even the waste heat from the compression could be used to achieve more compression
No. Waste heat can by definition not be converted to mechanical work.
Otherwise, one could build a perpetuum mobile: Convert heat to mechanical work, use that work to generate heat, convert it to work again, and so on. You’d have a machine that generates energy out of nothing, and that’s not possible because of the law of energy conservation.
oxbech@feddit.dk 3 weeks ago
On their website (energydome.com) they claim “75%+” round trip efficiency, so not a bad guess!
sunbeam60@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
That’s a hell of a lot better than most other systems. If true, and if scalable, this is a huge innovation.
fullsquare@awful.systems 3 weeks ago
compressors, turbines (like steam turbines), piping, container for liquid carbon dioxide, lots of plastic for the bubble, something for thermal storage, dry and clean carbon dioxide, these aren’t unusual or restricted resources, don’t depend on critical raw materials or anything like that
fullsquare@awful.systems 3 weeks ago
Compressed air without heat recovery is more like 30%, so this is huge
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I was just about to bang out that they must lose a lot of heat from the compression. But apparently not! That’s amazing.