Talk:Compressed air energy storage

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The Physics article seems completely wrong to me. By allowing the system to compress isothermally surely much of the energy is being lost? I'll check my thermo books tonightGreglocock 04:25, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Isothermal compression and expansion represent an ideal case where exactly the same amount of heat is released to the environment as must be reintroduced into the system during expansion. In practice the compressor and air tank will heat up during compression and the engine and tank will cool down during expansion unless very large heat exchangers are fitted or the system is very small or the power level is very small. In the ideal case no energy is lost, but in practice there is the loss of friction and losses to due with not being able to use exactly the isothermal cycle. It would be good to have some real measurements for the article. --Theosch 14:14, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

I suppose my confusion arises from my assumption that reversibility=efficiency, whhich does not apply to a system that in one cycle does no work. Either way, an adiabatic compression and expansion cycle also does no net work, and stores much more energy. I agree that an isothermal process probably bears a closer resemblance to the likely cycle of this process. Greglocock 01:36, 23 March 2007 (UTC)