Thermochemical storage optimises solar energy use
Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and industrial partner Matica have commissioned a pilot plant for a sorption storage heat pump in Frauenfeld. Here, solar energy is stored thermochemically without loss in summer and utilised for heating in winter.
Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and its industrial partner Matica have developed a technology that allows surplus solar power to be stored without loss in a thermochemical process in summer and used for heating in winter. A first pilot plant has now gone into operation at the animal carcass collection centre (TKS) in Frauenfeld, Matica announced in a press release. The Wagenhausen-based company specialises in the construction of special containers such as water heaters and heat and cold storage tanks.
The SeasON demonstration plant in Frauenfeld uses caustic soda as a storage medium. In summer, the caustic solution is concentrated using surplus electricity from the TKS solar system and the separated water is stored in separate tanks at room temperature. In winter, the concentrated lye is diluted again with the separated water. This is vaporised using low-temperature heat from a heat pump. Both this vaporisation energy and the heat generated from the exothermic reaction when the lye is diluted can be used for heating. The storage efficiency of the system is put at up to 95 per cent in the press release.
“SeasON solves several challenges of the energy transition at the same time and promotes sustainable, efficient energy management,” Benjamin Fumey from Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts is quoted as saying in the press release. “In the development of SeasON, we have mutually conditioned each other and at the same time created a win-win situation between research and practice,” says Matica CEO Marc Lüthi. A second demonstration system is currently being installed in the new Swiss Post delivery centre in Kaltenbach TG.