1.1.

Steam accumulators
Steam accumulators have been the working horse in the industrial application of thermal energy storage
since the beginning of the 20th century. Their simplicity and robustness make them a preferred solution
also for harsh environments, operation and maintenance of these systems require only limited skills. A
challenge in industrial applications of thermal storage is the wide variety of applications with specific
boundary conditions. By simple modifications in the design a steam accumulator can be matched to a
specific application. During the first half of the 20th century there has also been a wide spread of steam
accumulators in power plants, the development of industrial systems profited also from this application
area [Beckmann, Goldstern].
Water is the preferred storage medium for heat storage below 100 °C due to its high specific heat
capacity, availability, environmental safety and low costs. The basic idea of the steam accumulator is to
use water also at higher temperature by application of pressurized water volumes. This allows
volumetric storage densities of up to 1.2 kWh/K/m³.
1.1.1. Sliding pressure steam accumulators
There are three basic types of steam accumulators. Fig. 1 shows the scheme of a sliding pressure steam
accumulator (Ruths storage). The central component is a cylindrical pressure vessel filled largely with
water and to a smaller extend with steam, both in the saturated state. During the charging process the
temperature of the liquid water is increased by condensation of superheated steam or the mass in the
volume is increased by feeding saturated liquid water into the system. If superheated steam is used, the
pressure in the vessel increases during the charging process while there’s only a little variation of the
liquid storage mass. Alternatively, a steam accumulator can also be charged indirectly; here, a heat
exchanger is integrated into the liquid volume. This approach allows charging of the storage using heat
transfer fluids like thermal oil can be used to charge the steam accumulator.

Steam Charging Steam Discharging

Isolated
Pressure Vessel Steam

Liquid Phase

Liquid water
Charging / Discharging

Fig.1: Scheme of a sliding pressure steam accumulator

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A Ruths-type steam accumulator delivers saturated steam during discharge. The steam is generated
using sensible heat from the liquid volume in the storage vessel thus reducing the saturation
temperature and the pressure in the vessel continuously. Due to the logarithmic dependence between
saturation temperature and saturation pressure the energy delivered for a given pressure drop is smaller
at higher temperatures. Fig.2 shows the amount of steam produced from 1m³ of liquid water resulting
from a pressure drop of 1 bar dependent on saturation pressure. The range of steam production in Fig.2
corresponds to a thermal energy between 0.26kWh/bar/m³ and 0.19kWh/bar/m³. The saturation
pressure affects the rate of steam production in different ways: at higher pressures, the pressure
dependent change of saturation temperature decreases, so the change in sensible energy in the liquid
water volume becomes smaller. The density of saturated liquid water is reduced with pressure resulting
in a lower volumetric energy density. On the other side, mass specific energy needed for evaporation is
smaller at higher pressures.

Fig.2: Volume-specific steam delivery by a Ruths-type steam accumulator resulting from an infinitesimal
pressure drop; dependence on initial pressure

The volume-specific storage capacity of Ruths-type steam accumulators depends on the initial pressure
and the pressure at the end of discharging. From Fig.3 the amount of steam delivered by a sliding
pressure steam accumulator can be derived for various initial pressures as a function of the end
pressure.

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Fig.3: Dependence of integral volume-specific mass of delivered steam for various initial pressures
dependent on end pressure

In Fig.3 an exemplary discharge from 100 bar to 55 bar is indicated. For this combination of start and end
pressure the resulting amount of steam is about 90 kg/m³ of saturated steam at varying pressure. This
value refers to the volume of the saturated liquid water at the beginning of the discharge process.
Usually, the pressure vessel is filled to about 90 % with liquid water at the beginning of the discharge
process; there is only a slight decrease of the water level resulting from the delivery of steam during
discharge.
The maximum power of a sliding pressure steam accumulator is limited by the evaporation rate beyond
which the steam is no longer dry. This maximum evaporation rate is mainly dependent on the steam
volume in the steam accumulator. Dependent on the quality of the water, the rate is between
200 m³/hour and 2000 m³/hour related to 1 m³ of steam space. There might be other limitations
resulting from the thermo-mechanical stress in the vessel. Usually, power is not an issue for sliding
pressure steam accumulators, the ability to cope with fast transients is a specific feature of these storage
systems. An example for this is the application in the catapults of aircraft carriers.
The costs for a sliding pressure steam accumulator are dominated by the expense for the pressure
vessel. For larger systems ( >100 m³) these costs increase approximately in proportion to the mass of the
metal used. Horizontal cylindrical vessels are preferred due to cost aspects; a vertical arrangement is
used when available space is an issue. If the finished vessel is transported, a 3 m diameter is often
chosen as the upper limit, in practice an average length-to-diameter of 4 has been found to be best. The
volume range of Ruths storage is usually between 50 – 150 m³. The wall thickness increases
disproportionally with temperature, most systems are applied at maximum temperature below 200 °C.

