Launch and first experimental results of a reversible heat pump-ORC pilot plant as Carnot Battery

Carnot Batteries are a promising approach to store electrical energy in base-load scale. To study the reversible combination of a heat pump cycle and an organic Rankine cycle as Carnot Battery a pilot plant was designed, constructed and launched. With a designed power consumption of 15 kWel at the HP-compressor, a power generation of 9 kWel at the ORC-expander and a storage capacity of 270 kWhth the pilot plant allows predictions for big scale application of the technology already. It enables a steady state operation over several hours of charging and discharging as well as a closer look at start-up behavior and part-load issues. The operation brings new insight at the previous considerations regarding reversible use. This paper shows the launch of the pilot plant and gives the first experimental results. It summarizes the design aspects and evaluates them with experimental data to close the gap between theoretical studies and industry scale solutions. The experiments showed the working fluid collector vessel has a positive influence on stabilizing the heat pump process and adapting to the ORC process. The behavior of the lubrication oil flow is depending on several operation properties. The non-stationary start-up of both operation modes and the interaction of several process parameters are presented..     «

Carnot Batteries are a promising approach to store electrical energy in base-load scale. To study the reversible combination of a heat pump cycle and an organic Rankine cycle as Carnot Battery a pilot plant was designed, constructed and launched. With a designed power consumption of 15 kWel at the HP-compressor, a power generation of 9 kWel at the ORC-expander and a storage capacity of 270 kWhth the pilot plant allows predictions for big scale application of the technology already. It enables a...     »