A Case Study of Producing Frozen French Fries
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applied sciences Article Multipurpose System for Cryogenic Energy Storage and Tri-Generation in a Food Factory: A Case Study of Producing Frozen French Fries Dimityr Popov 1,* , Stepan Akterian 2 , Kostadin Fikiin 1 and Borislav Stankov 1 1 Faculty of Energy Engineering, Technical University of Sofia, 8 Sv. Kliment Ohridski Blvd., 1756 Sofia, Bulgaria; k.fikiin@tu-sofia.bg (K.F.); bstankov@tu-sofia.bg (B.S.) 2 Technological Faculty, University of Food Technologies, 26 Maritza Blvd., 4002 Plovdiv, Bulgaria; [email protected] * Correspondence: dpopov@tu-sofia.bg Abstract: This contribution elaborates on a futuristic hybrid concept for the multifunctional employ- ment of a liquid air energy storage (LAES) system for combined heat, cold and power production (tri-generation) in a food factory, thereby providing a substantial part of the energy demand for various unit operations and enhancing the round-trip efficiency (RTE) of LAES. A processing line for frozen French fries, with relatively high heating and refrigeration demands, is used as a case study. The total useful energy output per charge/discharge cycle is 61,677 kWh (i.e., 38,295 kWh of electricity, 19,278 kWh of heating, and 4104 kWh of refrigeration). The estimated tri-generation RTE of the studied system reaches 55.63%, which appears to be 1.2 times higher than the RTE of a classical standalone LAES system with the same power input, considered as a baseline. In a broader context, such a performance enhancement by amalgamating food and energy technologies can make Citation: Popov, D.; Akterian, S.; cryogenic energy storage a more viable grid balancing option capable of substantially increasing the Fikiin, K.; Stankov, B. Multipurpose share of renewables in the energy supply mix. System for Cryogenic Energy Storage and Tri-Generation in a Food Factory: Keywords: refrigeration; food processing; cryogenics; LAES; renewable energy; polygeneration A Case Study of Producing Frozen French Fries. Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 7882. https://doi.org/10.3390/ app11177882 1. Introduction Academic Editor: Andrea Frazzica Cryogenic energy storage, and particularly liquid air energy storage (LAES), is re- ceiving growing interest from the research community as one of the most promising Received: 23 July 2021 technologies for large-scale energy storage in the power grid. However, real-world LAES Accepted: 22 August 2021 applications are still quite limited, mainly because of the complex LAES plant layout, Published: 26 August 2021 as well as because of the low ratio between the energy recovered from the LAES system during the discharge stage and the total energy input, known as the ‘round-trip efficiency’ Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral (RTE). A detailed bibliography of numerous publications outlining recent trends in the with regard to jurisdictional claims in field of LAES was presented by Borri et al. [1]. published maps and institutional affil- A typical LAES plant operates in three stages. In periods of excess power supply, iations. which can come from intermittent renewable sources, electricity is used to liquefy air by means of compression and refrigeration (charge stage). The liquefied air is then stored in a low-pressure insulated tank (storage stage). In periods of high power demand, the liquid air is drawn from the tank, pumped and then heated by utilizing previously Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. stored compression heat. The air is then expanded in a turbine connected to a generator, Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. which supplies power to the grid (discharge stage). This article is an open access article Most often, the liquefaction technology for charging needs to be selected amongst the distributed under the terms and cycles of Linde–Hampson, Claude, Heylandt and Collins, or a cycle with two expanders. conditions of the Creative Commons Shmeleva and Arkharov [2] compared different options and concluded that the Claude Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// cycle is optimal for LAES purposes. Thus, the LAES configurations analysed hereafter in creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ Sections 2.2 and 3.2 also resort to the Claude cycle. 4.0/). Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 7882. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11177882 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 7882 2 of 12 Many recent studies in the area [3–8] clearly indicated that the discharging process cannot fully utilise the stored heat of compression in an efficient manner. According to She et al. [9], 20–45% of the compression heat is wasted, making this one of the main reasons for the poor RTE of a typical LAES system. Many authors have studied different approaches for the utilization of the aforemen- tioned excess heat. She et al. [7], Hamdy et al. [10] and Peng et al. [11] proposed a hybrid LAES system, involving an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) and a vapour-compression refrig- eration cycle. The excess heat of compression is used as a heat source