Testanlage für Wärmespeicherung in Salzschmelzen
Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0).
Thermische Energiespeicher für die Erhöhung der Energieeffizienz in Heizkraftwerken und Elektrostahlwerken
Credit: DLR.
Immobile thermochemical heat accumulator on a pilot plant scale: As part of the BMWi project CWS, a thermochemical heat accumulator on a pilot plant scale was set up at DLR in Cologne. The reactor has a thermal power of up to 10 kW and a capacity of 8 kWh of chemically stored energy (corresponds to approx. 22 kg Ca(OH)2).
Credit: DLR..
Acting Head of Department: Dr. Dan Bauer, Dr. Marc Linder, Dr. Stefan Zunft
With about 50 members of staff, the department of Thermal Process Technology is concerned with energy storage, thermal management and heat exchange topics. These topics are of importance to all fields of energy use and energy supply. Apart from applications in the fields of industrial process heat, combined heat and power and fossil power plants, thermal energy storages are developed and qualified for solar thermal power plants. The significance of energy storage for the power plant sector is reinforced by the demands on net stability with an increasing share of renewable electricity production to cover the increasing electricity demand in central Europe. Innovative storage concepts for a temperature range from 100 to 1000 °C are being developed and realized in the department. The technologies under development cover sensible heat storage based on liquid and solid materials, latent heat storage and thermochemical systems.
The increasing urgency to reduce the primary energy consumption in the commercial and industrial area requires the exploitation of to-date unused waste heat. For the purpose of high temperature applications with gaseous heat transfer fluids in power plants and industrial processes, high temperature heat exchangers based on ceramic materials are being developed. Thereby, the focus lies on thermal and thermo-mechanical design issues, which are also validated experimentally.
The key topics of the department are covered by 4 research areas: