Effect of geothermal heat transfer on performance of the adiabatic compressed air energy storage systems with the salt cavern gas storage

The temperature and pressure of compressed air influence the output performance of the adiabatic compressed air energy storage system with salt cavern gas storage. However, current studies often overlook the impact of geothermal heat transfer on system performance. In this paper, a mathematical model of the energy storage system with salt cavern gas storage is developed, considering the geothermal heat transfer in wellbore and salt carven. The model is used to illustrate the effects of geothermal heat transfer on the system performance through a sensitivity analysis of some key parameters. The results show that geothermal heat transfer will significantly reduce the gas and energy storage capacity, with a maximum reduction of 15.3 % and 11.1 % at a depth of 2000 m, respectively. Furthermore, this reduction would increase with the depth of the salt cavern. The geothermal energy reduces the round-trip efficiency from 68.7 % to 66.26 % and the energy storage density from 5.18 kWh·m −3 to 4.32 kWh·m −3. For common salt cavern gas storage at a depth of about 600 m ∼ 1200 m, the negative impacts of geothermal heat transfer on round-trip efficiency and energy storage density are less than 2.2 % and 0.5 kWh·m − 3, respectively. Sensitivity analysis also demonstrates that the primary factors influencing the system’s performance are the thermal conductivity of the surrounding rock, the volume of the salt cavern, and the length of the wellbores. The secondary factors include the heat transfer coefficient on the inner wall of the salt cavern, the inner pipe radius, and the roughness of the inner pipe. Irrelevant factors include the thermal conductivity of the protective fluid and the thermal conductivity of the cement layer. The proposed comprehensive mathematical model of the system and simulation findings aid in forecasting the performance of storage systems and offer theoretical guidance for the design of large-scale compressed air energy storage systems.