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Fig.4: Engineering drawing of a steam accumulator with a volume of 130 m³, designed for a maximum
pressure of 10 bar

Two or more Ruths storage vessels with different maximum pressures can be operated in series to allow
operation over an extended pressure range. This allows increasing the total capacity while standard
geometries still can be used. Besides, the total amount of steel required for the vessels can be reduced,
not all vessels must be designed for the maximum temperature/pressure. Cascaded Ruths storages are
often applied in batch process to improve the utilization of waste heat which is delivered at decreasing
temperature while heat is required at increasing temperature. In the initial phase of the charging process
the waste heat is used to charge the steam accumulator designed for the maximum pressure while at the
end of the charging process waste heat at a lower temperature is stored in the steam accumulator
designed for a lower maximum pressure. During discharge, the sequence is inverted, if steam is required
at increasing pressure. The low pressure steam accumulator is discharged first, steam from the higher
pressure steam accumulator is used in the second phase of the discharge process. This approach allows
reusing a higher share of the waste heat compared to a single vessel system.

Fig.5: Two sliding pressure steam accumulators connected in series

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 1.1.2. Expansion type steam accumulator
The expansion type steam accumulator is used if the pressure drop during the discharge process should
be lower than the pressure drop of a sliding pressure accumulator. A vessel which is almost completely
filled with liquid water at the beginning of the discharge process is used here. In contrast to to the sliding
pressure accumulator, hot water is drawn from the bottom during discharge. Some of the remaining
water flashes and compensates the volume of the extracted hot water. While there is also a pressure
decline during discharge, this decline is less prominent than for the sliding pressure storage type. The
complete liquid water volume can be removed with a reduction of pressure which is typically in the
range of 30%. The hot water delivered by the vessel is often flashed in an external evaporator. There
might be also several stages of flash evaporators connected in series. After flashing, saturated steam and
liquid water are separated. The water is stored at low temperature for the later recharging.

saturated
gas

saturated saturated gas

liquid

Charging:
saturated liquid/
superheated steam Discharging:
saturated liquid Flash evaporation

saturated gas
Fig.6: Schematic of expansion type steam accumulator

The expansion accumulator is recharged by simultaneous injection of saturated or superheated steam

and hot water until the whole volume except for a small volume of saturated steam at the top of the
vessel. Alternatively, hot pressurized water can be injected into the vessel.

The temperature gradients in the vessel are smaller than for other steam accumulator concepts, so
expansion type accumulators have been proposed for high pressure applications.

1.1.3. Displacement type steam accumulator

In a displacement type steam accumulator hot and cold water are stored in the same vessel, preferably a
vertical cylindrical one. This type of storage system is always completely filled with water. In the charged
condition the vessel is filled with high temperature pressurized water, at the end of the discharge
process the water in the accumulator is cold. Hot water is extracted at the top during the discharge
process, cold water is injected at the bottom to replace the extracted hot water. Due to the density
difference hot water floats at the top, separated from the cold volume by a thermocline. Between the
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hot and the cold volume temperature equalization will take place, caused by heat conduction in the
water and pressure vessel wall and by mixing resulting from charge and discharge operation. For high
pressure vertical vessels the heat conduction in the walls might outweigh the heat conduction in the
water.

Charging: Discharging:
steam Saturadted liquid

hot liquid

cold liquid

Charging: Discharging:
cold liquid cold liquid

Fig.7: Schematic of displacement type steam accumulator

A disadvantage of the displacement accumulator is the thermo mechanical stress in the pressure vessel
resulting from the up and down movement of the thermocline during each cycle. The pressure in the
vessel remains constant during the entire discharging cycle. The hot water provided by the accumulator
can be used to generate saturated steam in external flash evaporators.
The displacement accumulator is charged by mixing steam with cold water taken from the bottom. This
storage concept is preferred for frequent charging / discharging cycles.

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