Electromagnetic heating assisted energy storage

Abstract

Energy storage is increasingly becoming a possible solution worldwide to aid the energy supply and demand. The objective of this study is to determine whether thermal energy storage can be effectively and efficiently achieved by ways of electromagnetic (EM) radiation. To serve this purpose, an experimental setup was designed in order to subject core flooding experiments to EM heating using a MW source. Temperature data is obtained and used to construct temperature profiles as well as energy absorption and storage profiles. The experiments vary from EM radiation under no flow conditions to experiments inducing flow in order to determine the effect of flow on energy absorption and storage amounts. The results obtained show that a significant amount of energy is absorbed by the core and that the introduction of flow at the chosen flowrates during EM heating does not diminish the energy absorption ability of water inside the core. Flow does however increase the rate of energy decline within the core when EM heating is stopped thus reducing the amount of energy stored. Nevertheless, around 40% of the energy absorbed after 150 seconds of EM heating is stored in the core after a cooling period of 60 minutes. This amount declines significantly when flow in implemented throughout heating and cooling. Even though the experimental setup performed accordingly, the large amounts of energy losses are an area that should be subject to improvement. When this technology is implemented in reservoirs or aquifers, the MW antenna is placed in the pay zone. This results in lower energy losses due to the over- and underlying formations functioning as insulation. Subject to improvements, this study concludes that EM stimulated core flooding is a legitimate and viable technology with significant potential for thermal energy storage purposes."