IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v208y2025ics1364032124007123.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Liquid air energy storage – A critical review

Author

Listed:
  • She, Xiaohui
  • Wang, Huiru
  • Zhang, Tongtong
  • Li, Yongliang
  • Zhao, Xuemin
  • Ding, Yulong
  • Wang, Chen

Abstract

Liquid air energy storage (LAES) can offer a scalable solution for power management, with significant potential for decarbonizing electricity systems through integration with renewables. Its inherent benefits, including no geological constraints, long lifetime, high energy density, environmental friendliness and flexibility, have garnered increasing interest. LAES traces its origins to the first liquid air engine attempt in 1899 and liquid air for peak shaving in 1977. Subsequent advancements in the UK, China, and Japan, signify the progress in the field. However, prior discussions regarding LAES applications have been limited, primarily concentrating on coupled configurations while overlooking decoupled setups. This study provides a comprehensive review of LAES, exploring various dimensions: i) functions beyond load shifting, including frequency regulation, black start, and clean fuel; ii) classification of LAES configurations into coupled systems (standalone & hybrid) and decoupled systems (onshore/offshore energy transmission & liquid air vehicle); iii) challenges facing decoupled LAES, particularly efficiency and hence cost associated with liquid air production (∼0.6–0.75 kWh/kg), as well as low round-trip efficiency (∼20–50 %) related to high-grade cold recovery; iv) highlighting the potential of cold/heat recovery in standalone LAES to enhance thermo-economic performance (round-trip efficiency of ∼50–60 %, payback period of ∼20 years) and the integration of extra cold/heat sources in hybrid LAES for further improvement (round-trip efficiency of ∼50–90 %, payback period of ∼3–10 years). This review aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of LAES, address challenges across configurations, and promote the developments in LAES technology.

