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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "J: Thermal Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2020) | Viewed by 53512

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Prof. Dr. Antonio Colmenar Santos

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Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica, Control, Telemática y Química Aplicada a la Ingeniería Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia C/ Juan del Rosal, 12, Ciudad Universitaria, s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: energy efficiency; energy economics; renewable energy; energy simulation; energy optimization
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Prof. Dr. David Borge Diez

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Energy Resources' Smart Management (ERESMA) Research Group, Department Area of Electrical Engineering, School of Mines Engineering, University of Léon, 24071 Leon, Spain
Interests: energy efficiency; energy economics; renewable energy; energy simulation; energy optimization
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Dr. Enrique Rosales Asensio

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Department of Physics, University of La Laguna, 38200 Tenerife, Spain
Interests: environment management systems; water desalination; waste-heat-recovery technology; electrical engineering
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Dear Colleagues,

Yearly, conventional thermal generating plants reject a large amount of energy. If this rejected heat were to be used through district heating networks, given a previous energy valorisation, there would be a noticeable decrease in imported fossil fuels for heating. As a consequence, benefits in the form of an increase in energy efficiency, an improvement in energy security, and a minimisation of emitted greenhouse gases would occur. Given that it is not expected for heat demand to decrease significantly in the medium term, district heating networks show the greatest potential for the development of cogeneration.

Due to its cost competitiveness, its flexibility in terms of its ability to use renewable energy resources (such as geothermal or solar thermal) and fossil fuels (more specifically the residual heat from combustion), and the fact that, in some cases, losses to a country/region’s energy balance can be easily integrated into district heating networks (which would not be the case in a "fully electric" future), if appropriate measures were proposed, district heating (and cooling) networks and cogeneration could become a key element for a future with greater energy security, while being more sustainable.

This Special Issue, therefore, seeks to propose an energy strategy for a number of cities/regions/countries, by proposing appropriate measures supported by detailed case studies.

Prof. Dr. Antonio Colmenar Santos
Prof. Dr. David Borge Diez
Dr. Enrique Rosales Asensio
Guest Editors

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Keywords

energy potential
cogeneration
district heating networks
conversion of thermal power plants
low-temperature district heating and cooling networks
institutional and financial barriers

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 16663 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Exploiting Scalable Machine-Learning Distributed Frameworks to Forecast Power Consumption of Buildings

by Tania Cerquitelli, Giovanni Malnati and Daniele Apiletti

Energies 2019, 12(15), 2933; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12152933 - 31 Jul 2019

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2363

Abstract

The pervasive and increasing deployment of smart meters allows collecting a huge amount of fine-grained energy data in different urban scenarios. The analysis of such data is challenging and opening up a variety of interesting and new research issues across energy and computer science research areas. The key role of computer scientists is providing energy researchers and practitioners with cutting-edge and scalable analytics engines to effectively support their daily research activities, hence fostering and leveraging data-driven approaches. This paper presents SPEC, a scalable and distributed engine to predict building-specific power consumption. SPEC addresses the full analytic stack and exploits a data stream approach over sliding time windows to train a prediction model tailored to each building. The model allows us to predict the upcoming power consumption at a time instant in the near future. SPEC integrates different machine learning approaches, specifically ridge regression, artificial neural networks, and random forest regression, to predict fine-grained values of power consumption, and a classification model, the random forest classifier, to forecast a coarse consumption level. SPEC exploits state-of-the-art distributed computing frameworks to address the big data challenges in harvesting energy data: the current implementation runs on Apache Spark, the most widespread high-performance data-processing platform, and can natively scale to huge datasets. As a case study, SPEC has been tested on real data of an heating distribution network and power consumption data collected in a major Italian city. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of SPEC to forecast both fine-grained values and coarse levels of power consumption of buildings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue District Heating and Cooling Networks)

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17 pages, 6529 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Investigation into the Limitations of Low Temperature District Heating on Traditional Tenement Buildings in Scotland

by Michael-Allan Millar, Neil Burnside and Zhibin Yu

Energies 2019, 12(13), 2603; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12132603 - 06 Jul 2019

