Semiclathrate Hydrate Thermal Energy Carrier for Cooling and Energy Storage
Opportunity
Building cooling accounts for 10% of global electricity consumption and its demand is expected to triple by 2050. In Singapore cooling demand accounts for 30% of the country’s total electricity demand. The share of energy consumption by cooling can exceed 50% for commercial and residential buildings. Currently, chilled water cooling system is typically adopted for large buildings. Due to its limited thermal storage capacity, a huge amount of chilled water is required to meet the high cooling demand, leading to high pumping energy consumption and footprint. There is tremendous potential to improve the cooling efficiency and bring environmental and economic benefits by developing a more efficient thermal energy carrier.
Technology
NUS has built a prototype cooling system to demonstrate the generation, storage, transport and utilization of semiclathrate hydrate for cooling applications. It includes a temperature control system that can simulate various cold sources with a temperature down to – 56°C, a semiclathrate hydrate generation unit with a capacity of 200 kg/h, two 600 L hydrate/liquid storage tanks, an air handling unit that can simulate heat load up to 10 kW, a piping system to study the flow properties of hydrate slurry, and a process monitoring system consisting of 40+ sensors to record parameters like temperature, pressure, electrical resistivity, flow rate, etc.
Figure 1. Prototype system built and demonstrated in the lab.
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