SMART POWER MODUL

Abstract - Project content

The smart power module SPM is a Carnot Battery composed of a heat accumulator tank Rh and a cold accumulator Rc, a set of heat exchangers HEi, with the role of capturing/dissipating thermal energy, at least one heat pump/heat engine whose isothermal components (evaporator, condenser, isothermalizer) are located in the isothermal heat exchangers HEIc and HEIh and a smart processor that ensures working regimes with maximum exergy efficiency (by adjusting isothermal speeds and temperatures) and selects active sources, heat transfer direction and optimal operating hours. The working fluid can be a pressurized gas, or the vapors of a preferably natural refrigerant.

In the capture stage, each HEi exchanger ensures the extraction of  heat from the “i” source: ambient air, soil, groundwater (including geothermal), a lake, a river, a solar thermal/hybrid panel, a domestic/industrial waste source (including ambient atmosphere, hot gases/liquids), etc. and its transfer to the working fluid which transports it to the HEIc/HEIh heat exchanger. In this stage, the SPM operates as a heat pump and transfers the extracted heat to Rh. The mechanical energy required to operate the pump is provided from the grid, from an own electric battery, from solar panels, or from own wind turbines. The same energy sources power heat pumps that extract heat from the Rc and dissipate it in a HEi.

In the distribution stage, the direction of gas/vapor movement (as well as energy flows) is reversed, and the SPM supplies mechanical energy to an electric generator and thermal energy to industrial/domestic consumers. It is perfectly adaptable to a cogeneration regime.

Covering the full range of powers and temperatures, SPM becomes the most efficient tool for zero-carbon (home/district/city/plant) systems and for distributed energy systems.