DE-HyPES system in Education & Research
The DE-HyPES systems was inspired by our academic partners and is especially designed to meet the need for an effective educational and experimental tool, necessary to teach and investigate the sciences and technics related to renewable energy storage and management solutions based on compressed air.
A typical integration of DE-HyPES system in a laboratory environment is illustrated on the picture below:
As can be seen, the DE-HyPES system provides various connectivity features (electrical, thermal, pneumatic, communications, etc.), allowing to build a versatile didactic and experimental platform that supports engineering training and research activities, by enabling several experiments.
Engineering Training Experiments
Objective: consolidate fundamental engineering learnings through in-depth experiments in real application context.
- Volumetric Fluid Machinery: Water injected Co-rotating Scroll Air Compressor
Learnings: Operation; characteristic curve; efficiencies (thermodynamic, volumetric, global); impact of water injection, etc.
- Volumetric Fluid Machinery: Water injected Co-rotating Scroll Air Motor
Learnings: Operation; characteristic curve; efficiencies (thermodynamic, volumetric, global); impact of water injection; etc.
- Convective Heat Transfer: Tubular Heat Exchanger
Learnings: Operation of air heating and cooling with a Tubular Heat Exchanger; characterization (heat transfer coefficient, pressure loss, etc.); impact of humidity, flow rate and pressure on performances, etc.
- Mechatronics: 4-Quadrant Electrical Drive
Learnings: Operation and programming of Controller in Motor Mode and in Generator mode; analysis and characterization (curve, efficiency, etc.); parameters adjustment and impacts on dynamic response.
- Industrial Automation: PLC Programming
Learnings: Programming and testing of industrial automation system; Sensors’ calibration and data acquisition, actuators command and control; Application to CAES process.
Applied Research Experiments
Objective: Enhance research in Energy Storage and Management through effective experiments on CAES
- Study of Hydro-Pneumatic Energy Storage (HyPES)
Characterization of the reversible electrical-to-pneumatic conversion chain; Assessment of the impact of thermal phenomena on its performances; Test and evaluation of complete short-term (days to week) and long-term (seasonal) storage cycles.
- Study of Super Capacitors Auxiliary Storage
Characterization of the complete power conditioning chain of these auxiliary energy storage technologies; Test and evaluation of complete cycles of these auxiliary energy storage technologies.
- Study of Intermittent Renewable Energy (Photovoltaic) Storage and Management
Test and evaluation of the use of HyPES for renewable power management (smoothing, dispatching and time-shifting); Test and evaluation of combination of HyPES with sources, auxiliary storage solutions; Elaboration and testing of power management algorithms with the aim of optimizing the overall energy efficiency of the application.
Technical specifications of the DE-HyPES systems can be found here