Sand Battery

Table of Contents☰

About Sand Battery:

The battery, made of sand collected from construction sites, can solve the problem of round-the-year energy supply, a known limitation of renewable energy sources that can be harnessed intermittently.
Sand can be heated up to 600 degrees Celsius (°C), whereas water starts to boil at 100°C. It also has low heat conductivity, which reduces energy loss.
The storage system has three main components: the sand silo, an electrical air heater and an air-to-water heat exchanger.
For charging the sand silo, the air is heated to 600°C in the electric air heater.
The hot air is then circulated inside the silo using a heat-exchange pipe and blowers to raise the temperature of the sand at the silo’s core to 600°C.
When the storage enters the discharging stage, the blowers are used to pump air into the pipe inside the sand silo.
Once the air reaches 200°C, it is transferred to the air-to-water heat exchanger, where it is used to boil water. It is then sent to the heating network.
The storage system requires electricity at all times.
It is needed to charge the battery, monitor the temperature during standby and run the blowers when the battery is used.
1,000 times more power is discharged as heat than is used as electricity.