Student Research on Thermal Energy Storage Receives 2nd Climate Champions Grant

Cal Poly Pomona was awarded a second $40,000 grant Climate Champions Grant for continued student research on a low-cost thermal energy storage system using repurposed desalinization wastewater.

Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Reza Lakeh is leading a team of approximately 20 undergraduate and five graduate students who are gaining hands-on experience in designing thermal storage systems, and measuring and modifying the thermophysical properties of desalinization salt.

With funding from the first grant, the team was able to optimize a lab-scale demonstration of the concentrate-based thermal energy storage system, conduct additional tests and begin a new collaboration with Sephton Water Technologies. The company’s geothermal water desalinization plant near the Salton Sea is expected to be the site of the system’s field demonstration. System-level design of integrating the concentrate-based thermal storage system with Sephton’s water desalinization system has begun.

With decreasing water supplies due to climate change, interest is rising in using desalinization to increase our water supply. During the desalinization process, minerals such as salt are removed from a target substance like wastewater. However, the salt collected during desalinization becomes a potentially toxic brine.

Being able to utilize it to store low-cost energy would address the urgent environmental and economic challenges the desalination industry is facing regarding disposal, Baghaei Lakeh said.

Simultaneously, there is also a growing need for low-cost energy storage to pair with an increase in intermittent renewable energy generated through solar and wind.

The grant will help Lakeh and his students spread awareness about the importance of low-cost and durable energy storage systems for a future power grid that relies 100 percent on renewable energy. It will also help bring the team’s patent-pending technology outside of the labs at CPP and into the marketplace, Lakeh said.

The SoCal Climate Champions Grant, funded by Southern California Gas, awards grants to projects that address community climate solutions in Southern California. Grant proposals were evaluated on six criteria: community impact, environmental impact, depth and scale, innovation, safety and reliability, and communities and collaboration.