e.g., for grid balancin g)
is the high specific c ost relative to its low roundtrip efficie ncy (40-60 %). The integration of
heat sources and sinks have benefits for both CES efficiency an d costs. However, so far, no
highest-ef ficienc y or cost-o ptim al system configurat ion for CES has been identified, nor the
effect of the integration on the economic and thermodynamic performance has b een thoroughly
investigated.
This wor k aimed to ident ify m easures for cost reduction and the rmodynam ic performance
enhancem ent of CES s ystem s wit h the aid of exe rgy-ba sed methods . Under steady- state
operati on, vari ous s yste m conf igurati ons we re desi gned i n Aspe n Plus® based on an extensiv e
literature review and sensitivity analysis. Cryogenics-based en ergy storage s tate o f the art was
assessed and benchm ar ked towards competing technologies. Potent ial applications and
challe nges to CES comm ercializatio n were assessed. The most com petitive charging process
configur atio ns with regards to costs and therm odynamic perform a nc e were ident ified. The
effect of cold storage on the efficiency and costs was measured . Two base ca se syst ems we re
presented and evalua ted in exergetic, ec onomic, and exergoecono mic analysis. In the
exergoeconomic analysis, the cos t of the therm odynamic inefficiencies in the system was
quantif ied, and measures for cost reduction were identif ied. In exergoec onomic optim ization,
two optimized cases were obtain e d . E i g h t s y s t e m s w i t h t h e i n t e g ration of waste heat,
combust ion, and LNG waste cold were designed based on the optim ized CES configuration.
The inte grated s ystem s were furthe r eval uated i n compar ative ex ergetic and econo mic analysis.
In an econom ic sensitivity analysis, the econom ic viability of C ES was assessed and the resu lts
from the economic analyses conduc ted in this work were validate d with res pect to values
reported in lite rature.

Chapte r 6: Con clusi on and outl ook
120
6.1. Summary of the main results
The extended summary of the main results is given in section 5. 5. The main findings identified
in this thesis are:
 The inte gration of cold s torage si gnifica ntly inc reases the the rm odynamic pe rformanc e
and reduce the costs of the liquefac tion (c harging) proces ses i n CES systems.
 The Li nde-base d liquef action processes are not suitable for imp lem entatio n in CES
syst ems.
 The cost s associ ated with the initial inv estme nt do minate in th e maj ority o f the
compon en ts of th e C ES syst ems, w hile th e co sts as soci ated with exergy destruction are
minor.
 A cost -optimal ad iabatic CES s ystem design was obtained; the LCOE dis o f t h e
100 MW/400 MWh system was reduce d from 267 € /MWh t o 1 9 5 € / M W h a t the
expense of a reduction in the r oundtrip efficien cy from 47 to 4 0 %.
 With the integrat ion of waste heat, combusti on and/or re-gasif y ing LN G, the LCOE dis
are reduced to 122-170 €/MWh.
 The integration of CES was f ound a viable option reaching e ffic ie ncies lar ger than 70 %.
 The LCOE dis when rec overi ng waste heat a t 450 °C is competitive w ith d-CES systems
at higher fuel or CO 2 emi ssi on p rice s.
 The integ ration of LNG is not an altern ativ e to cold sto rage an d is only benefici al to
CES thermodynam ic performance in combination with cold storage.
 The operation hours of the discha rge unit, the specific costs, the response time and the
RTE are the lim iting factors for CES econom ic feasibility.
 Only frequent bulk ES applicati ons with long disc harge duration are suita ble for CES
syst ems.
 CES speci fic costs r eached a media n value of approxim ately 1,00 0 €/kW, similar to
PHS.
 The stacked value proposition when providing multiple ES applic ations was found to
potentially reach values o f 1,600 €/kW.
 The combined applications that ar e m ost feasible for CES system s are load follow with
RE capacity firming and RE capacity firming w i t h peak shaving apart fro m oth er
frequent bulk e ner gy applications.
 The stacked value propositions ide ntified for the combined appl ications adopted from
the reviewed lite rature do not recover the revenue required for the CES system s under
the give n as sumptions.

