Advance Modelling of Solar Energy Based Ice Storage Systems
Abstract
Storage of fluctuating renewable energy sources is of elementary importance for decarbonizing the energy system. Ice storage systems can be used for this purpose in industrial cooling applications. For an accurate process design, an existing model was extended, improved in accuracy, and integrated into a complete system simulation. The simulation was used to numerically calculate the key performance indicators on all relevant processes of the storage tank, i.e. sensible cooling and heating, freezing and melting. The numerical model was validated with experimental results for a storage tank of 10 m3 operating under real conditions using ice-on- coil heat exchangers coupled with the ground. The model predicted the ice fraction, heating capacity, average storage temperature as well as the output temperature of the heat transfer fluid with an accuracy above 98 % for the processes of melting and sensible heating.
Keywords
Ice storage, Industrial cooling, Numerical modelling, Trnsys simulation