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3985

Abstract

Domestic heating accounts for 64% of domestic energy usage in the UK, yet there are currently very few viable options for low carbon residential heating. The government’s carbon plan commits to improving the uptake of district heating connections in new build dwellings, but the greatest carbon saving can be made through targeting traditional housing stock. This paper aims to quantify the potential carbon and energy savings that can be made by connecting a traditional tenement building to a district heating scheme. The study uses a transient system simulation tool (TRNSYS) model to simulate the radiator system in a tenement block and shows that a significant benefit can be achieved by reducing the supply temperature; however, the minimum supply temperature is drastically limited by the building condition. Therefore, the study also critically compares the benefits of a lower supply temperature against minor refurbishments. It was found that improving building conditions alone could offer a 30% reduction in space heating energy consumption, while building improvements and integration of a river source heat pump could offer almost a 70% reduction. It is the recommendation of this study that a dwelling be improved as much as economically possible to achieve the greatest carbon and energetic savings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue District Heating and Cooling Networks)

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23 pages, 4742 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analyzing the Performance and Control of a Hydronic Pavement System in a District Heating Network

by Stefan Blomqvist, Shahnaz Amiri, Patrik Rohdin and Louise Ödlund

Energies 2019, 12(11), 2078; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12112078 - 30 May 2019

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3478

Abstract

A hydronic pavement system (HPS) is an alternative method to clear snow and ice, which avoids the use of salt, sand, and fossil fuel in conventional snow clearance, and minimizes the risk of accidents. The aim is to analyze the performance of different control strategies for a 35,000 m² HPS utilizing heat from a district heating and cooling (DHC) system. The key performance indicators are (1) energy performance of the HPS, and (2) primary energy use, (3) electricity production and (4) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the DHC system. The methodology uses a simulation model of the HPS and an optimization model of the DHC system. Three operational strategies are analyzed: A reference scenario based on the current control strategy, and scenarios where the HPS is shut down at temperatures below −10 °C and −5 °C. The study shows that the DHC return temperature is suitable for use. By operational strategies, use during peak demand in the DHC system can be avoided, resulting in reduced use of fossil fuel. Moreover, the energy use of the HPS could be reduced by 10% and the local GHG emissions by 25%. The study emphasizes that the HPS may have positive effects on global GHG emissions, as it enables electricity production from renewable resources. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue District Heating and Cooling Networks)

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17 pages, 6466 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Thermal-Hydraulic Performance Analysis of Twin-Pipes for Various Future District Heating Schemes

by Milad Khosravi and Ahmad Arabkoohsar

Energies 2019, 12(7), 1299; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12071299 - 04 Apr 2019

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4222

Abstract

Future energy systems will come with a 100% share of renewable energy and high integration of energy systems. District heating and cooling systems will be undeniable parts of the future energy systems, as they pave the bed for high-efficiency, low cost, and clean production. District heating systems may come into a wide range of designs in the future. Currently, most of the world’s district heating systems are based on the third generation design while everything in this framework is on the verge of a transition to the fourth generation. A large number of technologies for the future district heating systems has been proposed so far, among which low-, ultralow- and variable-temperature systems seem more of qualification. This study employs computational fluid dynamics to make a comprehensive examination of the compatibility of regular twin-pipes with various potential district heating schemes for future energy systems. The results show that both low- and ultralow-temperature systems could efficiently use regular twin-pipes commonly used in the third generation district heating systems, though the insulation of the pipe could be proportionally strengthened based on a techno-economic trade-off. In contrast, the results show that the thermal inertia of the pipe does not allow the variable-temperature district heating system to effectively operate when the transmission pipeline is longer than a limited length. Therefore, a regular heat distribution network may not be an appropriate host for a variable-temperature district heating scheme unless decentralized heat production units come into service. Full article

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19 pages, 4508 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Influencing Parameters Analysis of District Heating Network Time Delays Based on the CFD Method

by Jing Zhao and Yu Shan

Energies 2019, 12(7), 1297; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12071297 - 04 Apr 2019

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2599

Abstract

With the expansion of cities, district heating (DH) networks are playing an increasingly important role. The energy consumption due to the time delay caused by the transport of the medium in the DH network is enormous, especially in large networks. The study of time delay is necessary for the operation and optimization of DH networks. Compared with previous studies of constant flow rates and ideal pipeline (without regard to branches, elbows, variable pipe diameters, etc), this paper simulates a DH network in Tianjin University, China, by establishing the actual engineering model in a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method to analyze the time delay. The CFD model has great advantages in terms of computational cost and application range compared to theoretical calculations. The peak-valley method was used to verify the correctness of the time delay simulation model. Results show that the time delay calculated by the CFD model is consistent with the actual time delay obtained from the measured data. Based on this model, the parameters that affect the time delay are furtherly analyzed. Four key parameters, including flow rate, pipe length, pipe diameter, and water supply temperature are summarized. The results show that the flow rate, pipe length and pipe diameter have a great influence on the time delay of the DH network, while the temperature has little effect on the time delay. The time delay of the DH network system has a significant impact and can provide services for optimal control of the system. Full article

