Power Generation using Cryogenic Energy Storage techniques

The large increase in energy demand, consequent CO2 emissions and the depletion of the fossil

fuels pose a hazard to the global energy crisis and present many challenges to the energy industry.

Cryogenic Energy Storage, also known as CES, refers to the storage of energy in the form of Liquefied

Natural Gas (LNG) or Liquid Nitrogen. This energy storage technology is integrated with micro-grid

networks and is used to provide electricity to confined regions, thus meeting and steadying the

power demand and supply curves in the given regions. It not only offers large volumetric energy

densities but also leads to ease of storage of the fuel source and addresses the irregular availability

of renewable energy sources.

It adopts a similar concept of a combined cycle power plant where the usage of gas and steam is

incorporated to produce up to more than half the energy from the same fuel when compared to a

traditional simple-cycle plant. It leads to an improvement of the thermal efficiency of the power

plant by keeping higher average load of the power plant, which will lead to a reduction of electrical

power generation cost. Economics related to the power generation by gas turbines is continuously

proving itself to be more attractive due to low capital cost, high reliability and flexibility in operation.

Quick starting and capability of using widely abundant and easy to store fuels such as LNG and Liquid

Nitrogen are other outstanding features of gas turbine power plants.

Cryogenic Power generation systems that use LNG as their primary fuel consist of the following

basic schemes:

 LNG Reception, Storage and Regasification terminal.

 Electric power plant.

The cold energy that is available in LNG is made to use in the LNG cryogenic power generation

process. Electric power can be generated by direct expansion of the vaporized LNG or expansion of

an intermediate fluid using a Rankine cycle.

A liquefied power generation medium, usually which has a low boiling point, is pressurized by means

of LNG with a pump and is subsequently gasified by being heated up with heat exchanger to produce

high pressure gas. This high pressure gas is then fed into a steam turbine which in turn is coupled to

a power generator. The depressurization of the high pressure gas in the steam turbine results in its

operation, thus generating electricity to be supplied to the grid connected and distributed. The low

pressure gas is recycled and reused to repeat the same process in order to produce electric power

continuously.