Chapte r 6: Con clusi on and outl ook
121
6.2. Scope of the present work
The benchmark analysis presente d reveale d the advantages of CES towards other bulk ES
technologies. When assessing pot ential applications, this work showed that m eans to reduce the
high specific investment costs a nd increase the RTE need to be implem ented before CES
becomes competitive. The cost-optimal design configuration for the adiabatic CES system
present ed in this work as well as the quantifie d enhancem ent in the thermodynam ic and the
economic performance of CES wit h system integration should be c onsidered for future process
design and analysis.
The charging p rocess was shown to cause both the majority o f ex ergy destruction and the
majorit y of the investment costs in the CES systems. The choice o f the liquefaction process is
therefore of great significance to th e economic and the thermod ynamic viability of the sy stems.
The Linde-based processes that w ere presented in v arious public ations and p atents [10, 40, 41,
43, 44, 52] are not via ble for implementation in CES systems. I nstead of the Linde- process, the
Heylandt process is recom mended as the c harging process for CES sy st ems wi t h c ol d r e co ve ry
and stora ge.
Despite the cold storag e configur ation itself not being subject t o t h i s t h e s i s , t h e n e c e s s i t y f o r
furthe r development of the cold storage was confirmed. The low- tem perature exergy recovery
is of crucial importance to the RTE and the cost -effecti veness of the entire CES system. The
liquefaction work and the levelize d costs of the liquefied air is shown to be reduced to half,
despite the additional investm ent costs associate d with the col d storage. Eve n when an
addition al heat sink, e .g. “wa ste cold” fr om LNG r egasifi cation is availa ble, the c old s torage is
still necessary to enable reasonab le RTE and LCOE dis . Without the high-gr ade cold (- 180 °C
to - 160 °C) provide d by the inte rnal cold recover y and storage , the CES with int egration of re-
gasif ying LNG would r each a RTE of only 26 %. T hus, in part ic ular l ow-cost m aterial tha t can
realize the efficient recovery o f the high-gr ade cold is an imp ort ant subj ect fo r furth er rese arch
and essentia l for CES commercialization.
In the exergoec onomic analysis, the r eduction in efficiency was found to be stronger than
expected when chan ging the param eters of selected components. T he operatio n of selected
components was f ound to have a s ignificant influence on the per formance of oth er compon ents.
The strong correlat ion between the com ponents limits the cost-s aving potential of CES sy stems,
which is why the endogenous and exogenous part of the exergy de struct ion of the c ompone nts
in CES s ystem s should be ident ified i n an adva nced exer getic an alysis.
CES is based on mature compone nts commonl y used in the LNG valu e chain, for industrial
gases and power g eneration. Due to the worldwide increasing LNG capacity , a redu ction in the
costs of large-scale cryogenic equipment is plausible, which wo uld have a posit ive ef fect on
CES commercialization. A lso, the further developm ent of gas tur bines for low-tem perature heat
recovery application could be o f remarkable benefit to CES syst e m s . A f t e r t h e e x e r g o e c o n o m i c
optimization was performed, t he t urbines remained the component s with the h ighest cost-
impor tance. Thus, a cos t reduct io n of the turbines could reduce t h e LCOE dis o f the CES sy ste ms
nota bly.
For syst em integr ation, several findings wer e of signi ficance. The specific costs of the CES
system w ere found to be reduced with larger mass flow rates of LNG, despite no further increase
in the RTE. Thus, mass flow rat es of the LNG higher than necess ary to increase the RTE are
recomm ended. The inte grat ion of L N G t o a dia ba ti c CE S s ys te m s wi th cold storage was found

Chapte r 6: Con clusi on and outl ook
122
to increase the share of air li quefied by another 27 %. The RTE of 63-70 % as p roposed in [8,
62, 63], h owever, are not achieva ble with LNG integration alone . Only sy stems with internal
comb ustion of natural gas or the combinat ion of bot h waste heat an d c o l d a c h i e v e R T E o f 7 0 %
and higher. The integration of LNG shows gr eat potenti al and sh ould be subject to further
investigati on. In particular, the applicabilit y of integrati ng LNG to the main heat exchange r in
the CES sys tem shoul d be assesse d with r egards to associat ed co sts and r isks.
The recovery o f waste heat was c laimed a core advantage of CES sy ste ms in v ariou s
publications [8, 10, 14, 74]. The recovery of waste h eat was pr ov en b eneficia l fo r the RTE i n
t h i s w o r k . T h e e n e r g e t i c a n d e x e r g e t i c e f f i c i e n c y , i n c o n t r a s t , were shown to d ecrease due to
the heat which is not used in the discharge but vented before t he intercool ing process. In
particula r, for CES systems with waste heat integration, an add itional ORC re covering the
surplus heat is strongly recomme nded. Moreover, further investi gation of the availability of
waste heat s ources with suitable temperatures (> 300 °C) and su itable energy transfer materials
is necessary to evaluate t he econom ic feasibility.
The efficiencies proposed in t he literature are only achievab le at significantly higher costs than
suggested or w ith the integratio n of external heat sources or s inks. For a 100 MW/400 MWh
stand-al one adiabatic CES system, RTE s of 40-47 % at specific i nvestment costs of 1,270-
2,090 €/kW are realizable, reaching LCOE dis as low as 195 €/MWh.
The LCOE dis of the C ES system is only co mpetitive to PH S and C AES with th e i n t e g r a t i o n of
external heat sources or sinks. W ith the integration of waste h e a t o r L N G r e g a s i f i c a t i o n , C E S
loses the com petitive-edge towards PHS and CAES of site-indepen dent storage. Whereas, a
waste heat s ource may be m ore easily accessible than an undergr ound salt cavern for CAES or
an ele vate d wate r rese rvoir with significa nt sca le f or PHS. Wit h the in tegrati on of com bustio n,
CES loses its advantage of bei ng classified as a “carbon-neutra l” or “low-carbon” technology.
This work showed that the integration of CES systems is of sign ificance to both costs and
thermodynam ic perform ance whic h is why a thorough assessm ent o f the a vaila bility and hidde n
costs of heat sources and sinks is another potential research f ield in the contex t of CES.
T h e f i n d i n g s o f t h i s r e s e a r c h a r e a l s o a p p l i c a b l e t o o t h e r f i e l ds. The advances made can be
applied to cold power generation cycles integra ted in LNG rega s ifica tion units or in the field of
introducing flexible loads, e.g., using LNG term inals or ASU as variable loads.
T h e s l o w r e s p o n s e t i m e o f C E S s y s t e m s w a s i d e n t i f i e d t o b e o n e of the main lim iting factors
for CES to provide selected ES a pplications. T his obstac le coul d be overcom e by coupling CES
syst ems wi th a high power ES t ec hnology, e.g., flyw heel o r batt e ry- based storage. Reduci ng
the response or “ramp up” time of CES would significantly incre ase the number of applications
CES could supply. More over, this work showed that for greater r evenue, the stor age needs to
provide multi ple applications. With a faster response time, CES would be suitable for more
easily combinable ES application s, which would significantly in crease the monetary value of
the technology.
The ident ified stacked val ue proposition s for the comb ined ES a pplications were found to c over
the costs associated with the total capital investment of the C E S s y s t e m s b u t w e r e u n a b l e t o
recover the total rev enue requi red. Either additional revenue s treams need t o be i dentified, and
fina ncial incenti ves for the investment in ES need to be g iven, or the CES costs need to be
significantly reduced, in order for CES to becom e economically viable.