Suggested Citation

  • She, Xiaohui & Wang, Huiru & Zhang, Tongtong & Li, Yongliang & Zhao, Xuemin & Ding, Yulong & Wang, Chen, 2025. "Liquid air energy storage – A critical review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:208:y:2025:i:c:s1364032124007123
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2024.114986
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032124007123
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2024.114986?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Borri, Emiliano & Tafone, Alessio & Romagnoli, Alessandro & Comodi, Gabriele, 2021. "A review on liquid air energy storage: History, state of the art and recent developments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    2. Tafone, Alessio & Ding, Yulong & Li, Yongliang & Xie, Chunping & Romagnoli, Alessandro, 2020. "Levelised Cost of Storage (LCOS) analysis of liquid air energy storage system integrated with Organic Rankine Cycle," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    3. Siraj Sabihuddin & Aristides E. Kiprakis & Markus Mueller, 2014. "A Numerical and Graphical Review of Energy Storage Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-45, December.
    4. Peng, Hao & Yang, Yu & Li, Rui & Ling, Xiang, 2016. "Thermodynamic analysis of an improved adiabatic compressed air energy storage system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 1361-1373.
    5. Zhang, Tong & Chen, Laijun & Zhang, Xuelin & Mei, Shengwei & Xue, Xiaodai & Zhou, Yuan, 2018. "Thermodynamic analysis of a novel hybrid liquid air energy storage system based on the utilization of LNG cold energy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 641-650.
    6. Morgan, Robert & Nelmes, Stuart & Gibson, Emma & Brett, Gareth, 2015. "Liquid air energy storage – Analysis and first results from a pilot scale demonstration plant," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 845-853.
    7. Peng, Xiaodong & She, Xiaohui & Cong, Lin & Zhang, Tongtong & Li, Chuan & Li, Yongliang & Wang, Li & Tong, Lige & Ding, Yulong, 2018. "Thermodynamic study on the effect of cold and heat recovery on performance of liquid air energy storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 86-99.
    8. Lin, Boqiang & Wu, Wei & Bai, Mengqi & Xie, Chunping & Radcliffe, Jonathan, 2019. "Liquid air energy storage: Price arbitrage operations and sizing optimization in the GB real-time electricity market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 647-655.
    9. Peng, Xiaodong & She, Xiaohui & Li, Chuan & Luo, Yimo & Zhang, Tongtong & Li, Yongliang & Ding, Yulong, 2019. "Liquid air energy storage flexibly coupled with LNG regasification for improving air liquefaction," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 1190-1201.
    10. Argyrou, Maria C. & Christodoulides, Paul & Kalogirou, Soteris A., 2018. "Energy storage for electricity generation and related processes: Technologies appraisal and grid scale applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 804-821.
    11. Sanghyun Che & Juwon Kim & Daejun Chang, 2021. "Liquid Air as an Energy Carrier for Liquefied Natural Gas Cold Energy Distribution in Cold Storage Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-23, January.
    12. Wang, Chen & Zhang, Xiaosong & You, Zhanping & Zhang, Muxing & Huang, Shifang & She, Xiaohui, 2021. "The effect of air purification on liquid air energy storage – An analysis from molecular to systematic modelling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 300(C).
    13. Krawczyk, Piotr & Szabłowski, Łukasz & Karellas, Sotirios & Kakaras, Emmanuel & Badyda, Krzysztof, 2018. "Comparative thermodynamic analysis of compressed air and liquid air energy storage systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 46-54.
    14. Tafone, Alessio & Borri, Emiliano & Comodi, Gabriele & van den Broek, Martijn & Romagnoli, Alessandro, 2018. "Liquid Air Energy Storage performance enhancement by means of Organic Rankine Cycle and Absorption Chiller," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 1810-1821.
    15. Sciacovelli, A. & Vecchi, A. & Ding, Y., 2017. "Liquid air energy storage (LAES) with packed bed cold thermal storage – From component to system level performance through dynamic modelling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 84-98.
    16. Xie, Chunping & Hong, Yan & Ding, Yulong & Li, Yongliang & Radcliffe, Jonathan, 2018. "An economic feasibility assessment of decoupled energy storage in the UK: With liquid air energy storage as a case study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 244-257.
    17. Akram, Umer & Nadarajah, Mithulananthan & Shah, Rakibuzzaman & Milano, Federico, 2020. "A review on rapid responsive energy storage technologies for frequency regulation in modern power systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    18. Kim, Juwon & Noh, Yeelyong & Chang, Daejun, 2018. "Storage system for distributed-energy generation using liquid air combined with liquefied natural gas," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 1417-1432.
    19. Tafone, Alessio & Dal Magro, Fabio & Romagnoli, Alessandro, 2018. "Integrating an oxygen enriched waste to energy plant with cryogenic engines and Air Separation Unit: Technical, economic and environmental analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C), pages 423-432.
    20. Peng, Hao & Shan, Xuekun & Yang, Yu & Ling, Xiang, 2018. "A study on performance of a liquid air energy storage system with packed bed units," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 126-135.
