Brazed plate heat exchangers for energy storage

New solutions for new challenges

Perhaps the most significant challenge in the transition to renewable energy is how to match supply with demand when the sun isn’t shining, and the wind is still. For this reason, energy storage is essential to decarbonizing the energy infrastructure and supporting the transition to clean energy solutions. Energy Storage technology can help balance renewable energy systems, enabling cost-effective deep decarbonization while making the energy supply more reliable.

SWEP for energy storage

SWEP has extensive experience in dimensioning brazed plate heat exchangers (BPHEs) as critical components for multi-megawatt energy storage facilities, including battery, thermal, and compressed or liquefied air, as well as for the various natural gas technologies needed for power-to-gas plants. Our BPHEs are compact and robust, delivering efficient heat transfer in all types of systems.

Battery energy storage (BES)

Lithium-ion batteries are the most common storage technology used at large scale storage plants. They store power in solid electrodes, which are usually made of metal. The Edwards & Sanborn solar-plus-storage project, a 4,600-acre facility in Kern County, California, is currently the world’s largest solar-energy generation and battery storage system, with 875MWdc of solar PV and 3,287MWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity. Lithium battery technologies are diverse, flexible, modular, and inexpensive. However, they degrade over time and present unique fire management challenges.

Thermal energy storage (TES)

Sensible heat storage is the most straightforward technique for storing energy thermally, and works by either heating or cooling the storage media. Common media include salt-and-water mixtures and sand-and-water mixtures. However, the thermal storage capacity of a sensible heat storage system is limited by specific heat capacity of the media. Molten salts or metals, which can be heated to higher temperatures, offer greater storage capacity.

Liquid to-air energy storage (LAES)

This type of storage uses surplus electricity to chill ambient air to -195°C, its liquefaction point, so that it can be stored in specialized containers. When exposed to ambient air or waste heat, the liquid rapidly evaporates, reverting to its gaseous state. As it expands, the gas can be used to power turbines and generate electricity.

SWEP and Westerlo case story

Compressed air energy storage (CAES)

Compressed air energy storage (CAES) uses surplus electricity to compress air, which can then be decompressed and passed through a turbine to generate electricity when needed. This type of storage system can be used in conjunction with a wind farm, pulling in air and creating a high-pressure system in a series of underground chambers. When wind speeds drop or demand for electricity increases, the pressurized air can be released to power turbines.

Electro-thermal energy storage (ETES)

An ETES system draws electricity from the grid when power costs are low and converts it into heat energy that can be stored in a medium such as bricks, lava rocks, concrete, or molten salt. Heat from this media can then be delivered to industrial sites as hot water or steam.