Innovative and sustainable system for the use and transport of thermal energy

Abstract

The application area of the presented technology is energy sector. The invention is intended to enable thermal energy to be stored and transported over long distances by sea for use in power plants.

background

Previous approaches for energy transport from sunny regions to countries/continents, such as via power lines or in the form of hydrogen by tanker, are complicated and have disadvantages. Power lines stretching thousands of kilometers are associated with considerable costs and must be routed through several countries. Hydrogen must be specially produced, which results in significant losses, and transport is challenging due to the nature of liquid hydrogen. Heat transport is a promising, sustainable approach that has not yet been implemented.

Innovation / Solution

The new technology is intended to advantageously enable the transport of thermal energy on a large-scale technical scale. It is planned to convert solar energy into thermal energy, store it in a medium (thermal oil, up to 300 °C), and transport it by tanker over distances of up to 18,000 km. The hot thermal oil is to be extracted at the destination port, e.g. for use in power plants for conversion into electrical energy. Due to the large surface-to-volume ratio, heat loss during transport is considered to be negligible. Part of the stored thermal energy can be used to power the transport ships. This is intended to provide a sustainable solution with numerous advantages.

Benefits