Liquid air energy storage: A potential low emissions and efficient storage system

The current increase in the deployment of new renewable electricity generation systems is making energy storage more and more important at small and large scales in order to guarantee and secure supply of electricity. An ideal energy storage technology would have a high power rating, a large storage capacity, high efficiency, low costs and no geographic constraints. The use of air as energy carrier has been studied since the 20th century with the first compressed air energy storage (CAES) systems. This technology is still recognized to have potential but it is geographically constrained where suitable geological tanks are available unless compressed air is stored in pressurized tanks with significant costs. Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) represents an interesting solution due to his relatively large volumetric energy density and ease of storage. This paper focuses on power recovery from liquid air, either with or without combustion. Two layouts are modeled with Aspen HYSYS® simulation software and compared in terms of roundtrip and fuel efficiencies.