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SaltX Technologies is a company based out of Sweden that has created a new way to use thermochemical energy storage by using nanotechnology . This energy storage solution has the ability to store energy indefinitely. It has the potential to be upscaled and downscaled depending on its uses. I see huge potential for this technology being coupled with solar, wind, and hydro power.
Thermalchemical Energy
Currently most salt technologies use molten salts as a way to dissipate heat and are used as a thermal battery. Dave Borlace from ‘’Just Have a Think’’ explains, "sodium and potassium nitrate that make up the molten salts in a concentrated solar power plant or csp". They currently use them as a thermal battery for storing the solar energy for up to 24 hours. He explains that thermochemical is the idea of taking these molten salts and using thermal or electrical energy to change the chemical composition to a new compound. Then this new compound could be stored indefinitely. Then the compound can be activated by adding water to begin releasing this stored energy (Borlace,2020). For more information check out Borlace's video on the right to get a more in depth explanation of how this works.
How does it work ?
The diagram on the left shows how the battery is set up. In order to charge up the battery it must get up to 550°C. This can be done with electricity, gas, solar, or excess heat waste. Simply put this process takes the water out of the molten salts and now is able to be stored. According to SaltX's website, "The technology allows thermal energy to be stored chemically and can be released again hours, days or even months later by just adding water." When discharging the the salt is able to produce 450°C heated steam. This is all possible due to the nanocoating that SaltX has created which allows this process to be done thousands of times before needing to replace the salts. When the salts get replaced the end product can be recycled into making cement or concrete. This system could be used to store thermal energy long term and then convert that thermal energy into electrical energy via a generator turbine. This process would lose some of its efficiency losing some energy in the process of converting to electrical. SaltX sees their company using this technology couples with industries that use steam industrially. Instead of burning fossil fuels they could use this thermochemical solution to produce environmentally friendly heat/steam. Meaning this could also be used as a way to heat homes and buildings using the thermal heat. Using this nanotechnology they are able to achieve energy densities that are greater than even lithium ion (look at the comparison to the left).
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