Plenary Lecture
SandTES – A Novel Thermal Energy Storage Technology
Professor Heimo Walter
Institute for Thermodynamics and Energy Conversion
Vienna University of Technology
Austria
E-mail: heimo.walter@tuwien.ac.at
Abstract: A major issue in today’s electricity markets is the increasing amount of fluctuating renewables, which have a big impact on grid stability. Photovoltaics and wind power provide electricity regardless to the load demand, which leads to situations of severe over- or under-capacities in the power grid. In regions where these renewables are prioritized, caloric power plants more often need to run in low load operation conditions or even have to be shut down. Due to the resulting mechanical and economical challenges, the number of decommissioned caloric power plants in Europe is rising. To be sufficiently competitive, the load flexibility and plant dynamics have to be improved. Therefore a possible solution for the operation of caloric power plants is the integration of thermal energy storages (TES) which seems to be a promising approach. At TU-Wien, Institute for Energy Systems and Thermodynamics a novel thermal energy storage concept based on an active fluidized bed technology - the so called sandTES-heat exchanger technology – has been developed. During the lecture the basic idea behind the key technology and the design methodology of a test rig in semi-industrial scale will be presented. In addition the results of selected preliminary experimental and numerical investigations are presented and discussed.
Brief Biography of the Speaker: Heimo Walter is a mechanical engineer. He obtained the Master degree in 1992 at the Vienna University of Technology. From 1994 to 2007 he was a University-Assistant at the institute for Thermodynamics and Energy Conversion at the Vienna University of Technology. 2001 PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the Vienna University of Technology. He is since Feb. 2007 assistant professor at the institute for Energy Systems and Thermodynamics at the Vienna University of Technology. In Nov. 2007 he earned Dr. hab. degree with the thesis: “A contribution to the static and dynamic stability of natural circulation steam generators” at the Vienna University of Technology. Since August 2015 he is editorial board member of the journal: Open Physics Journal, member of ASME-American Society of Mechanical Engineering, member of American Society of Thermal and Fluids Engineers, and member of WSEAS - World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society. He is author and co-author in over 100 articles in International indexed journals and papers in International conferences Proceedings. Heimo Walter current research interest focuses on heat and mass transfer, two-phase flow, boiler instabilities, and thermal energy storage.