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Thermodynamic and Technical Analysis for Sustainability (Volume 2)

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A special issue of Inventions (ISSN 2411-5134). This special issue belongs to the section "Inventions and Innovation in Energy and Thermal/Fluidic Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2022) | Viewed by 18601

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Dr. Umberto Lucia

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Dipartimento Energia “Galileo Ferraris”, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
Interests: irreversible thermodynamics; quantum thermodynamics; thermodynamics of biosystems; exergoeconomics; econophysics; sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Debora Fino

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Dipartimento di Scienza Applicata e Tecnologia, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
Interests: circular economy; carbon capture; green chemistry; sustainability
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Dr. Giulia Grisolia

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Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Ambiente, del Territorio e delle Infrastrutture, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
Interests: irreversible thermodynamics; thermodynamics of biosystems; exergoeconomics; thermoeconomics; life cycle assessment; sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Special Issue follows the publication of the first volume of Thermodynamic and Technical Analysis for Sustainability, which presented six interesting papers.

Sustainability and sustainable development represent a present topic of investigation, with particular regard to their link to pollution, carbon dioxide emissions, and human wellbeing.

Sustainable development was introduced in the natural and environmental sciences with the aim of attracting the interest of political and business stakeholders in order to meet the needs of the present generations without compromising future ones.

Business activities play a fundamental role in the control of every stage of the value creation and production chain and thus in their impacts on the use of resources and the natural environment. On the other hand, just business activities can represent a powerful instrument to help achieve sustainability.

In recent decades, research on sustainability, represents a multidisciplinary topic of investigation, has continuously grown and attracted a great deal of interest.

In relation to sustainability, air, water, and soil pollution represent problems for industrialized societies. Thus, this Special Issue wishes to focus on the fundamental topics of sustainability (environment, economy, and society), with particular regard to the thermodynamic analysis of biofuels and bioplastics production, in order to respond to the abovementioned problems of pollution.

Prof. Dr. Umberto Lucia
Prof. Dr. Debora Fino
Dr. Giulia Grisolia
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Inventions is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

sustainability
biofuels
bioplastics
bioeconomy
circular economy
waste as a resource
thermoeconomy
exergoeconomy
measurement of sustainability
sustainable industrial processes

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 2593 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Innovative Modernization of Building Heating Systems: The Economy and Ecology of a Hybrid District-Heating Substation

by Katarzyna Stokowiec, Sylwia Wciślik and Dagmara Kotrys-Działak

Inventions 2023, 8(1), 43; https://doi.org/10.3390/inventions8010043 - 03 Feb 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1492

Abstract

Hybrid installations with respect to renewable energy sources are becoming more popular due to the stringent requirements for the energy efficiency of buildings. Therefore, the thermomodernization of a district-heating substation was proposed. Several scenarios, including different renewable energies (an air–water heat pump versus a heat pump with photovoltaics), different investment financing (equity or bank credit), and different purposes for heating demand (central heating or central heating with ventilation and domestic hot water), were analyzed. The economic aspects involved the calculations of the payback time and net present value, while the ecological and environmental characteristics were weighed using emission reduction. Each of the analyses resulted in different proposed modernization methods. However, taking both factors together, the computations proved that the most profitable was the scenario with energy demand for heating, domestic hot water, and ventilation purposes financed by means of bank credit with a thermomodernization bonus. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermodynamic and Technical Analysis for Sustainability (Volume 2))

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17 pages, 5172 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Apparatus Development for the Measurement of the Thermal Conductivity of Geothermal Backfill Materials

by C. Castán-Fernández, G. Marcos-Robredo, M. P. Castro-García, M. A. Rey-Ronco and T. Alonso-Sánchez

Inventions 2023, 8(1), 30; https://doi.org/10.3390/inventions8010030 - 28 Jan 2023

Viewed by 1328

Abstract

This paper describes the design, construction, validation, and calibration of a thermal conductivity measuring apparatus for geothermal backfill materials in the range from 0.13–2.80 W/m·K. The developed apparatus is based on the Transient Hot Wire (THW) method whose mathematical basis is the Infinite Linear Source (ILS) model. The apparatus consists of a nichrome hot wire, an adjustable direct current power supply, a temperature sensor (K-type thermocouple), and a datalogger. For the validation and calibration of the developed apparatus, four standard samples have been used with a known thermal conductivity, to 3.0 W/m·K. Furthermore, the thermal conductivity of four geothermal backfill materials of common use (bentonite, neat cement, cement–sand mortar, and cement–bentonite mortar) has been measured using both the developed apparatus and a commercial meter. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermodynamic and Technical Analysis for Sustainability (Volume 2))

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17 pages, 3621 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Thermodynamic Analysis of the Low-Grade Heat Sources for the Improvement in Efficiency of Oxy–Fuel Combustion Power Cycles

by Ivan Komarov, Vladimir Kindra, Dmitry Pisarev, Dmitriy Kovalev and Dmitriy Lvov

Inventions 2023, 8(1), 16; https://doi.org/10.3390/inventions8010016 - 10 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1391

