Zhongchu Guoneng Technology Co., Ltd. (ZCGN) has switched on the world's largest compressed air energy storage project in China. The $207.8 million energy storage power station has a capacity of 300 MW/1,800 MWh and uses an underground salt cave.
  • threelonmusketeersEnglish
    3•6 months ago

    If you have a good heat exchanger, don’t you get most of that energy back when expanding the gas?

    • Captain AggravatedEnglish
      1•6 months ago

      What does “a good heat exchanger” look like in this case? You compress air, the pump heats up, so you ventilate it to keep it cool. The air in the tank is hot, and starts to cool as it sits in the tank, and this causes a decrease in pressure, which is why even with no leaks a shop air compressor will run for awhile, stop, then after awhile cut back on again.

      I get that I’m applying a shop tech’s “machines that I can move with a hand truck” understanding to factory-size operations here but…