for the ORC, whereas the vapour-compression refrigeration cycle acts as a heat sink. Tafone et al. [5] investigated nine options for internal and external use of the excess heat, including standalone electricity production and combined heat, cold and power production (tri-generation) which provides district cooling and heating. The best overall RTE of almost 56% is achieved by a configuration that uses a significant portion of the stored heat from compression to drive an absorption chiller and an ORC. In this configuration, the ORC generates additional electricity, while the absorption chiller and the air turbine with a heat exchanger generate chilled water at 6 ◦C to be used for air conditioning. It is worth mentioning that the baseline LAES system in their study had an RTE of 48.22%. Zhang et al. [12] integrated a Kalina cycle into the LAES system to utilise surplus heat during discharge in order to generate extra electricity, thus enhancing the RTE by some 5%. Although such hybridizations improve the RTE, they introduce additional complexity to the LAES plant, which already contains a large number of components (i.e., com- pressors, turbines, heat exchangers, pumps, storage tanks, electrical generators, valves, and pipes). As a result, both the capital and the operation and maintenance costs of the system increase, while the daily cycling and seasonal dependence of such a complex system can be rather challenging. Gao et al. [13] proposed a LAES system with tri-generation capability, which can pro- vide district cooling, district heating and electricity during periods of peak power demand. Their results show an RTE improvement of 8% to 13% in the tri-generation case, as com- pared with a standalone system. She et al. [7] investigated a hybrid LAES configuration for combined district cooling, district heating, and hot water and power supply in decentralised micro energy networks. Their study concluded that such a configuration can achieve an overall RTE between 52% and 76%. A LAES-assisted polygeneration system for micro-grids applications has also been proposed by Mazzoni et al. [14], Howe et al. [15] focused on a combined, building-scale LAES and expansion system, while Szablowski et al. [16] anal- ysed exergetically an adiabatic LAES system using the Linde–Hampson liquefaction cycle. Fikiin et al. [17] proposed the idea of improving LAES performance and viability by directly utilising the cold released at the discharge stage in a refrigerated warehouse, thereby reducing the power consumed by the warehouse refrigerating plant and enhancing the overall RTE of the LAES system. This technology paves the path for a considerable storage and subsequent use of energy from renewable energy sources (RES) along the food cold chain, thereby decarbonising the sector by enhancing the sustainability of both refrig- eration equipment and power grids [17]. Murrant and Radcliffe [18], Foster et al. [19], and Damak et al. [20] also envisaged this approach as a beneficial option for future LAES implementation. Alongside refrigerated warehouses, food factories have significant potential for im- proving the RTE of a LAES system via tri-generation. The reason for this is that the technologies employed in food factories are energy-intensive and require both heating and refrigeration, along with electricity, at different stages of the production process. Popov et al. [21] proposed several options for utilizing the heat recovered from a LAES system for various food processing technologies requiring steam and/or hot water. The specific energy consumption for manufacturing food products varies from 7 MJ/kg to 226 MJ/kg [22]. Food processing modes are energy-intensive and commonly employ electrical power or fossil-fuel boilers to heat steam or hot water, as well as to ensure refrigeration supply. Approximately 57% of the fossil fuel consumption in the Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 7882 3 of 13 The specific energy consumption for manufacturing food products varies from 7 MJ/kg to 226 MJ/kg [22]. Food processing modes are energy-intensive and commonly Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 7882 3 of 12 employ electrical power or fossil-fuel boilers to heat steam or hot water, as well as to en- sure refrigeration supply. Approximately 57% of the fossil fuel consumption in the food industry is spent to generate steam and hot water [23]. Hence, when powered by renew- ables,food LAES industry systems is spentare capable to generate of decarbonising steam and both hot power water [grids23]. and Hence, production when powered pro- cessesby renewables,by simultaneously LAES systemsproviding are heat, capable cold of and decarbonising electricity. Whereas both power the gridsconcept and of pro- LAESduction-enabled processes tri-generation, by simultaneously which meets providing the energy heat, demands cold and of electricity.a food factory, Whereas was the originallyconcept proposed of LAES-enabled by Fikiin tri-generation, et al. [17] and which Popov meets et al. the[21] energy in a mostly demands qualitative of a food man- factory, ner,was this originally promising proposed idea has not by Fikiinyet been et al.pursued [17] and in Popovmore detail et al.