KIT/Fellmoser

In cooperation with TEC, KALLA has designed and built a 100 kWh heat storage with more than 170 thermoelements. The DUOLIM heat storage is now being filled with ceramic storage material at KALLA and integrated into the THEADES liquid metal loop.

EVT-ITBA

A joint lecture course on geothermal energy was held in Buenos Aires as part of the KIT-ITBA Double Degree Master's program. In the DAAD-funded project, KIT mechanical engineering students can be sent to Buenos Aires for a semester at the Instituto Tecnologico de Buenos Aires (ITBA) as part of a scholarship. The subsequent Master's thesis can take place in Argentina or Germany and the students receive the corresponding degree in Argentina in addition to the German Master's degree.

KIT

In the context of energy systems, cities and climate change, an international and interdisciplinary collaboration has resulted in the Nature Sustainability Paper entitled 'Sustainable urban transformations based on integrated microgrid designs' together with colleagues from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC) and the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), which will be available from July 16 at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-024-01395-7.

EVT-ITBA

In June, ITES welcomed 21 participants to the certified waste heat consultant (m/f/d) course as part of their second day of attendance.

The course is offered by the Waste Heat Competence Center and Akademie der Ingenieure AkadIng GmbH. The course explains the procedure for waste heat consulting in companies in more detail. The attendance day at ITES was divided into various lectures on the work on waste heat utilization at ITES, a tour of various research facilities and technical presentations from industry and research by external lecturers.  

MHD

The article "Experimental investigation of MHD flows in a WCLL TBM mock-up" was published in the journal Fusion Engineering and Design.

Details: Liquid metals play an important role as breeding material and coolant for applications in future fusion power plants. In this work, magnetohydrodynamic liquid metal flows in a test blanket for the ITER fusion reactor are investigated experimentally. The focus of this publication is on the measurement of the pressure distribution in strong magnetic fields.

Podcast "Heat storage technologies and their potential"

In the “Messepodcast”, Klarissa Niedermeier talks about the potential applications of heat storage systems and the research at the Karlsruhe Liquid Metals Laboratory. Available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Effective incident and outage management is becoming increasingly important alongside cyber defense. Operational resilience includes real-time measures to minimize damage and maintain operations during resource bottlenecks and infrastructure failures. Due to growing complexity, digital twins, simulations and artificial intelligence are becoming increasingly important. Digitalization and AI promote agile resilience and should be integrated as early as the infrastructure planning stage.

ITES-H2

The annual spring meeting of the IEA Hydrogen TCP, Task 43 - Safety and RCS of Large Scale Hydrogen Energy Applications, took place at the Institute of Thermal Energy Technology and Safety in the week of April 9-12, 2024.

Details and further links can be found under "more information"

Energy Storage Systems: 100 Times Better Heat Transfer Thanks to the Use of Liquid Metal

The World’s First High-temperature Heat Storage System Based on Liquid-metal Technology Has the Potential to Defossilize Industry.

For more information, click on “Energy Storage: Hope in Hot Temperatures” on the homepage of KIT 

Further information on the KArlsruhe Liquid Metal LAboratory, (KALLA)

Theoretical Study on the Microencapsulation of AlSi for Applications in Liquid Metal-Based
Packed-Bed Storage Systems

In the proposed thesis, the following tasks should be addressed:

- Literature review on the current state of the art regarding micro- and macro-encapsulation methods
- Research and selection of suitable encapsulation materials that are compatible with the chosen PCM and liquid metals
- Presentation and discussion of the preliminary results at the DLR
- Numerical study using an existing MATLAB tool regarding the selected materials
- Theoretical evaluation of various capsule shapes, including a comparison between cylindrical and spherical encapsulation, and their impact on storage capacity and efficiency
- Summary of the results in a written report and a presentation

Investigation of a heat storage system with liquid metal as a heat transfer fluid using Ebsilon

The following tasks are planned for this work:
- Literature review on the state of the art and research
- Familiarization with Ebsilon and the previous work
- Implementation of the liquid metal data into Ebsilon
- Validation of the storage system based on experimental data from KALLA
- If applicable, comparison with results from an existing Matlab tool
- Creating and simulating a model in Ebsilon based on a real application case (e.g., waste heat utilization in the steel industry)

Dynamic switching of a load between separate power supplies

The thesis will cover the following topics:

- Control strategy for maintaining the microgrid in idle (no load) islanded operation
- Investigate the dynamics (reaction times) when the load switches to the microgrid
- Control strategy for mitigating severe voltage drops when the load is connected to the microgrid
- Control strategies to keep the microgrid connected during times of low voltage (avoid shutdown, similar to LVRT requirements for grid connected applications)
- Investigate load demand management strategies to reduce electrical instability impact

Implementation of the Coolprop-database in GeSI and comparison of the simulation results with the Refprop-database and measured data

The work comprises in detail:

- Literature study of Matlab, ORC and GeSi.
- Further Implementation of the Coolprop database in GeSi.
- Verification of the Results.
- Comparison with experimental data.
- Documentation of the results.

Numerical simulation of a heat exchanger from additive manufacturing processes

Additive manufacturing ("3D printing") enables heat exchangers with completely new designs and immense optimization potential.

The work includes in detail

- Literature research
- Familiarization with the CFD software STAR CCM
- Creation and integration of a heat exchanger model
- Carrying out transient or steady-state calculations for various operating cases
- Summarizing, interpreting and evaluating the results
- documentation

System modeling and thermodynamic control of a grid-compatible heat pump

The heat pump is a central pillar of the energy transition and opens up the development of low-temperature heat.

The work includes in detail:

- Literature research
- Familiarization with the modeling software Ebsilon or Dymola
- Creation of a heat pump model
- Carrying out transient or stationary calculations for various operating cases
- Summarizing, interpreting and evaluating the results
- documentation

Comparison of two models for the calculation of closed evaporative coolers

The task is to map the models in a software (Excel VBA, Matlab, ...) and to determine and discuss the limits of the first approach by means of quasi-stationary simulation calculations.

The results should also be used to dimension an experiment on the basis of which the models can be validated in subsequent work.

Technical design and market research of compressor systems and heat exchangers of a hydrogen fuel cell to increase the overall efficiency of the hydrogen production plant

Work packages:

- Preliminary research
- Design based on three different dimensioning scenarios
- Market analysis of existing systems
- Determining system specifications and prices
- Economic efficiency calculation

What you should bring with you:

- Technical understanding
- Enjoy familiarizing yourself with new topics
- Reliability

Optimization of small-scale hydrogen plants: modelling and simulation

Work packages:

- Familiarization with proton exchange membrane (PEM) modeling
- Modeling with individual components
- Design of the control system
- Optimization of sub-processes

What you should bring with you:

- IT affinity
- Enjoy familiarizing yourself with new topics
- Reliability

Thermal-hydraulic analysis of a molten salt heat exchanger configuration with FLUENT-ANSYS

Tasks:

- Develop smooth and finned tube modules in FLUENT-ANSYS with given heat transfer material and geometry

- Calculate the fluid velocity and temperature fields in the of the shell and tube side of the heat exchanger

- Provide calculation results of several geometry options

„Computational fluid dynamics with OpenFOAM“

The format of the course allows a very flexible participation!

The course consists of four parts, each extending over two days. During day1, participants receive videos of the lectures, slides, and do the proposed exercises. During day2, teachers are available at any time for a one-to-one discussion via Zoom meeting to solve issues related to exercises and answer questions. The course will be held in English.
Objective: The purpose of the course is to acquire the knowledge and practical skills necessary to use the software OpenFOAM.

Deadline: 16. September 2024!