Page 29 - European Energy Innovation - summer 2018 publication

Summer 2018 European Energy Innovation 29

COMMUNICATION

CREATE project

DO Compact REtrofit Advanced Thermal Energy storage - An economically affordable, compact
and loss-free heat battery for existing buildings.

The CREATE project is a research project funded by

the European Commission under the Horizon 2020

EARLYprogramme. The consortium consists of eleven partners
BIRD RATEfrom eight different European countries and it is led by
Pre-registAeErE – Institute for Sustainable Technologies. The project
& save started in October 2015 and will last till September 2019.

egates The main aim is to develop and demonstrate a heat
battery, i.e. an advanced thermal storage system based
on Thermo-Chemical Materials (TCMs), that enables
economically affordable, compact and loss-free storage
of heat in existing buildings. In this manner, the CREATE
system will be able to store surplus of heat from summer
to winter.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE CREATE SYSTEM Figure: The test set-up for experiments with one
A database of approximately 600 hydrate reactions of CREATE storage module. 1. Buffer storage tank,
2. Heating rod, 3. Evaporator/Condenser (EC), 4. Storage
rs salt hydrates was created in order to select a the most module, 5. Heat pump
suitable material for the Thermo-Chemical Material. Based
on characteristics such as energy density, charging and as power, stability and energy density; (ii) development
discharging temperature, the salt potassium carbonate and optimization of a prismatic shaped absorber vessel
(K2CO3) was selected as the preferred TCM for the CREATE to improve stackability and space requirements; (iii)
system. More than twenty different TCM composites of development and optimization of low-cost evaporator/
K2CO3 were manufactured on lab-scale and extensively condenser; and (iv) optimization of the full-scale system
characterized. The composite with the highest energy on basis of lab experiments and annual simulation.
density in particle beds was selected for further upscaling.
A production run of 100kg batches was successfully DEMONSTRATION
performed, proving that industrial production is within Implementation of the CREATE concept is foreseen
target range. in typical European dwellings. To demonstrate the
applicability of the thermochemical storage solution and
LAZLO The entire system is based on seasonal storage of solar its operation in real-life conditions as well as to receive an
VARRO energy. The heat storage process is possible due to early user feedback, the CREATE system will be installed
dehydration (discharging) and hydration (charging) of the in a full-scale into an orphanage in Warsaw, Poland. The
salt in a closed system under vacuum. Heat from the solar climate at the location is characterized by cold winters
collector is used to dehydrate salt while water vapour is and warm summers. The demonstration is planned to
released, condensed at evaporator/condenser (EC) unit and start in summer 2019. l
stored in the water reservoir. In winter, the water from the
water reservoir is pumped to the EC and evaporated there.
Then the vapour is flowing to the salt and the salt is hydrated.

PROJECT PROGRESS Contact information
The most challenging part of the project proved to be
handling of the volume expansion/shrinking of the salt Project ID: 680450
during the hydration and dehydration process and the
provision of constant heating power. Website: www.createproject.eu

So far, the main project’s achievements revolved Start date: October 2015
around (i) improvement of the salt performance such
Duration: 48 months

Project coordinator: Wim van Helden

Contact email: w.vanhelden@aee.at

Organiswewdwb.eyur:opeanenergyinnovation.eu