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18 pages, 3624 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reuse of Data Center Waste Heat in Nearby Neighborhoods: A Neural Networks-Based Prediction Model

by Marcel Antal, Tudor Cioara, Ionut Anghel, Radoslaw Gorzenski, Radoslaw Januszewski, Ariel Oleksiak, Wojciech Piatek, Claudia Pop, Ioan Salomie and Wojciech Szeliga

Energies 2019, 12(5), 814; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12050814 - 01 Mar 2019

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4823

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of data centers’ cost efficiency considering the potential of reusing the generated heat in district heating networks. We started by analyzing the requirements and heat reuse potential of a high performance computing data center and then we had defined a heat reuse model which simulates the thermodynamic processes from the server room. This allows estimating by means of Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations the temperature of the hot air recovered by the heat pumps from the server room allowing them to operate more efficiently. To address the time and space complexity at run-time we have defined a Multi-Layer Perceptron neural network infrastructure to predict the hot air temperature distribution in the server room from the training data generated by means of simulations. For testing purposes, we have modeled a virtual server room having a volume of 48 m³ and two typical 42U racks. The results show that using our model the heat distribution in the server room can be predicted with an error less than 1 °C allowing data centers to accurately estimate in advance the amount of waste heat to be reused and the efficiency of heat pump operation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue District Heating and Cooling Networks)

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17 pages, 1586 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of Different Strategies for Lowering the Operation Temperature in Existing District Heating Networks

by Francesco Neirotti, Michel Noussan, Stefano Riverso and Giorgio Manganini

Energies 2019, 12(2), 321; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12020321 - 21 Jan 2019

Cited by 26 | Viewed by 5279

Abstract

District heating systems have an important role in increasing the efficiency of the heating and cooling sector, especially when coupled to combined heat and power plants. However, in the transition towards decarbonization, current systems show some challenges for the integration of Renewable Energy Sources and Waste Heat. In particular, a crucial aspect is represented by the operating temperatures of the network. This paper analyzes two different approaches for the decrease of operation temperatures of existing networks, which are often supplying old buildings with a low degree of insulation. A simulation model was applied to some case studies to evaluate how a low-temperature operation of an existing district heating system performs compared to the standard operation, by considering two different approaches: (1) a different control strategy involving nighttime operation to avoid the morning peak demand; and (2) the partial insulation of the buildings to decrease operation temperatures without the need of modifying the heating system of the users. Different temperatures were considered to evaluate a threshold based on the characteristics of the buildings supplied by the network. The results highlight an interesting potential for optimization of existing systems by tuning the control strategies and performing some energy efficiency operation. The network temperature can be decreased with a continuous operation of the system, or with energy efficiency intervention in buildings, and distributed heat pumps used as integration could provide significant advantages. Each solution has its own limitations and critical parameters, which are discussed in detail. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue District Heating and Cooling Networks)

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20 pages, 5343 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of the Methodology to Obtain Several Key Indicators Performance (KIP), by Energy Retrofitting of the Actual Building to the District Heating Fuelled by Biomass, Focusing on nZEB Goal: Case of Study

by Rosaura Castrillón Mendoza, Javier M. Rey Hernández, Eloy Velasco Gómez, Julio F. San José Alonso and Francisco J. Rey Martínez

Energies 2019, 12(1), 93; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12010093 - 28 Dec 2018

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3760

Abstract

In order to achieve the objectives of the European 20/20/20 strategy, and to obtain a greater energy efficiency, integration of renewable energies and the reduction of carbon emissions, a District Heating (DH) system has been designed by the University of Valladolid (UVa), Spain, one of the most important DH fed by biomass fuel in Spain, supplying heating and domestic hot water (DHW) to 31 buildings in Valladolid, the majority of them, educational buildings on the University Campus. The aims of this paper were to study the change from an energy system fueled by natural gas to District Heating by biomass in a building on the campus of the University of Valladolid—the School of Engineering (EII)—studying its consumption from its connection to the District Heating system. An energy management methodology such as ISO 50001 is carried out, applied to efficiency systems in buildings, thus establishing new criteria of sustainability and economic value. In this paper, energy management will also be analyzed in accordance with the proposed tools of an Energy Management System (EMS) applied to the EII building, through the measurement of energy parameters, calculation of thermal consumption, thermal energy savings as a result of the change from system to District Heating by biomass, economic savings, reduction of environmental impact and indicators of thermal efficiency I₁₀₀ and CUSUM indicator. Finally, the primary renewable and non-renewable energy efficiency indicators for the new District Heating system will be determined. The concept of the near Zero Energy Buildings is defined in the European Union (EU) in order to analyze an approach to an nZEB which results from replacing the natural gas heating system by a biomass District Heating system. Full article

