Sustainability breakthrough for weekly, monthly, or seasonal energy storage dramatically reduces use of scarce water resources, hydrogen fuel, and liquid air storage medium
(Palo Alto, California)–July 28, 2021 U.S. Patent No. 11,073,080 entitled HIGH PRESSURE LIQUID AIR POWER AND STORAGE was granted to Dr. William M. Conlon, the founder and president of Pintail Power LLC. This latest patent extends Pintail’s Liquid Air Combined Cycle (LACC™) technology platform by removing compression work from the discharge cycle while providing two paths to decarbonized hybrid energy storage.
This invention adapts existing steam and gas turbines to efficiently discharge energy safely stored as liquid air at atmospheric pressure, which is a compact form of energy storage produced by proven cryogenic refrigeration equipment. During discharge, the liquid air is pumped to high pressure, heated by exhaust gas from a power turbine, and expanded to intermediate pressure to produce electricity. The intermediate pressure air flows into a combustor where hydrogen or renewable fuels heat the air to very high temperature to produce additional electricity in a power turbine, with the exhaust recycled to heat liquid air. In addition, the cold liquid air condenses the water of combustion, allowing water to be recycled into more fuel by electrolysis and minimizing the use of scarce water resources.
This long duration hybrid storage system is intended for weekly, monthly, or seasonal storage using above-ground or in-ground tanks similar to those used for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). According to Dr. Conlon, “Reducing the use of both liquid air and hydrogen in the storage of renewable energy while recycling benign air and water is a sustainability breakthrough that is enabled by space and time shifting of the compression work from the discharging equipment to the charging equipment.”
The invention will be developed and commercialized by Pintail Power LLC, which was founded by Dr. Conlon to bridge renewable and conventional generation by coupling thermal energy storage with proven generating equipment. Pintail Power provides long-duration energy storage technology, systems and services to utilities, independent power producers and developers to accelerate the transition to low-carbon electricity.
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Judith Schwartz
To the Point
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