Chemical Compounds for Energy Storage

Future energy systems, which will rely on substantially higher contributions from regenerative supply pathways and which will be increasingly less dependent on fossil energy resources, will require high energy density storage compounds as strategic reserves and for seasonal storage. Hydrocarbons, such as oil and natural gas, are currently serving this purpose. These will also be options in future systems, but in that case, these compounds would have to be synthesized using some other form of energy. Thus, with decreasing importance of fossil resources, other storage compounds also seem to be viable, the most prominent ones under discussion, in addition to the ones mentioned, being hydrogen, methanol, and ethanol. In this contribution, the different storage compounds will be discussed, and their merits and drawbacks for large scale implementation will be compared.