First liquid air mainstream energy report gets underway 18 December 2012

Cryogenic energy storage plant is taking another step out of the laboratory towards full scale production, with the announcement that global engineering consultancy Arup and gas giant Messer Group are sponsoring the first liquid air energy report.

The pair, along with a group of academics, research institutions, industry and policy experts, intends to explore the energy and economic potential of liquid air, and whether it should – and can – become a new strategic sector in the global clean tech energy ecosystem.

The project – which is also being supported by the IMechE and the Centre for Low Carbon Futures – will review the technology's potential for everything from storing off-peak energy and smoothing peaks and troughs in demand, to harnessing low-grade waste heat from co-located processes.

Although cryogenic liquids are widely used in industry, their adoption as an energy vector, most notably by Highview Power Storage,is only just beginning. Liquid air is not yet part of the mainstream energy debate, so this is a key research project.

Certainly, the potential appears huge. Furthermore liquid air technology is able to recover low grade waste heat from sources such as thermal generation, data centres and industrial processes, or IC engines in vehicles and convert it into power.

As Dr Tim Fox, head of energy and environment at the IMechE, puts it: "Liquid air and liquid nitrogen are an exciting [energy storage] alternative we should explore. It seems to address many of the challenges we face and is affordable, uses mature components and is highly scalable."

"Messer Group has been developing, building and operating cryogenic production plants – both air separation plants and liquefiers – for well over a century now," comments Tim Evison, vice president for group business development within Messer.

"Such facilities, often incorporating large cryogenic storage tanks, exist today in reach of almost every major industrial centre around the world," he says. And he adds: ""It is certainly an intriguing idea that these existing facilities might find themselves able, in the future, to provide their industrial customers and the power grid with additional services, including reserve power, balancing and storage."

For him, this is all about confirming the predicted round-trip efficiency. "If [this] can be demonstrated at commercial scale, then cryogenic storage systems could be built into the grid wherever needed. There are no geographic limitations."

Brian Tinham

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