Chemical Engineering December 2011 - 21

amberkinetics.com) received awards for demonstrating
improved flywheel devices. Amber is planning
on a commercial prototype flywheel in 2012
that features magnetic bearings, a low-cost rotor,
and a high-efficiency motor-generator.
Another approach with DOE support is superconducting-magnet
energy storage (SMES). A publicprivate
team led by Brookhaven National Laboratory
(Brookhaven, N.Y.; www.bnl.gov) and Superpower
Inc. (Schenectady, N.Y.; www.superpower-inc.com),
is developing a SMES system that uses magnetic
and its heat losses during the compression
and expansion.
A new CAES technology developed
by SustainX Inc. (Seabrook, N.H.; www.
sustainx.com) uses isothermal compression
and expansion to increase the
efficiency of the operation. SustainX
overcomes the difficulties of classical
CAES by using a reciprocating engine,
as opposed to a turbomachine, and
sealed-pipe storage tanks, rather than
underground caverns or aquifers, for
the compressed air. An electric motor
compresses air isothermally using a
mechanical crankshaft to store air at
3,000 psi. When electricity is needed,
the compressed air is expanded isothermally,
running the same crankshaft,
fields in superconducting coils to store energy with
virtually zero energy losses.
In other DOE public-private partnerships, Argonne
National Laboratory (Lemont, Ill.; www.anl.
gov) has formed a collaborative arrangement with
Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.
com) to develop new battery materials. Argonne
has also established a facility specifically for supporting
the the scaleup of production processes for
battery-related materials, with the goal of moving
products into commercial production.
❏
which in turn, drives a generator.
The company has engineered a proprietary
method to control the temperature
of the air during compression
and expansion, so that its temperature
never deviates by more than 10 to 15ºF.
The result is a highly efficient cycle
that minimizes heat loss. To achieve the
isothermal compression and expansion
cycle, SustainX engineers had to devise
an effective method to transfer heat to
and from the air. To accomplish this
task, the company developed a system
to efficiently aerosolize water. The high
surface area of the droplets, and their
proximity to air molecules, enables efficient
heat transfer during compression
and expansion. Company cofounder
Dax Kepshire says the company's
aerosolization method
consumes little energy, helping
to make the technology
economically viable.
SustainX has demonstrated
a 40-kW CAES system
at its New Hampshire facility, and
plans to build (with power company
AES) a megawatt-scale system next
year. SustainX is pursuing grid applications
that require electricity for
durations of 1-6 h, although Kepshire
says the power and energy are independently
scalable, allowing the technology
to potentially be applied elsewhere.
For now, SustainX sees its technology
as a more efficient solution than the
combustion-engine " peakers " that are
commonly used at power plants for balancing
supply and demand.
Flow batteries advance
Flow batteries employ pumps to move
electrolyte solutions past electrode
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Circle 1 on p. 62 or go to adlinks.che.com/35072-01
http://www.amberkinetics.com http://www.anl http://www.dow http://www.bnl.gov http://www.superpower-inc.com http://www.sustainx.com http://www.alexanderwerk.com http://adlinks.che.com/35072-01
Chemical Engineering December 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering December 2011
