Advisors: Dr. Peter Psarras, Dr. Todd Bandhauer, Dr. Jennifer Wilcox – Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering department at University of Pennsylvania
As coal-fired power plants continue to retire or be decommissioned, natural gas fired power plants and renewable energy are making up the difference. In its current state, renewable energy is intermittent due to the specific conditions needed to generate energy, which can be further assisted by batteries to delivery a consistent supply of electricity. Unfortunately, it will take time to develop the infrastructure for battery delivery at the scale required to keep the electricity grids running. However, natural gas fired power plants have the ability to used during times in which renewable energy is unable to meet electricity demand due to their shorter ramp up/down times, ultimately, flexibility. It has been proposed to equip natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS) to avoid the produced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from entering the atmosphere, however, this does limit the flexibility of the power plant. This project is aimed at developing a novel process to retain the flexibility of the NGCC even when CCS is equipped. This methodology employs thermal energy storage reservoirs that can store energy during times when the NGCC is not required to meet energy demand, and deploy the energy during peak demand times, ultimately providing the plant with flexibility to deliver maximum power while also capturing the CO2 emissions.
Max Pisciotta 