IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v261y2022ipas0360544222020588.html

Simulation and analysis of a Carnot Battery consisting of a reversible heat pump/organic Rankine cycle for a domestic application in a community with varying number of houses

Author

Listed:
  • Scharrer, Daniel
  • Bazan, Peter
  • Pruckner, Marco
  • German, Reinhard

Abstract

The storage of electric energy is considered to be a crucial element for grids with a high share of renewable energy generation. Carnot Batteries are a promising technology regarding sector coupling or peak shaving applications. In the domestic sector, current research focuses on an application of Carnot Battery systems in single houses with solar power to improve their self-sufficiency and reduce expenditures. However, due to the non-cellular structure (in contrast to li-ion) economies of scale contribute significantly to the viability of the technology. This is why a joint analysis of entire housing communities is necessary, as focusing only on one house neglects possibilities that arise with larger Carnot Battery systems. The Carnot Battery system is modelled after a pilot plant as a reversible heat pump (20 kW)/organic Rankine cycle (7–13 kW) system coupled with a sensible hot water storage. Operation data from a local energy supplier is used to validate the heat storage component of the simulation model, while the thermal machines are based on simulated and experimental data of the pilot plant. An extensive and comprehensive parameter variation is done to find possible application scenarios of the pilot plant and evaluate its financial viability in a community of varying number of houses. Major findings are, that the possible savings the pilot plant Carnot Battery can achieve in such a community depends on the market conditions considered and that it is not financial under current German market conditions. Varying the feed-in tariff and heat costs showcases the limits of a financial application. Based on current projections for the feed-in tariff, an application for a community of 10–30 houses becomes financial in the near future and saves more than 100 € on electricity costs per house per year, with an amortization period of 14 years depending on interest rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Scharrer, Daniel & Bazan, Peter & Pruckner, Marco & German, Reinhard, 2022. "Simulation and analysis of a Carnot Battery consisting of a reversible heat pump/organic Rankine cycle for a domestic application in a community with varying number of houses," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(PA).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:261:y:2022:i:pa:s0360544222020588
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2022.125166
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544222020588
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2022.125166?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steinmann, Wolf-Dieter & Bauer, Dan & Jockenhöfer, Henning & Johnson, Maike, 2019. "Pumped thermal energy storage (PTES) as smart sector-coupling technology for heat and electricity," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 185-190.
    2. Dumont, O. & Lemort, V., 2020. "Mapping of performance of pumped thermal energy storage (Carnot battery) using waste heat recovery," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    3. Daniel Steger & Christoph Regensburger & Jenny Pham & Eberhard Schlücker, 2021. "Heat Exchangers in Carnot Batteries: Condensation and Evaporation in a Reversible Device," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-14, September.
    4. Eppinger, Bernd & Zigan, Lars & Karl, Jürgen & Will, Stefan, 2020. "Pumped thermal energy storage with heat pump-ORC-systems: Comparison of latent and sensible thermal storages for various fluids," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    5. Bernd Eppinger & Mustafa Muradi & Daniel Scharrer & Lars Zigan & Peter Bazan & Reinhard German & Stefan Will, 2021. "Simulation of the Part Load Behavior of Combined Heat Pump-Organic Rankine Cycle Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-18, June.
    6. Guido Francesco Frate & Lorenzo Ferrari & Umberto Desideri, 2020. "Rankine Carnot Batteries with the Integration of Thermal Energy Sources: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-28, September.
    7. Daniel Scharrer & Bernd Eppinger & Pascal Schmitt & Johan Zenk & Peter Bazan & Jürgen Karl & Stefan Will & Marco Pruckner & Reinhard German, 2020. "Life Cycle Assessment of a Reversible Heat Pump–Organic Rankine Cycle–Heat Storage System with Geothermal Heat Supply," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-19, June.
