Comprehensive experimental investigation of liquid piston gas compression for energy storage applications.

Ahn, Barah, 1992-

Comprehensive experimental investigation of liquid piston gas compression for energy storage applications.

dc.contributor.advisor	Ro, Paul I.
dc.creator	Ahn, Barah, 1992-
dc.date.accessioned	2024-07-30T12:45:55Z
dc.date.available	2024-07-30T12:45:55Z
dc.date.created	2023-12
dc.date.issued	2023-12
dc.date.submitted	December 2023
dc.date.updated	2024-07-30T12:45:56Z
dc.description.abstract	A liquid piston gas compressor can alleviate the efficiency issue of a conventional compressed air energy storage system by realizing a near-isothermal compression process due to its capability to incorporate heat transfer enhancement techniques. In this work, a range of heat transfer enhancement techniques is experimentally examined under various conditions. To explore the possibility of further efficiency improvement of the spray injection technique, two different approaches are taken: integrating a metal wire mesh insert and using an air atomization nozzle. With a mesh insert, the possible best condition of each technique does not always lead to the highest isothermal performance because droplet heat transfer is compromised by the existence of the insert. Even though air atomization spray can generate fine droplets, the addition of air accelerates the pressure increase during the compression, which results in a rapid decline of the spray effectiveness. To evaluate the actual applicability, the liquid piston and heat transfer enhancement techniques are evaluated at various pressure levels. The baseline compression is performed at three different initial pressures of 1, 2, and 3 bars with a pressure ratio of 2. A higher-initial pressure leads to a decreased isothermal efficiency. With the gas dissolution considered, the impact of the initial pressure level on an actual efficiency is expected to be greater than what can be observed with the computed efficiency values. Under the same pressure conditions, the use of the spray injection boosts the isothermal efficiencies to 98 – 98.5%. However, with the gas dissolution and spray work input considered, the overall efficiencies are substantially lower than the computed isothermal efficiencies, and this trend is more significant at a higher-pressure level. Aqueous foam and metal wire mesh inserts are evaluated under the same pressure conditions. For both techniques, the results show a consistent trend that a higher-initial pressure leads to a lower isothermal efficiency. In addition, a comprehensive comparative study of the spray injection, aqueous foam, and a metal wire mesh insert is performed based on the experimental results and their working mechanisms.
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.identifier.uri
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/2104/12915
dc.language.iso	English
dc.rights.accessrights	Worldwide access
dc.title	Comprehensive experimental investigation of liquid piston gas compression for energy storage applications.
dc.type	Thesis
dc.type.material	text
thesis.degree.department	Baylor University. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.
thesis.degree.grantor	Baylor University
thesis.degree.name	Ph.D.
thesis.degree.program	Mechanical Engineering
thesis.degree.school	Baylor University