Heat Exchangers in Carnot Batteries: Condensation and Evaporation in a Reversible Device

Daniel Steger, Christoph Regensburger, Jenny Pham and Eberhard Schlücker
Additional contact information
Daniel Steger: Institute of Process Machinery and Systems Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Cauerstraße 4, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Christoph Regensburger: Institute of Process Machinery and Systems Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Cauerstraße 4, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Jenny Pham: Institute of Process Machinery and Systems Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Cauerstraße 4, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Eberhard Schlücker: Institute of Process Machinery and Systems Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Cauerstraße 4, 91058 Erlangen, Germany

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 18, 1-14

Abstract: The combined heat pump–organic Rankine cycle is a thermal–electrical storage concept which allows the reversible use of components in both operation modes (loading and unloading the storage). This saves in terms of investment costs but also creates challenges during design and operation. A heat exchanger is an expensive component destined to be used for the reversible purposes of a heat pump condenser and an organic Rankine cycle evaporator. In this study, the operation of such an apparatus was evaluated based on an analytical model, experimental data and thermal imaging. This study shows that the model can predict the filling of the apparatus distinguished by liquid, vapour and the two-phase region. The thermal imaging supports the model and gives the location of the regions. Connecting both methods, a valid statement about the current condition of the heat exchanger is possible. Due to very small pinch points, the apparatus is not efficiently used in the investigated modes. Extending the pinch to 2 K can already save up to 46.1% of the heat exchange area. The quality of the heat transfer in the evaporator ( q ˙ O R C = 10.9 kW/m 2 ) is clearly higher than in the condenser ( q ˙ H P = 6.1 kW/m 2 ).

Keywords: Carnot battery; heat pump; organic Rankine cycle; reversible condensation–evaporation; heat exchangers; thermal imaging camera (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/18/5620/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/18/5620/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:18:p:5620-:d:630910

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().