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20 pages, 3315 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Techno-Economic Analysis of Rural 4th Generation Biomass District Heating

by Víctor M. Soltero, Ricardo Chacartegui, Carlos Ortiz and Gonzalo Quirosa

Energies 2018, 11(12), 3287; https://doi.org/10.3390/en11123287 - 25 Nov 2018

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3653

Abstract

Biomass heating networks provide renewable heat using low carbon energy sources. They can be powerful tools for economy decarbonization. Heating networks can increase heating efficiency in districts and small size municipalities, using more efficient thermal generation technologies, with higher efficiencies and with more efficient emissions abatement technologies. This paper analyzes the application of a biomass fourth generation district heating, 4GDH (4th Generation Biomass District Heating), in a rural municipality. The heating network is designed to supply 77 residential buildings and eight public buildings, to replace the current individual diesel boilers and electrical heating systems. The development of the new fourth district heating generation implies the challenge of combining using low or very low temperatures in the distribution network pipes and delivery temperatures in existing facilities buildings. In this work biomass district heating designs based on third and fourth generation district heating network criteria are evaluated in terms of design conditions, operating ranges, effect of variable temperature operation, energy efficiency and investment and operating costs. The Internal Rate of Return of the different options ranges from 6.55% for a design based on the third generation network to 7.46% for a design based on the fourth generation network, with a 25 years investment horizon. The results and analyses of this work show the interest and challenges for the next low temperature DH generation for the rural area under analysis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue District Heating and Cooling Networks)

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20 pages, 2987 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Energy Efficiency Analysis Carried Out by Installing District Heating on a University Campus. A Case Study in Spain

by Ana M. Marina Domingo, Javier M. Rey-Hernández, Julio F. San José Alonso, Raquel Mata Crespo and Francisco J. Rey Martínez

Energies 2018, 11(10), 2826; https://doi.org/10.3390/en11102826 - 19 Oct 2018

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2531

Abstract

This article analyses the reduction of energy consumption following the installation of district heating (DH) in the Miguel Delibes campus at the University of Valladolid (Spain), in terms of historical consumption and climate variables data. In order to achieve this goal, consumption models are carried out for each building, enabling the comparison of actual data with those foreseen in the model. This paper shows the statistical method used to accept these models, selecting the most influential climate variables data obtained by the models from the consumption baselines in the buildings at the Miguel Delibes campus through to the linear regression equations with a confidence level of 95%. This study shows that the best variables correlated with consumption are the degree-days for 58% of buildings and the average temperature for the remaining 42%. The savings obtained to date with this third generation network have been significantly higher than the 21% average for 33% of the campus buildings. In the case of 17% of the buildings, there was a significant increase in consumption of 20%, and in the case of the remaining 50% of the buildings, no significant differences were found between consumption before and after installation of district heating. Full article

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64 pages, 2224 KiB

Open AccessReview

Sustainable District Cooling Systems: Status, Challenges, and Future Opportunities, with Emphasis on Cooling-Dominated Regions

by Valerie Eveloy and Dereje S. Ayou

Energies 2019, 12(2), 235; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12020235 - 13 Jan 2019

Cited by 80 | Viewed by 15503

Abstract

A review of current and future district cooling (DC) technologies, operational, economic, and environmental aspects, and analysis and optimization methodologies is presented, focusing on the demands of cooling-dominated regions. Sustainable energy sources (i.e., renewable, waste/excess electricity and heat, natural/artificial cold) and cooling/storage technology options with emphasis on heat-driven refrigeration, and their integrations in published DC design and analysis studies are reviewed. Published DC system analysis, modeling, and optimization methodologies are analyzed in terms of their objectives, scope, sustainability-related criteria, and key findings. The current and future development of DC in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, a major developing cooling-dominated market, is examined more specifically in terms of current and future energy sources and their use, and economic, environmental, and regulatory aspects, with potential technical and non-technical solutions identified to address regional DC sustainability challenges. From the review of published DC design and analysis studies presented, collective research trends in key thematic areas are analyzed, with suggested future research themes proposed towards the sustainability enhancement of DC systems in predominantly hot climates. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue District Heating and Cooling Networks)

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