This disclosure describes novel hybrid energy storage systems for providing short-term and long-term storage and delivery of electricity generated by any energy source including renewable energy sources such as solar energy and wind energy. The hybrid energy storage systems described herein have a higher overall real-world efficiency than energy storage systems currently available.

A chemical synthesis plant comprising: one or more reactors configured for producing, from one or more reactants, a process stream comprising at least one chemical product; a feed preparation system configured to prepare one or more feed streams comprising one or more of the one or more reactants for introduction into the one or more reactors; and/or a product purification system configured to separate the at least one chemical product from reaction byproducts, unreacted reactants, or a combination thereof within the process stream, wherein the chemical synthesis plant is configured such that a majority of the net energy needed for heating, cooling, compressing, or a combination thereof utilized via the one or more reactors, the feed preparation system, the product purification system, or a combination thereof is provided from a noncarbon based energy source, from a renewable energy source, and/or from electricity.

An olefin synthesis plant comprising: a feed pretreatment section configured to pretreat a feed stream; a pyrolysis section comprising one or more pyrolysis reactors configured to crack hydrocarbons in the feed stream in the presence of a diluent to produce a cracked gas stream; a primary fractionation and compression section configured to provide heat recovery from and quenching of the cracked gas stream; remove a component from the cracked gas stream; and compress the cracked gas stream, thus providing a compressed cracked gas stream; and/or a product separation section configured to separate a product olefin stream from the compressed cracked gas stream, wherein the olefin synthesis plant is configured such that, relative to a conventional olefin synthesis plant, more of the energy and/or the net energy required by the olefin synthesis plant and/or one or more sections thereof, is provided by a non-carbon based and/or renewable energy source and/or electricity.

A chemical synthesis plant comprising: one or more reactors configured for producing, from one or more reactants, a process stream comprising at least one chemical product; a feed preparation system configured to prepare one or more feed streams comprising one or more of the one or more reactants for introduction into the reactor; and/or a product purification system configured to separate the at least one chemical product from reaction byproducts, unreacted reactants, or a combination thereof within the process stream, wherein the chemical synthesis plant is configured such that a majority (e.g., greater than 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, or 100%) of the net energy needed for heating, cooling, compressing, or a combination thereof utilized via the one or more reactors, the feed preparation system, the product purification system, or a combination thereof is provided from an intermittent energy source (IES).

An ammonia synthesis plant comprising: a feed pretreating section operable to pretreat a feed stream; a syngas generation section operable to reform the feed stream to produce a reformer product stream; a shift conversion section operable to subject the reformer product stream to the water gas shift reaction, to produce a shifted gas stream comprising more hydrogen than the reformer gas stream; a purification section operable to remove at least one component from the shifted gas stream, and provide an ammonia synthesis feed stream; and/or an ammonia synthesis section operable to produce ammonia from the ammonia synthesis feed stream, wherein the ammonia synthesis plant is configured such that, relative to a conventional ammonia synthesis plant, more of the energy required by the ammonia synthesis plant or one or more sections thereof is provided by a non-carbon based energy source, a renewable energy source, and/or electricity.

A system includes a metering device to receive first electrical energy from a power source and provide at least a portion of the first electrical energy to a data center during a first time period. The system also includes an electrical-to-mechanical energy conversion device to convert air to a compressed or liquified state using at least the portion of the first electrical energy. The system also includes a storage container to receive the air and store the air in the compressed or liquified state. The system also includes a mechanical-to-electrical energy conversion device to: receive the air from the storage container in a gaseous, compressed state; generate second electrical energy for powering the data center; and exhaust cooled air for providing to the data center to cool the electronic devices.

A hybrid compressed air energy storage system is provided. A heat exchanger 114 extracts thermal energy from a compressed air to generate a cooled compressed air stored in an air storage reservoir 120, e.g., a cavern. A heat exchanger 124 transfers thermal energy generated by a carbon-neutral thermal energy source 130 to cooled compressed air conveyed from reservoir 120 to generate a heated compressed air. An expander 140 is solely responsive to the heated compressed air by heat exchanger 124 to produce power and generate an expanded air. Expander 140 is effective to reduce a temperature of the expanded air by expander 140, and thus a transfer of thermal energy from an expanded exhaust gas received by a recuperator 146 (used to heat the expanded air by the first expander) is effective for reducing waste of thermal energy in exhaust gas cooled by recuperator 146.

Disclosed techniques include energy transfer using high-pressure vessels. Liquid is pumped into a high-pressure vessel to pressurize a gas. The gas can include air. Liquid is sprayed into the high-pressure vessel to cool the gas. Heat exchange is performed to cool the liquid before spraying the liquid into the high-pressure vessel. The spraying liquid into the top and the bottom of the high-pressure vessel is accomplished using nozzles in a top portion and nozzles in a bottom portion of the high-pressure vessel. The pressurized gas is transferred into a storage reservoir. The storage reservoir can include an underground cavern or aquifer. Gas from the storage reservoir is delivered to drive a turbine to recover stored energy. The extracting gas from the storage reservoir is accomplished using an additional high-pressure vessel. Heat exchange is performed to warm the liquid before spraying the liquid into the additional high-pressure vessel.

A method of energy storage comprises receiving input energy (1) and using the input energy to compress (2) air or other process gas to produce a compressed process gas. The compressed process gas is stored (8). The compressed process gas is expanded (16) to generate output energy (17). Heat is transferred (5) from the process gas, before the process gas is stored (8) as a compressed process gas, to a hydrogen production process (10). The transferred heat is used in the hydrogen production process (10). The hydrogen may be stored (13) and subsequently used to heat to provide heat prior to, during, or after expanding (16) the compressed gas.

This method is used to manage a pressure accumulator (1) as a component of an energy storage system, consisting of a work machine (4), a collecting tank (7), a displacement apparatus (6) and a pressure accumulator (1) for storing a pressurised gaseous medium. The pressure accumulator (1) is partially filled with a liquid medium so as to be able to control the gas storage volume therewith. Feeding compressed gas (3) into the pressure accumulator (1) involves removing liquid (2). Removing compressed gas (3) from the pressure accumulator (1) involves feeding in liquid (2) so that the storage pressure is kept under control as necessary, in particular is kept constant. To this end, one pressurised unit of gas (3) is introduced into the pressure accumulator (1) with the removal of one unit of liquid (2) from the pressure accumulator (1) by means of the displacement apparatus (6) and vice versa. The present method and the present arrangement make it possible to fill the pressure accumulator (1) completely with and to empty the pressured storage unit (1) completely of pressurised gas (3) at a controllable pressure, which leads to improved utilisation of the pressure accumulator volume and thus increases the energy density of the energy storage system. The method further makes it possible to operate the energy storage system at a constant operating point, thus increasing the efficiency of the individual components and of the entire system, and minimising the compression and expansion processes in the pressure accumulator (1).