Mobile Zeolite Heat Storage

Mobile storage is a particularly interesting field of application in industry. Therefore, a modular, mobile, themochemical, zeolite-based energy storage system for the compensation and utilization of waste heat in industrial facilites shall be developed in this research project by BKW Kunststoffe GmbH, in cooperation with EIKO Anlagenbau und -prüfungsgesellschaft mbH, the Institute of Polymer Technology (IKT, University of Stuttgart) and the Institute for Building Energetics, Thermotechnology and Energy Storage (IGTE, University of Stuttgart).

Adsorption systems are usually made of fixed-bed fills with ball-shaped zeolite particles. A substantial disadvantage is the fact that there is a high pressure loss in the flow through fixed-bed fills; powerful blowers are required and the lengths of through-flow are limited.

The use of zeolite honeycombs could be a substantial improvement (Figure 1). Zeolite honeycombs are characterized by a considerably reduced pressure loss when being flown through, due to multiple linear ducts, an excellent mass transfer and a self-supporting structure. The ratio of the number of ducts per cross-sectional area and per wall thickness can be adapted to the applications to a large extent.

The honeycombs are produced via extrusion. At operating temperatures below 200 °C, the usual ceramic molding compounds used to date could also be replaced by more cost-efficient and plastic-based molding compounds. The efficiency of the zeolite-based honeycombs shall be increased by research activities at IKT. To increase the economic efficiency, the currently frequently used ceramic materials shall be replaced by polymer materials.

In this project, Bayerische Kunststoff Werke (BKW) shall develop an industrial manufacturing process for zeolite-filled polymer honeycombs for the first time. EIKO Anlagenbau- und prüfungsgesellschaft mbH will contribute by developing a mobile heat storage system including the design of all required components (pumps, pipelines, interfaces, etc.).

IGTE is in charge of the development of a numerical simulation model for the complete description of the heat and mass transfer processes in a sorption heat store made of honeycombs. With this simulation tool, the storage geometry is optimized on numerical basis while considering the thermophysical properties of the storage materials. Together with EIKO, IGTE is responsible for the storage design.

01/2020 - 12/2022

EIKO Anlagenbau- und prüfungsgesellschaft mbH, Großhansdorf, Germany

BKW Bayerische Kunststoff Werke, Selb, Germany

IKT Institute of Polymer Technology, University of Stuttgart, Germany

The research project “Mobile Zeolite Heat Storage – Development of mobile and regenerative heat storage, based on innovative polymer/zeolite honeycombs, for the utilization of waste heat in industrial facilities” is a ZIM* cooperation project funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) and administrated by AiF Project GmbH under grant number ZF4693602ST9.

* ZIM = Zentrales Innovationsprogramm Mittelstand.

English: Central Innovation Program for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)