    21. Cui, Shuangshuang & Song, Jintao & Wang, Tingting & Liu, Yixue & He, Qing & Liu, Wenyi, 2021. "Thermodynamic analysis and efficiency assessment of a novel multi-generation liquid air energy storage system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    22. Qi, Meng & Park, Jinwoo & Kim, Jeongdong & Lee, Inkyu & Moon, Il, 2020. "Advanced integration of LNG regasification power plant with liquid air energy storage: Enhancements in flexibility, safety, and power generation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    23. Jiang, Xi Zhuo & Wang, Xiangyu & Feng, Lejun & Zheng, Danxing & Shi, Lin, 2017. "Adapted computational method of energy level and energy quality evolution for combined cooling, heating and power systems with energy storage units," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 209-216.
    24. She, Xiaohui & Zhang, Tongtong & Cong, Lin & Peng, Xiaodong & Li, Chuan & Luo, Yimo & Ding, Yulong, 2019. "Flexible integration of liquid air energy storage with liquefied natural gas regasification for power generation enhancement," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    25. Jaya Madana Gopal & Giovanni Tretola & Robert Morgan & Guillaume de Sercey & Andrew Atkins & Konstantina Vogiatzaki, 2020. "Understanding Sub and Supercritical Cryogenic Fluid Dynamics in Conditions Relevant to Novel Ultra Low Emission Engines," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-25, June.
    26. Sarah Hamdy & Francisco Moser & Tatiana Morosuk & George Tsatsaronis, 2019. "Exergy-Based and Economic Evaluation of Liquefaction Processes for Cryogenics Energy Storage," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-19, February.
    27. Tafone, Alessio & Romagnoli, Alessandro & Borri, Emiliano & Comodi, Gabriele, 2019. "New parametric performance maps for a novel sizing and selection methodology of a Liquid Air Energy Storage system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 1641-1656.
    28. Al-Zareer, Maan & Dincer, Ibrahim & Rosen, Marc A., 2017. "Analysis and assessment of novel liquid air energy storage system with district heating and cooling capabilities," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 792-802.
    29. Ahmad, Abdalqader & Al-Dadah, Raya & Mahmoud, Saad, 2016. "Air conditioning and power generation for residential applications using liquid nitrogen," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 630-640.
    30. Guizzi, Giuseppe Leo & Manno, Michele & Tolomei, Ludovica Maria & Vitali, Ruggero Maria, 2015. "Thermodynamic analysis of a liquid air energy storage system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(P2), pages 1639-1647.
    31. She, Xiaohui & Peng, Xiaodong & Nie, Binjian & Leng, Guanghui & Zhang, Xiaosong & Weng, Likui & Tong, Lige & Zheng, Lifang & Wang, Li & Ding, Yulong, 2017. "Enhancement of round trip efficiency of liquid air energy storage through effective utilization of heat of compression," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 1632-1642.
    32. Wang, Chen & Akkurt, Nevzat & Zhang, Xiaosong & Luo, Yimo & She, Xiaohui, 2020. "Techno-economic analyses of multi-functional liquid air energy storage for power generation, oxygen production and heating," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    33. Li, Yongliang & Cao, Hui & Wang, Shuhao & Jin, Yi & Li, Dacheng & Wang, Xiang & Ding, Yulong, 2014. "Load shifting of nuclear power plants using cryogenic energy storage technology," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1710-1716.
    34. Vecchi, Andrea & Li, Yongliang & Mancarella, Pierluigi & Sciacovelli, Adriano, 2020. "Integrated techno-economic assessment of Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) under off-design conditions: Links between provision of market services and thermodynamic performance," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    35. Rehman, Ali & Qyyum, Muhammad Abdul & Qadeer, Kinza & Zakir, Fatima & Ding, Yulong & Lee, Moonyong & Wang, Li, 2020. "Integrated biomethane liquefaction using exergy from the discharging end of a liquid air energy storage system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    36. Dehghani-Sanij, A.R. & Tharumalingam, E. & Dusseault, M.B. & Fraser, R., 2019. "Study of energy storage systems and environmental challenges of batteries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 192-208.
    37. He, Xiufen & Liu, Yunong & Rehman, Ali & Wang, Li, 2021. "A novel air separation unit with energy storage and generation and its energy efficiency and economy analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    38. Osorio, Julian D. & Panwar, Mayank & Rivera-Alvarez, Alejandro & Chryssostomidis, Chrys & Hovsapian, Rob & Mohanpurkar, Manish & Chanda, Sayonsom & Williams, Herbert, 2020. "Enabling thermal efficiency improvement and waste heat recovery using liquid air harnessed from offshore renewable energy sources," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    39. Zhang, Tongtong & She, Xiaohui & You, Zhanping & Zhao, Yanqi & Fan, Hongjun & Ding, Yulong, 2022. "Cryogenic thermoelectric generation using cold energy from a decoupled liquid air energy storage system for decentralised energy networks," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    40. Kalavani, Farshad & Mohammadi-Ivatloo, Behnam & Zare, Kazem, 2019. "Optimal stochastic scheduling of cryogenic energy storage with wind power in the presence of a demand response program," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 268-280.