    8. Zhang, Y.N. & Wang, R.Z. & Li, T.X., 2018. "Thermochemical characterizations of high-stable activated alumina/LiCl composites with multistage sorption process for thermal storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 240-249.
    9. Kavlak, Goksin & McNerney, James & Trancik, Jessika E., 2018. "Evaluating the causes of cost reduction in photovoltaic modules," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 700-710.
    10. Steinmann, W.D., 2014. "The CHEST (Compressed Heat Energy STorage) concept for facility scale thermo mechanical energy storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 543-552.
    11. Sebastian Staub & Peter Bazan & Konstantinos Braimakis & Dominik Müller & Christoph Regensburger & Daniel Scharrer & Bernd Schmitt & Daniel Steger & Reinhard German & Sotirios Karellas & Marco Pruckne, 2018. "Reversible Heat Pump–Organic Rankine Cycle Systems for the Storage of Renewable Electricity," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-17, May.
    12. Steger, Daniel & Regensburger, Christoph & Eppinger, Bernd & Will, Stefan & Karl, Jürgen & Schlücker, Eberhard, 2020. "Design aspects of a reversible heat pump - Organic rankine cycle pilot plant for energy storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    13. Quiggin, Daniel & Cornell, Sarah & Tierney, Michael & Buswell, Richard, 2012. "A simulation and optimisation study: Towards a decentralised microgrid, using real world fluctuation data," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 549-559.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiaoyu Zhou & Xinxing Lin & Wen Su & Ruochen Ding & Yaran Liang, 2025. "Thermo-Economic Potential of Carnot Batteries for the Waste Heat Recovery of Liquid-Cooled Data Centers with Different Combinations of Heat Pumps and Organic Rankine Cycles," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-28, March.
    2. Qiao, Hongna & Yang, Bin & Yu, Xiaohui, 2025. "Development of an efficient cross-scale model for working fluid selection of Rankine-based Carnot battery based on group contribution method," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    3. Guo, Bentao & Lemort, Vincent & Cendoya, Aitor, 2025. "Control strategy and techno-economic optimization of a small-scale hybrid energy storage system: A reversible HP/ORC-based Carnot battery and an electrical battery," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).
    4. Li, Wei & Wang, Siyi & Xu, Shengguan & Wang, Qiuwang & Markides, Christos N., 2025. "An intensive review of ORC-based pumped thermal energy storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 330(C).
    5. Alsagri, Ali Sulaiman, 2023. "An innovative design of solar-assisted carnot battery for multigeneration of power, cooling, and process heating: Techno-economic analysis and optimization," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 375-385.
    6. Haojie Chen & Man-Hoe Kim, 2022. "Thermodynamic Analysis and Working Fluid Selection of a Novel Cogeneration System Based on a Regenerative Organic Flash Cycle," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-25, October.
    7. Charalampidis, Antonios & Roumpedakis, Tryfon C. & Sarantopoulos, Nikolaos & Karellas, Sotirios, 2025. "Experimental evaluation of a hybrid small-scale reversible heat pump/ORC system coupled with an adsorption chiller," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Weitzer, Maximilian & Müller, Dominik & Karl, Jürgen, 2022. "Two-phase expansion processes in heat pump – ORC systems (Carnot batteries) with volumetric machines for enhanced off-design efficiency," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 720-732.
    2. Zhao, Yongliang & Song, Jian & Liu, Ming & Zhao, Yao & Olympios, Andreas V. & Sapin, Paul & Yan, Junjie & Markides, Christos N., 2022. "Thermo-economic assessments of pumped-thermal electricity storage systems employing sensible heat storage materials," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 431-456.
    3. Yu, Zhikang & Zhang, Xiaosong & Yu, Jianyu & Yang, Yi & Ma, Yuxin & Wang, Libo & Zhang, Chenyu & Yuan, Yubo & Jiang, Zhu & Huang, Shifang, 2025. "Integrating a novel pumped thermal electricity storage system with industrial applications: Simultaneous achievements in flue gas heat recovery, carbon capture, and energy storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 337(C).
