Energy storage project seeks industry input
29th June 2016
UK: Cold chain companies are invited to become involved in a ground-breaking pan-European project investigating the potential of large-scale cryogenic energy storage.
The CryoHub innovation project (www.cryohub.eu) is looking to employ renewable energy to liquefy and store cryogens on a large scale for both cooling and power generation. In particular, it is investigating how the power grid can be balanced with the cooling demand of refrigerated food warehouses, whilst at the same time recovering waste heat from systems.
The intention is for CryoHub to be an intelligent technology capable of converting a conventional refrigerated warehouse or food factory from a simple power consumer to an interactive energy hub.
Intermittent supply is a major obstacle to the deployment of renewable energy, being prone to overproducing when demand is low whilst failing to meet requirements when demand peaks.
Cryogenic energy storage is described as a promising technology enabling on-site storage of renewable energy during periods of high generation and its use at peak grid demand. To date, applications have been limited because of the poor efficiency due to unrecovered energy losses.
The CryoHub project is designed to maximise efficiency by recovering energy from cooling and heating through a renewable-energy-driven cycle of cryogen liquefaction, storage, distribution, efficient use and power regeneration.
Further information here.
