UK engineer is looking for investors or industrial partners for patented electrical energy storage system, which enhances thermal power plants.

Concerns about the sustainability of fossil fuels for power generation and the intermittency problems of renewables such as wind and solar, have increased the interest in electrical energy storage. Wind and solar energy both require some form of backup generation for when electricity demand exceeds supply. When supply exceeds demand, excess generating capacity, which cannot be stored, is either wastefully curtailed or sold at a very low price. Pumped hydroelectric is currently the main method for storing electricity on a bulk scale, although it is expensive. It has long build times and has a shortage of potential sites. Batteries, although highly flexible for short outages, are not economic for bulk storage. The engineer's proposed system offers an alternative approach which builds on the operationally proven technology of compressed air energy storage. It seeks to overcome the relatively low efficiency levels of conventional plant, while keeping its capital cost advantages. Moreover, this system fits to an existing steam cycle (e.g. coal/biomass, combined cycle gas, emission free thermal storage or hydrogen oxygen combusting plant), takes over the condensing function, and recovers the waste condensing energy as a heat source. This provides an enhanced peak time power output and the ability to price arbitrage electricity. The novel aspect of the proposed system is the heat exchanger / condenser's air pipes. These accelerate the air in stages up to supersonic velocities, each acceleration depressurizing and cooling the air to enable more thermal energy to be absorbed from the steam. This staged approach is necessary to avoid freezing the pipe exterior. The general approach resembles the intake and exhaust sections of supersonic jets, whose internal flow is also controlled geometrically. Although the air velocities here are significantly less and the airflow conditions are much less variable. After absorbing energy, the air leaves the condenser and is decelerated, re-pressurised and heated, and part expanded in an air turbine. The air is then transferred to a lower pressure condenser and turbine, the process repeating until the air pressure depletes. Potential partners of the system are power plants that use a steam condensing cycle across the US and Europe; private, government, municipal or industrial companies. The company offers its potential customers a more efficient and cost effective energy storage solution without interrupting the operation at the plant by using the existing the infrastructure. The potential partner might be a power plant operator or an industrial player already operating in energy market. In these cases a technical cooperation agreement can be suitable or gathering resources together in a joint venture with the purpose of finalising the system is also possible. The engineer is also interested in partnership with investors who want to be involved in this system's development from the early stages via financial agreement.