Reply #35: Well I agree that the question is not an easy one to solve. [View All]

[NNadir]

There are a lot of unknowns, thermal conductivities, weight of working fluids and their heat capacity, exchanger efficiency. Such a calculation would invole a lot of work.

As you know, I tend to be somewhat dismissive of energy storage system, believing that they raise both internal and external costs.

But it is clear that such systems have merit in specific cases. Of course, my favored form of energy storage is chemical, my much ballyhooed DME or it's precursor methanol. If the reversible methanol fuel cell can ever be developed industrially, well that would be a huge thing. It seems that George Olah, already a Nobel laureate, is hot on the trail. If so, he'll be one of those rare Laureates, like Rutherford, whose best work came after the prize.

But I think systems like this simpler system to which your refer probably deserve some experimental consideration for those who can afford to make the test. Such an experiment, again, would involve public spiritedness, I think. We need to keep in mind that any energy storage system - even the best of them - involve energy losses, so there's always going to be a cost coupled with a risk/benefit analysis.

Thanks though, for the information.