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Qi, Meng & Park, Jinwoo & Lee, Inkyu & Moon, Il, 2022. "Liquid air as an emerging energy vector towards carbon neutrality: A multi-scale systems perspective," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    2. Borri, Emiliano & Tafone, Alessio & Romagnoli, Alessandro & Comodi, Gabriele, 2021. "A review on liquid air energy storage: History, state of the art and recent developments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    3. Ding, Xingqi & Duan, Liqiang & Zheng, Nan & Desideri, Umberto & Zhou, Yufei & Wang, Qiushi & Wang, Yuanhui & Jiao, Weijia, 2025. "A systematic review on liquid air energy storage system," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    4. O'Callaghan, O. & Donnellan, P., 2021. "Liquid air energy storage systems: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    5. Ayah Marwan Rabi & Jovana Radulovic & James M. Buick, 2023. "Comprehensive Review of Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-19, August.
    6. Xue, Xiao-Dai & Zhang, Tong & Zhang, Xue-Lin & Ma, Lin-Rui & He, Ya-Ling & Li, Ming-Jia & Mei, Sheng-Wei, 2021. "Performance evaluation and exergy analysis of a novel combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP) system based on liquid air energy storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    7. Wang, Chen & Zhang, Xiaosong & You, Zhanping & Zhang, Muxing & Huang, Shifang & She, Xiaohui, 2021. "The effect of air purification on liquid air energy storage – An analysis from molecular to systematic modelling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 300(C).
    8. Tafone, Alessio & Romagnoli, Alessandro & Borri, Emiliano & Comodi, Gabriele, 2019. "New parametric performance maps for a novel sizing and selection methodology of a Liquid Air Energy Storage system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 1641-1656.
    9. She, Xiaohui & Zhang, Tongtong & Cong, Lin & Peng, Xiaodong & Li, Chuan & Luo, Yimo & Ding, Yulong, 2019. "Flexible integration of liquid air energy storage with liquefied natural gas regasification for power generation enhancement," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    10. Mylena Vieira Pinto Menezes & Icaro Figueiredo Vilasboas & Julio Augusto Mendes da Silva, 2022. "Liquid Air Energy Storage System (LAES) Assisted by Cryogenic Air Rankine Cycle (ARC)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-16, April.
    11. Zhang, Tongtong & She, Xiaohui & You, Zhanping & Zhao, Yanqi & Fan, Hongjun & Ding, Yulong, 2022. "Cryogenic thermoelectric generation using cold energy from a decoupled liquid air energy storage system for decentralised energy networks," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    12. Chen, Jiaxiang & Yang, Luwei & An, Baolin & Hu, Jianying & Wang, Junjie, 2022. "Unsteady analysis of the cold energy storage heat exchanger in a liquid air energy storage system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    13. Peng, Xiaodong & She, Xiaohui & Li, Chuan & Luo, Yimo & Zhang, Tongtong & Li, Yongliang & Ding, Yulong, 2019. "Liquid air energy storage flexibly coupled with LNG regasification for improving air liquefaction," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 1190-1201.
    14. Aliaga, D.M. & Romero, C.P. & Feick, R. & Brooks, W.K. & Campbell, A.N., 2024. "Modelling and simulation of a novel liquid air energy storage system with a liquid piston, NH3 and CO2 cycles for enhanced heat and cold utilisation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 362(C).
    15. Cetegen, Shaylin A. & Gundersen, Truls & Barton, Paul I., 2024. "Evaluating economic feasibility of liquid air energy storage systems in US and European markets," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 300(C).
    16. Chaitanya, Vuppanapalli & Narasimhan, S. & Venkatarathnam, G., 2023. "Optimization of a Solvay cycle-based liquid air energy storage system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    17. Vecchi, Andrea & Li, Yongliang & Mancarella, Pierluigi & Sciacovelli, Adriano, 2020. "Integrated techno-economic assessment of Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) under off-design conditions: Links between provision of market services and thermodynamic performance," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    18. Mousavi, Shadi Bashiri & Ahmadi, Pouria & Adib, Mahdieh & Izadi, Ali, 2023. "Techno-economic assessment of an efficient liquid air energy storage with ejector refrigeration cycle for peak shaving of renewable energies," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 96-113.
    19. Wang, Chen & Akkurt, Nevzat & Zhang, Xiaosong & Luo, Yimo & She, Xiaohui, 2020. "Techno-economic analyses of multi-functional liquid air energy storage for power generation, oxygen production and heating," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    20. Tafone, Alessio & Ding, Yulong & Li, Yongliang & Xie, Chunping & Romagnoli, Alessandro, 2020. "Levelised Cost of Storage (LCOS) analysis of liquid air energy storage system integrated with Organic Rankine Cycle," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).

    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:rensus:v:208:y:2025:i:c:s1364032124007123. 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.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    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.