power – Progress in Research

SCO2OP-TES: revolutionizing energy storage

Posted on 23/01/202406/08/2024 by Erik Franco

To revolutionize energy storage in the transition towards renewable energy sources. It is the aim of the Horizon Europe project SCO2OP-TES, which will lead to the development and validation of an innovative “Carnot Battery” configuration.

The project will last four years and have a total budget of approximately 4.7 million euros. It will involve Professor Giacomo Persico of the Department of Energy together with his team, as well as 16 partners from 10 European countries.

The SCO2OP-TES initiative is part of the European Union’s strategy to reduce emissions in the energy and industrial sectors, aligned with the recent REPowerEU Plan, aiming to achieve an installation of renewable energy capacity of 1236 GW by 2030.

Our involvement in this project is a significant step towards the development of innovative solutions for energy storage.
Giacomo Persico

Europe faces the challenge not only of efficiently converting large amounts of energy from renewable sources but also ensuring stability in energy supplies and continuous utilization throughout the year. Current storage solutions, such as batteries and power-to-hydrogen systems, are currently insufficient to cover specific flexibility services in the electrical grid, services that only energy systems based on direct and reverse thermodynamic cycles operating with turbomachinery can provide.

The SCO2OP-TES project aims to develop and validate the next generation of ‘Power-to-Heat-to-Power‘ (P2H2P) energy storage solutions.

The focus is on the development of a new type of “Carnot Battery”, based on the combination of direct and reverse thermodynamic cycles operating with supercritical carbon dioxide. This system can harness heat from renewable thermal sources or waste heat from industrial processes and power plants in the energy storage process. This ensures a very high energy efficiency during charging and discharging, making the interaction between industrial plants and the electrical grid more effective.

The project aims to design, build, and test a pilot plant to validate the technology in an industrially relevant environment before studying its application in large-scale installations.

The Politecnico research group’s contribution will be crucial: developing and providing innovative techniques based on Artificial Intelligence for the design and optimization of turbomachinery installed in the system operating with supercritical CO₂ at high temperatures.

The study will lead therefore to the creation and experimental validation of highly innovative machines, significantly impacting the future success of long-term and large-scale energy storage systems.

Collaborating with other European partners will allow us to develop, apply, and validate the Artificial Intelligence techniques we have been working on for years for the project and the multidisciplinary optimization of turbomachinery operating with supercritical CO₂, contributing significantly to the transition towards large-scale renewable energy sources.

Advanced materials and components for PEM fuel cells

Posted on 14/02/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

The PERMANENT project has kicked off. It will face the major causes that limit the durability and stability of hydrogen-powered polymer electrolyte fuel cell technology (PEMFC).

An investment of 3.4 million euros in 36 months to fully understand the degradation mechanisms in real operating conditions for mobility applications and propose solutions based on a radically innovative approach: the multi-scale structuring of components.

The project includes fundamental research activities based on the availability of proponents of Key Enabling Technologies related to the development, synthesis and characterization of advanced materials and structured materials at the nano- and micro-scale, nanotechnologies and innovative production processes.

The technological field of application of research results is sustainable transport, which determines particularly demanding dynamic operating conditions.

The expected results of increased durability and stability will be directly transferable to polymer fuel cells for stationary applications, and subsequently will also be implementable in electrolysers for the electrolytic production of green hydrogen (and in flow batteries for energy storage from renewable sources).

Permanent is based on the experience and complementarity of an Italian consortium of excellence which will initially be able to understand and therefore mitigate the degradation of fuel cells for transport, developing highly innovative materials and components
Professor Andrea Casalegno, project coordinator of the Department of Energy

The project partners, coordinated by the Politecnico di Milano, are: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca – Department of Materials Science, Università degli Studi di Padova – Department of Industrial Engineering, Solvay Specialty Polymers Italy.

CO2OLHEAT

Posted on 13/01/202206/08/2024 by Erik Franco

Politecnico di Milano is a partner in CO2OLHEAT – Supercritical CO2 power cycles demonstration in Operational environment Locally valorising industrial Waste Heat, a research project funded by the European Union as part of the Horizon 2020 programme with a total budget of 18.8 million euros.

The aim of the project is to support the EU objectives relating to energy efficiency and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by recovering waste heat from industrial processes and converting it into electricity via an energy system based on innovative closed thermodynamic cycles using carbon dioxide in supercritical conditions (sCO2).

This four-year project will lead to construction of the EU’s first sCO2 energy plant, which will be installed and operate in the CEMEX cement works, in Prachovice in the Czech Republic.

The Politecnico di Milano research group, headed by Professor Giacomo Persico, will provide a multi-disciplinary contribution to the project, systematising the competences of the Laboratory of Fluid-Dynamics of Turbomachinery (LFM) with those of the Group for Energy Conversion Systems (GECOS) in the Department of Energy.
On the fluid dynamics front, research with focus on shape optimisation of the sCO2 compressor, the most critical component of the system, and on high-fidelity analysis of performance and function of the compressor itself and the high-pressure turbine.
On the energy front, studies will concentrate on analysis of the system’s thermodynamic behaviour, under both project and non-project conditions.