Chapte r 6: Con clusi on and outl ook
123
6.3. Limitations
In th is wo rk, th e sy stems we re s imulated und er ste ady-state con ditions. The thermodynamic
perform ance of the system may differ significantl y duri ng the s tart- up, the shut-dow n or part
load operat ion of the CES system . Not only the constraint of th e response time but also the
efficiency have a significant e ffect on CES economic viability. T h u s , a d y n a m i c s i m u l a t i o n
investigating the d rop in the efficiency and associated costs s hould be undertaken.
For the economic evalua tion, the bare module costs are estimate d base d on an existing sys tem
design. The cost estimates are a lways exposed to larg e uncertai nties and can be a strong point
of weakness. Whereas i n this work the assum ptions m ade and sour ces accessed are thoroughly
unfolde d and enable further improvem ent of the cost estim ates. Moreover, the costs were
partial ly based on past purchase orders and costs published by the technologies’ m anufacturers
and devel opers which reduce unce rtainties. Finally, the specifi c costs were validated wi th
values stated in liter ature and undertaken s ensitivity analysis.
For the monetary eva luation of different E S applications, value propositions give n for selecte d
ES app lications in literatu re wer e assessed. The monet ary val ue proposition of a specific
application can only be g ained in detailed simulation and analy sis (energ y system model ing),
taking into account the storage confi guration and the market co nditions.
In this work, CES was benchmar ked towards other bulk ES technol ogies that com pete for the
same applications. Fle xibility could also b e supplied to power grids by o ther mea ns, e.g., grid
interconnec tion, demand-si de mana gem ent, or flexible generation . A comparison should be
drawn between the a pplication of b ulk ES a nd othe r flexi bility options for CES feasibility.

6.4. Summary of pot ential future work
This work addresse d several chall enges of CES, and many interes ting results were obtained.
Nonetheless, further investigat ion is necessary to analyze and optimize CES and fac ilitate the
furthe r developm ent and applicati on of the technology. Based on the main findings, scope, and
limitations of this re search, the following potential resear ch paths wer e ide ntified:
 Dynamic sim ulation of the propose d cost-optimal adiabatic CES s ystem.
 Applicat ion of an ad vanced e xergoec onomic anal ysis o n the propo sed sy stem.
 Assessment of the market potential of CES system s and m onetary val ue propositi on of
CES applications through energy system and ES application model ing.
 Feasibility study on the in tegration o f waste heat, ORC, and LN G in reg ards to
availabi lity, ri sks, costs.
 Assessment of low-c ost and high-ef ficient c old stora ge materi al and geom etry.
 Eval uation of a ir separation or liquefac tion units and LNG term i nals as poten tial
variable loads or ES.
 Experim ental studies on com ponents of CES system s to ide ntify t echnological
diffic ulties in the process design and valida te the behavior, e .g., the cryogenic pump,
the high-pressure cry ogenic HE, cold expande r or the c old st ora ge and recovery.

Chapte r 6: Con clusi on and outl ook
124

Refere nces
125
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