    4. Eppinger, Bernd & Steger, Daniel & Regensburger, Christoph & Karl, Jürgen & Schlücker, Eberhard & Will, Stefan, 2021. "Carnot battery: Simulation and design of a reversible heat pump-organic Rankine cycle pilot plant," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    5. Sun, Yang & Zhang, Xiang & Xu, Cheng & Li, Chao & Shao, Mingxuan & Wang, Dechang & Yang, Qirong & Sun, Hongchen, 2024. "Storing electricity in the low-rank coal: The heat-upgrading carnot battery concept and a comprehensive thermodynamic analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    6. Guido Francesco Frate & Lorenzo Ferrari & Umberto Desideri, 2020. "Rankine Carnot Batteries with the Integration of Thermal Energy Sources: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-28, September.
    7. Frate, Guido Francesco & Baccioli, Andrea & Bernardini, Leonardo & Ferrari, Lorenzo, 2022. "Assessment of the off-design performance of a solar thermally-integrated pumped-thermal energy storage," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 201(P1), pages 636-650.
    8. Wu, Ding & Ma, Bo & Zhang, Ji & Chen, Yanqi & Shen, Feifan & Chen, Xun & Wen, Chuang & Yang, Yan, 2024. "Working fluid pair selection of thermally integrated pumped thermal electricity storage system for waste heat recovery and energy storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 371(C).
    9. Frate, Guido Francesco & Ferrari, Lorenzo & Desideri, Umberto, 2021. "Energy storage for grid-scale applications: Technology review and economic feasibility analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 1754-1772.
    10. Li, Wei & Wang, Siyi & Xu, Shengguan & Wang, Qiuwang & Markides, Christos N., 2025. "An intensive review of ORC-based pumped thermal energy storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 330(C).
    11. Liang, Ting & Vecchi, Andrea & Knobloch, Kai & Sciacovelli, Adriano & Engelbrecht, Kurt & Li, Yongliang & Ding, Yulong, 2022. "Key components for Carnot Battery: Technology review, technical barriers and selection criteria," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    12. José Ignacio Linares & Arturo Martín-Colino & Eva Arenas & María José Montes & Alexis Cantizano & José Rubén Pérez-Domínguez, 2023. "Carnot Battery Based on Brayton Supercritical CO 2 Thermal Machines Using Concentrated Solar Thermal Energy as a Low-Temperature Source," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-24, May.
    13. Xue, X.J. & Zhao, C.Y., 2023. "Transient behavior and thermodynamic analysis of Brayton-like pumped-thermal electricity storage based on packed-bed latent heat/cold stores," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).
    14. Steger, Daniel & Feist, Michael & Schlücker, Eberhard, 2022. "Using a screw-type machine as reversible compressor–expander in a Carnot Battery: An analytical study towards efficiency," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 316(C).
    15. Sui, Yunren & Lin, Haosheng & Ding, Zhixiong & Li, Fuxiang & Sui, Zengguang & Wu, Wei, 2024. "Compact, efficient, and affordable absorption Carnot battery for long-term renewable energy storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 357(C).
    16. Zhu, Chenjie & Sun, Yang & Zheng, Guangdong & Li, Dukang & Xu, Cheng & Wu, Ruipeng & Jiang, Huawei & Yang, Qirong, 2025. "Discharging via the low-pressure section of the thermal power plant: a new integrated Carnot battery concept and the performance evaluation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    17. Jiang, Yuemao & Su, Wen & Wu, Chuang & Wang, Shunsen, 2024. "Enhanced thermally integrated Carnot battery using low-GWP working fluid pair: Multi-aspect analysis and multi-scale optimization," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 376(PA).
    18. Chen, Yanqi & Bao, Aorigele & Wu, Ding & Huang, Xiaohui & Huang, Sheng & Zhang, Ji, 2025. "Experimental study of discharge performance of pumped thermal energy storage system based on organic Rankine cycle," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 340(C).
    19. Xia, Xiaoxia & Sun, Chuansheng & Li, Jiajia & Liu, Xinxin & Zhang, Xingyu & Gong, Siyu & Yang, Chengwu & Wang, Zhiqi, 2025. "Research on the matching modes between the thermal storage methods and working fluid types of the thermally integrated Carnot battery system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 339(C).
    20. Guo, Bentao & Lemort, Vincent & Cendoya, Aitor, 2025. "Control strategy and techno-economic optimization of a small-scale hybrid energy storage system: A reversible HP/ORC-based Carnot battery and an electrical battery," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:261:y:2022:i:pa:s0360544222020588. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.