Expanding the Application Scenarios for Pressure Vessels Facilitating the performance of energy storage sector
(30 August 2022 – Hong Kong) CIMC Enric Holdings Limited (“CIMC Enric” or “the Company”) together with its subsidiaries (the "Group") (Stock Code: 3899.HK) is pleased to announce that its subsidiary, Shijiazhuang Enric Gas Equipment Co., Ltd. ("Shijiazhuang Enric"), recently delivered 18 large, high-pressure storage tanks for our customer, namely Exa Energy Technology (Shenzhen) Co’s China's first “New Carbon Dioxide Energy Storage Verification Project” (the “Project”). The energy equipment was officially put into operation on August 25, marking a substantial step forward for the Company's pressure vessels in the field of new energy storage sector.
Carbon dioxide storage tank group provided by CIMC Enric
Carbon dioxide energy storage systems harness the features that carbon dioxide expands rapidly by nearly 400 times when it changes from liquid state to gaseous state at room temperature. The basic principle of the Project is to utilise surplus power during low periods of electricity consumption to compress carbon dioxide gas into a liquid at normal temperature and normal pressure, thereby store the thermal energy generated during the compression process. During peak electricity consumption, the stored thermal energy is used to heat liquid carbon dioxide to gaseous state and drive turbines for power generation. This feature is similar to the immediate response of lithium batteries, while storing energy for the longer term, with less system degradation and at less than half the cost of larger lithium batteries.
A carbon dioxide storage tank manufactured by CIMC Enric
The project that the Company participated is the first new carbon dioxide energy storage verification project in China, which will play a key role in the engineering and large-scale applications of the new carbon dioxide energy storage system, and will have a far-reaching impact on the entire energy storage industry. The dedicated tank is also an innovative attempt by CIMC Enric to broaden the application of pressure vessels to energy storage sector, laying a solid foundation for the Company’s further expansion into the market of storage tank applications in this field.
Pumped storage is currently the main approach for energy storage but pumped storage is more affected by geographical conditions while electrochemical storage that comes with many disadvantages such as short battery life and the environmental pollution from waste batteries, as well as high costs. In contrast, carbon dioxide energy storage systems offer a wide range of power levels, capacities and geographical flexibility, and also have excellent economic benefits in large-capacity and long-term energy storage which can be deployed on a large scale, especially for 10MW, 100MW and 1000MW class long-term energy storage systems.
According to forecasts in the “Energy Storage Industry Research White Paper 2019”, China's installed energy storage capacity will reach more than 200GW by 2025, accounting for 10%-15% of total power generation and thus indicating an immense and urgent market demand. New technologies such as carbon dioxide energy storage and compressed air energy storage offer many advantages including scalability, high efficiency, low costs, and minimal environmental impact, thereby they are considered to be the more promising technologies for large-scale energy storage.
Mr. Yang Xiaohu, Executive Director and General Manager of CIMC Enric, said “As green energy gradually begins to replace traditional power generation, large-scale energy storage will be needed all around the world, new technologies such as carbon dioxide and compressed air energy storage are emerging. As a world leader in clean energy equipment, CIMC Enric has closely followed such emerging areas, committed to staying ahead in these innovative fields through leveraging its core strengths in R&D and equipment manufacturing, to provide safer, more reliable, more environmentally friendly and more economical pressure vessels for hydrogen storage, carbon dioxide storage and compressed air storage, furtherly facilitate the performance of the energy storage industry and achieving the national goal of ‘dual carbon’.
