Assessing the Synergies of Thermochemical Energy Storage with Concentrated Solar Power and Carbon Capture

As greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase worldwide, the growing energy demand must be met using low-carbon technologies. Renewable energy and carbon capture and storage are the two important technologies that can mitigate CO2 emissions. The two technologies have been primarily developed independently. However, their hybridization can offer complementary benefits and lower the costs of greenhouse gas abatement. Accordingly, in this article, we develop a novel carbon-neutral process that combines concentrated solar power (CSP) and fuel-based combustor with redox-based thermochemical energy storage (TCES) materials. The TCES materials are used for energy storage and as a source of oxygen (O2) for combusting fuel. We optimize the process� economic performance considering variability in solar irradiance by developing a two-stage stochastic programming model. We illustrate that compared to the CSP-TCES process employing the Mn2O3/Mn3O4 TCES system, the proposed hybrid process has a 25% lower levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for an 80% capacity factor. We also compare the economic performance of our process with another hybrid configuration containing CSP-TCES, boiler for fuel combustion, and air separation unit (ASU) to produce O2, which is then used to combust fuel. We conclude that the LCOE of the proposed process is 11.5% lower than the LCOE of the process with an ASU.