【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】First of its kind in China from 2928 to 2025! Pilot production of Ordos’ “sand thermal battery” a success!

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Let’s give praise and encouragement to the achievements made in China’s chemical engineering technology and equipment; your participation in discussions is the greatest encouragement. **********************【Ten Years of Progress in Chemical Engineering Equipment】A continuously updated summary post is available – feel free to join the discussions: https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html ***************** This afternoon (December 25th), at the Dali Industrial Park in Zhungeer Banner, a thick plume of white steam was emitted from the MWh-class high-temperature solid particle heat storage pilot plant, as it was shut down with a single sound. This marks the first successful pilot-scale operation in China of the \"sand thermal battery\", which has operated continuously and stably for a month, reaching a maximum operating temperature of 1500°C. The Ordos “sand thermal battery” was developed jointly by Tsinghua University and the Ordos Laboratory. Its core technology involves using solid particles such as sand as energy storage media to convert new energy electricity into thermal energy in the form of a \"power bank\", making it the first of its kind in China. During this pilot test, the maximum temperature reached the desired level, satisfying the stringent requirements for high-temperature heat sources in industrial production and providing a solid foundation for future commercial deployment. “During the pilot testing phase, we used various energy storage media including ordinary sand, high-purity quartz sand, carbon particles, and corundum, enabling operation at temperatures ranging from 600 to 1500°C. This allows it to meet the requirements of various application scenarios across the entire temperature range; it can generate saturated or superheated steam as well as high-temperature thermal energy, and is thus widely used in the industrial sector. ”said Wang Zezhong, a researcher at the Ordos Laboratory. Compared to traditional molten salt energy storage media, “sand thermal batteries” feature high heat capacity, good stability, and low costs. Wang Zezhong used an analogy: if thermal storage energy is compared to down jackets, for the same weight, the \"heat retention\" of the \"sand-based version\" is more than 3 times that of the \"molten salt version\", while its cost is only one-third or even less than that of the latter. Leveraging Ordos’ abundant wind and solar resources, as well as its new energy capacity of nearly 25 million kilowatts, the “sand thermal battery” system in Ordos can function as a \"heat bank\" for storing solar and wind energy efficiently and supplying power as needed. This approach helps to overcome the problems associated with the waste of solar and wind energy, and it can also be used to assist in the flexible regulation of thermal power generation. It thus promotes the local utilization of green energy, offering a new model for efficient and clean energy use across the country and contributing to the achievement of the \"dual carbon\" goals. “Taking a ‘sand thermal battery’ project with a capacity of 36MW/180MWh as an example, it can produce 80,000 tons of steam per year, save 11,500 tons of standard coal, reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 30,000 tons, and deliver environmental benefits equivalent to those of 4,000 acres of forest. ”said Wei Fei, director of the Ordos Laboratory.