Study of a long term solar thermal energy storage based on LiBr-H₂O for house heating

Energy storage is a key component to improve the efficiency of energy systems, especially when the energy source is intermittent, such as solar energy. Heat storage systems based on sorption processes are relevant in case of long-term storage (seasonal or pluriannual storage) because of their acceptable heat losses. Even though considerable breakthroughs have been made in the past decades, there is no mature long-term sorption heat storage yet. The aim of this work is to demonstrate the feasibility of a long term solar thermal storage by absorption for building space heating. Solar heat is stored in summer using desorption process and released in winter via absorption. A multi-criteria analysis on various possible absorption couples leads to the choice of LiBr-H₂O as storage media for the concept feasibility demonstration. It has been shown that crystallisation in the solution storage tank can increase the storage density by three times and therefore, is relevant for the process competitiveness. A dynamic model has been developed for the system design and simulations under various operating conditions were performed. A lot of parametric simulations are used to investigate the influence of certain parameters and controls aspects. This helps designing a demonstrative prototype that can store 8 kWh of heat and can produce a heating power of 1 kW. The prototype has been built and tested on a test bed in static and dynamic operating conditions that are compatible with domestic solar thermal plants. The charging process has been proved successful. Absorption during discharging phase is also verified. However, some problems related to the absorber design have not made possible to observe the heat release as expected. Various aspects such as stratification and circulation in the solution storage tank have also been addressed. The model comparison with experimental result is then performed and discussed. (author)