Experimental and numerical study of self-pressurized ultrahigh-pressure hydrothermal energy storage

doi:10.19799/j.cnki.2095-4239.2025.0091

Abstract

Abstract:

High-pressure hydrothermal energy storage systems have gained widespread deployment in industrial heat storage and peak load balancing for grids owing to their high energy storage density, long thermal storage time, low cost, and the possibility of modularity. In this study, we developed a self-pressurized, ultrahigh-pressure hydrothermal energy storage system. In addition, we performed numerical simulations to understand the experimentally observed insufficient natural convection under electric heaters and lower heat storage efficiency due to the temperature gradient. The simulation results show that the temperature gradient can be significantly improved by including an external circulation pump, thereby improving thermal storage efficiency. The heat storage efficiency was improved by approximately 12%, and the maximum temperature difference in the gravity direction was reduced from 45.93 ℃ to 0.93 ℃ after heating for 60 min. Furthermore, we evaluated the effect of external circulation pumps on the thermal storage efficiency of the system using two indicators: dimensionless constants λ and δ, which describe the ratio of the circulating pump installation position to the storage tank size and the ratio of the circulating volume to the tank volume, respectively. With λ≈0.5, the flow within the storage tank was more consistent, the temperature gradient was relatively small, and the thermal efficiency of the storage system improved. As δ increased to 4.42, the uniformity of the internal temperature in the storage tank was optimal, the response time to thermal changes decreased, and the efficiency of thermal storage increased. This study provides conceptual insights into the thermal storage performance of horizontally oriented, high-temperature, self-pressurized hot water reservoirs, thereby facilitating the implementation of high-pressure hydrothermal energy storage systems in industrial applications.

Key words: high-pressure hydrothermal energy storage, numerical simulation, circulation pump, thermal energy storage efficiency

CLC Number:

TK 02

Kangbin LIU, Haichuan SHEN, Guanjia ZHAO, Wentao XIE, Weiyao XUN. Experimental and numerical study of self-pressurized ultrahigh-pressure hydrothermal energy storage[J]. Energy Storage Science and Technology, 2025, 14(6): 2352-2361.

Figures/Tables 9

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