Research project
IceCO2 – Ice Slurry Generation from Supercooled Water for pumped thermal energy storage
As part of the Ice-CO2 project, SPF is developing a novel ice slurry storage system intended to serve as a cold reservoir in a pumped thermal energy storage facility. Our partner, the American company Echogen Power Systems, utilizes a CO2 heat pump they have developed, along with two thermal storages at different temperatures (320 °C and 0 °C), to build a “Carnot battery”. This system efficiently stores surplus electricity as thermal energy and later converts this thermal energy back into electricity when needed, feeding it into the grid.
In this project, SPF is further developing an ice slurry storage system. This involves cooling water below its freezing point using a special method: in an advanced hydraulic system, water is pumped from the ice slurry tank into a heat exchanger and cooled to approximately -2 °C below the freezing point, initially remaining in a metastable state. Subsequently, a mixture of ice (~2.5%) and water at 0 °C is formed in a crystallization unit from the supercooled water and pumped back into the ice slurry tank.
A specially developed tank design prevents suction of already produced ice slurry in the next pumping cycle. Various heat exchangers are being tested for their efficiency and performance regarding the supercooling of water. In addition, the appropriate storage tank is being designed and the crystallization unit – the heart of the system with a capacity of 10 kW – is being developed and tested.
Upon completion and successful testing of the ice slurry storage system, the components are shipped to our American partner, where they will be comprehensively tested and evaluated in combination with their CO2 heat pump.
Contact: Ann-Katrin Thamm
Duration: 01.04.2022 - 31.07.2025
Partner:
Daniel Carbonell, DCarbo
Team:
Kevin Erb
SPF Institut für SolartechnikWissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter SPF
+41 58 257 41 65kevin.erb@ost.ch
Dr. Ann-Katrin Thamm
SPF Institut für SolartechnikProjektleiterin SPF
+41 58 257 48 23ann-katrin.thamm@ost.ch
