Comprehensive Thermodynamic Performance Evaluation of Various Gas Liquefaction Cycles for Cryogenic Energy Storage

Muhsin Kılıç () and Ayse Fidan Altun
Additional contact information
Muhsin Kılıç: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bursa Uludag University, 16059 Bursa, Türkiye
Ayse Fidan Altun: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bursa Uludag University, 16059 Bursa, Türkiye

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 24, 1-25

Abstract: This paper conducts comparative thermodynamic analysis and performance evaluations of various gas liquefaction configurations. The four most common liquefaction systems (Linde–Hampson, Kapitza, Heylandt, and Claude) were considered. The isothermal and multi-stage isentropic compression processes were evaluated and compared as actual compression processes. Thermodynamic evaluation is based on the energy required to compress a unit mass of gas, the liquefied air mass flow rate, and the exergetic efficiency. The modeling results show that three-stage compression cycles retain lower energy requirements. Increasing the compression stage from one to two for all the processes decreases the energy requirement by 34 to 38%. Changing the compression stage number from two to three reduces the energy requirement by 13%. The compression pressure and expander flow rate ratio significantly affect the liquefied air mass flow rate. Hence, a parametric analysis was conducted to obtain the best operating conditions for each considered cycle. Depending on the compression pressure, the optimum expander flow rate values of the Claude, Kapitza, and Heylandt cycles change from 0.65 to 0.5, 0.65 to 0.55, and 0.35 to 0.30, respectively. For the optimum cases, the Claude, Kapitza, and Heylandt cycles result in liquid yields that are about 2.5, 2.2, and 1.6 times higher than that of the Linde–Hampson cycle. The Claude cycle is the best operating cycle for all the considered performance metrics. Moreover, the performances of the Linde–Hampson and Claude cycles are investigated for various gases. Under the same operating conditions, the results show that better performance parameters are obtained with the gases that have relatively high normal boiling temperatures.

Keywords: gas liquefaction; energy storage; energy efficiency; cryogenic; exergy; liquid air (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/24/16906/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/24/16906/ (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:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:24:p:16906-:d:1301516

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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