Storage

Electrochemical and Thermal Storage are two research areas largely in focus at KTH.

Vision

Electrochemical and Thermal Storage are two research areas largely in focus at KTH. Storage of electric energy in rechargeable batteries is increasing in importance. The commercial lithium-ion battery, which has emerged and gradual improved over the last 15 years, has been essential for the increasingly sophisticated portable consumer electronics. More recently there has been a step towards using advanced batteries in even more demanding large-scale applications like vehicle propulsion, i.e. electric and hybrid electric vehicles, and energy buffering in the electricity grid.

Storage in other forms of energy, such as thermal energy has shown large application ranges in our everyday life. From cryogenic goods transportation, to low temperature cooling, to domestic space heating and sanitary hot water supply up to industrial waste heat recovery and to high temperature solar thermal power plant management, thermal storage presents economic benefit and increased exergy utilization potential.

Challenges

The ideal rechargeable battery should be light-weight, energy efficient, cheap, safe, robust and with long lifetime. We still have a long way to go to make them the most competitive option in all the possible applications. At KTH, Applied Electrochemistry, we are working with two battery types: lithium-ion and ZEBRA. Our research addresses two basic issues: (1) How to use today’s batteries in the best possible way in advanced applications, and (2) How to develop battery technology to make batteries with better performance.

In terms of thermal energy storage, Energy Technology department has been performing research since 2008 in the following fields, including both fundamental and applied research and involving numerous industrial and international collaborations.