Evaluation of System-Level Performance of Closed Strontium Bromide Thermochemical Energy Storage Systems for Space Heating

This study evaluates the system efficiency and energy offsetting capabilities of a closed-cycle thermochemical energy storage (TCES) system. Current TCES research primarily focuses on material selection and reactor design but overlooks the practical limitations faced on system level. Thus, this study investigates various TCES integration methods for providing building space heating. We consider how operating conditions affect the performance of the following TCES configurations: a standalone system, a topping cycle to a heat pump, and a bottoming cycle to a heat pump. Of these configurations, the system where TCES bottoms a heat pump achieves the highest COP in the load shift simulation and reduces peak energy consumption by 94.2%. However, the system's operation is heavily restricted by ambient temperature. The configuration where TCES tops a heat pump achieves a lower COP and reduces peak energy consumption by 64.5%. Despite its lower performance, the topping system can operate under a wider range of ambient temperature making it a more suitable architecture for space heating applications.