Experimental investigation on the performance of compressed air energy storage using spray-based heat transfer

Near-isothermal compression and expansion may be accomplished by injecting water droplets into the air during the process to increase the overall efficiency. However, little is known about the relationship between spray system parameters and compressed air energy storage (CAES). Furthermore, the experiments about CAES using spray-based heat transfer have not been investigated. The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between the performance of CAES and the spray system parameters by experimentally. The parameters including the spray closing time, the spray opening time, and the nozzle diameter are discussed. Results show that under the same operating conditions, the maximum air pressure in compression chamber reach to constant value when the spray closing time is 0.6 seconds, and spraying water mist within 0.6-1.2 seconds has no heat exchange effect on the air in the cylinder. During the compression process, the smaller the nozzle diameter is, the higher maximum pressure in compression chamber is. During the expansion process, if we ignore the energy consumption of spray system, the larger the nozzle diameter is, the more the expansion output is. Further investigation is recommended to optimize spray parameters based on different CAES systems.