Report of. A Fully Renewable Energy Storage and Generation System Using Compressed Air. Funded by. SUNY-RF Sustainability Fund

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1 Report of A Fully Renewable Energy Storage and Generation System Using Compressed Air Funded by SUNY-RF Sustainability Fund Principle Investigator: Mohamad Zoghi, Ph.D. Institution: Farmingdale State College September 2013

2 Summary The SUNY Sustainability award has partially funded a pilot study in energy storage systems in form of compressed air. The pilot study is a part of a collaboration research between Farmingdale State College (FSC) and Stony Brook University. The portion of this study which is relevant to the SUNY Sustainability Grant (the Grant) has been housed in FSC. The project started on March 1, The first three months has been dedicated on designing and developing an experimental setup. Five undergraduate students participated on this project during the spring and summer of This has been an ongoing process and the students decided to continue this research towards their capstone course, Senior Project. The project has been delivered in the following categories: 1- Experimental setup Five undergraduate students participated in this project. The majority of their time was spent since April The experimental setup consists of the followings: (a) The energy harvesting unit Prior to this grant the PI has developed a preliminary system consisting of a treadmill, compressor and pneumatic motor. The system operates while an operator runs on treadmill. The amount of energy burned during the exercise cycle is converted into compressed air using this system. The significance of this project is its fully renewable nature, where the energy source is human muscle. To expand the practicality of the project a new design has been implemented to connect a bicycle into the system, see Figure 1. The equipment and supplies has been procured for this purpose using the Grant. This experimental system is planned to be completed by December (b) Quantification of the system The main purpose of this pilot study is to investigate the efficiency of the compressed air energy storage system. For this analysis the researchers need to monitor the change in pressure and temperature of the air during the various cycles of the experiment. Additionally, the output of the system, which is the torque of the pneumatic motor, needs to be analyzed. Using the Grant, appropriate sensors for measuring pressure and temperature have been purchased. Also from the FSC matching fund, a torque sensor was acquired.

3 (a) Figure 1. The experimental system using with different exercise equipment, (a) using a treadmill and (b) using a bicycle. (b)

4 The expansion unit (pneumatic motor) and the torque sensor are to be mounted on an XY platform which is designed and manufactured by the students, see Figure 2. Figure 2. The platform for mounting the expansion unit. The design needs to be flexible to allow different test setup configurations. The signals are conditioned and processed into a computer application (LabView) via a USB interface, NI-6008, see Figure 3. Figure 3. The USB interface is used to channel the signals of the sensors into the data acquisition software (LabView).

5 (c) Heat exchanger The efficiency of the compressed air storage system is highly dependent on the mode of operation. The optimum mode is isothermal where the compression and expansion cycles have been operated isothermally (in constant temperature). A fully isothermal compression (or expansion) is almost impossible to achieve, however efforts are made to make the process as close as possible to isothermal process. For this purpose a heat exchanging unit is designed to capture the heat during compression and release it to the air during expansion. For this purpose a chamber is designed and developed from composite materials. The chamber is to be mounted on the compressor head filling with oil (as hear transfer medium). Using a pneumatic pump the oil is circulating from the chamber into the expansion unit, see Figure 4. This, in turn, increases the efficiency of the system remarkably. The heat exchanging part is extremely critical as it is directly related to the efficiency of the system. The preliminary heat exchanging unit is under construction, however the team believes that this is a subject that requires more investigation as looking into different types of heat exchangers. (a) Figure 4. The heat exchanger chamber is made of composite materials (a), it is mounted on the compressor head (b). (b)

6 2- Data analysis The date collected using the experimental setup is to be analyzed. The objective is to quantify the relationship between the efficiency of the system and the heat exchanging operation. This part is planned to be completed by March Follow-up proposal The investigators used the current project and submitted a proposal to SUNY-RF Collaboration Fund. Regretfully, the project was not funded. However with the constructive comments which were provided by the reviewers, the PIs are planning to reapply for this grant while reflecting the reviewers input. Upon collecting data and publishing the study, the project will be ready to enter the next phase which is applying for State (such as NYSERDA) and Federal grants (such as NSF). 4- Dissemination Since the beginning of the project, the students presented it in the following conference / events. - 3 rd Annual STEM Summit, March 19, International Energy and Sustainability Conference (IESC), March 22, st Annual CSTEP Competition, April 13, Advance Energy Conference (AERTC-2013), April 30, Long Island STEM Hub, May 9, Corridor Magazine, Vol. 2, Issue 1, May 2013 Using the Grant a series of workshops on technical communication were offered to the students. The workshop was designed to enhance the communication and presentation skills of the students. The outcome of this research will be published in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. This will be accomplished upon the completion of the data analysis. Future Works This pilot study needs to be expanded in the heat exchanging part. Different heat exchanging options, such as spraying needs to be analyzed.