The CryoHub innovation project investigates and extends the potential of large-scale Cryogenic Energy Storage (CES) and applies the stored energy for both cooling and power generation. By employing Renewable Energy Sources (RES) to liquefy and store cryogens, CryoHub balances the power grid, while meeting the cooling demand of a refrigerated food warehouse and recovering the waste heat from its equipment and components
The Cryogenic Energy Storage (CES) is a promising technology enabling on-site storage of RES energy during periods of high generation and its use at peak grid demand. Thus, the cryogen serves for grid energy storage and is boiled, when needed, to drive a power generator and to restore electricity to the grid. To date, CES applications have been rather limited because of the poor efficiency due to unrecovered energy losses.
The CryoHub project is therefore designed to maximize the CES efficiency by recovering energy from cooling and heating through a RES-driven cycle of cryogen liquefaction, storage, distribution, efficient use and power regeneration. Refrigerated warehouses or factories for chilled and frozen food commodities are large electricity consumers, possess powerful installed capacities for cooling and heating and waste substantial amounts of heat. Such facilities provide the ideal industrial environment to advance and demonstrate the CES benefits.
CryoHub is an intelligent technology capable of converting a conventional refrigerated warehouse or food factory from a simple power consumer to an interactive energy hub, thus providing substantial economic and environmental benefits for both the food refrigeration and energy sectors. CryoHub has nothing to do with the long-lasting competition between ‘mechanical’ and ‘cryogenic’ refrigeration in the food preservation sector. The project brings together the advantages of both principles and overcomes most of the existing bottlenecks at one go, thereby broadening the market prospects for sustainable energy technologies across Europe.
To apply for the status of a ‘CryoHub Champion’ please click here