Abstract

Today, most of the electrical energy in the world is generated by fossil fuel incineration. This causes significant emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere. The noted problem can be solved by switching to power plants with zero emissions, operating in semi-closed cycles, and producing electricity through oxygen combustion of fuel. A significant drawback of most of the known oxygen–fuel cycles is the lack of useful utilization of various sources of low-grade heat, which is especially typical for power plants operating on gasified coal fuel; as a result of the gasification process, a significant amount of excess heat is released into the atmosphere. This paper presents the results of the development and study of oxygen–fuel cycle thermal schemes of increased efficiency with coal gasification. It was determined that the modernization of the scheme using the carbon dioxide Rankine cycle for the utilization of low-grade heat makes it possible to achieve an increase in the net electrical efficiency equal to 1.2%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermodynamic and Technical Analysis for Sustainability (Volume 2))

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17 pages, 3144 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Heat Transfer Investigation during Condensation on the Horizontal Pipe

by Elza R. Zainullina and Vladimir Yu. Mityakov

Inventions 2023, 8(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/inventions8010002 - 22 Dec 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1925

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental investigation of condensation heat transfer by gradient heatmetry. The experiments were carried out during the condensation of saturated steam at atmospheric pressure on the cooled surface of a horizontal pipe. The distributions of the local heat flux, surface temperature, and heat transfer coefficient along the circumference of the horizontal pipe were experimentally determined. The surface average condensation heat flux on the horizontal pipe was about 141.06 kW/m

^{2}

. The proposed method allows us to determine the area of condensate accumulation on the pipe (in the range of azimuth angle

φ

= 150…180

^{\circ}

) in which the heat flux decreases by 34% of the average value. The heat flux per unit area relative uncertainty was about 5.2%. The surface-averaged heat transfer coefficient during condensation on the horizontal pipe was about 5.5 kW/(m

^{2} \times

K), and relative uncertainty was about 9.4%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermodynamic and Technical Analysis for Sustainability (Volume 2))

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14 pages, 12726 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Gradient Heatmetry in a Burners Adjustment

by Pavel G. Bobylev, Andrey V. Pavlov, Vyacheslav M. Proskurin, Yuriy V. Andreyev, Vladimir Yu. Mityakov and Sergey Z. Sapozhnikov

Inventions 2022, 7(4), 122; https://doi.org/10.3390/inventions7040122 - 13 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1512

Abstract

Measuring the heat flux in the furnace of industrial boilers is an urgent task in the power industry. Installing the measuring instruments directly into the furnace is a laborious and complex process. It requires a complete shutdown of the boiler, which incurs economic costs. It is most efficient to use portable probes with measuring insert. The created cooled probe with a heterogeneous gradient heat flux sensor is a unique and versatile tool that allows for the configuration and control of the operation of power boilers. This article compares experimental values with calculation methods. The obtained heat flux per unit area is in good agreement with the theoretical concepts when the values are averaged. The technique used in this paper makese it possible to determine the maximum heat-stressed zones and areas with stable or unstable combustion. The main combustion zones that are typical for the flaring of any fuel are identified. This approach allows us to consider various approaches to heat transfer enhancement during the combustion of both liquid and gaseous fuels. Comparison of experimental results with the data of other authors is not quite exact due to the complexity of the experiment. The study of burners in this configuration has not previously been considered in the literature. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermodynamic and Technical Analysis for Sustainability (Volume 2))

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14 pages, 2389 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research and Development of the Combined Cycle Power Plants Working on Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

by Andrey Rogalev, Nikolay Rogalev, Vladimir Kindra, Ivan Komarov and Olga Zlyvko

Inventions 2022, 7(3), 76; https://doi.org/10.3390/inventions7030076 - 02 Sep 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2906

Abstract

Today, the use of combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants allows the most efficient conversion of the chemical heat of fossil fuels for generating electric power. In turn, the combined cycle efficiency is largely dependent on the working flow temperature upstream of a gas turbine. Thus, the net electric efficiency of advanced foreign-made CCGT plants can exceed 63%, whereas the net efficiency of domestic combined-cycle power plants is still relatively low. A promising method to increase the heat performance of CCGT plants may be their conversion from a steam heat carrier to a carbon dioxide one. In this paper, we have presented the results of thermodynamic research of a promising combined plant with two carbon dioxide heat recovery circuits based on the GTE-160 gas turbine plant (GTP). We have determined the pressure values that are optimal in terms of the net efficiency upstream and downstream of Brayton cycle turbines using supercritical carbon dioxide with recompression (30 and 8.5 MPa) and base version (38 and 8.0 MPa). The percentage of recompression was 32%. Based on the results of mathematical simulation of heat circuits, we have found out that the use of the solutions suggested allows the increase of the power plant’s net efficiency by 2.4% (up to 51.6%). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermodynamic and Technical Analysis for Sustainability (Volume 2))

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17 pages, 5602 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Thermodynamic Analysis of Binary and Trinary Power Cycles Fueled with Methane–Hydrogen Blends

by Vladimir Kindra, Nikolay Rogalev, Andrey Rogalev, Olga Zlyvko and Maksim Oparin

Inventions 2022, 7(3), 73; https://doi.org/10.3390/inventions7030073 - 30 Aug 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1357

Abstract

The development of hydrogen energetics is a possible way to reduce emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere in the production of electricity. Its implementation requires the introduction of energy facilities capable of operating on environmentally safe fuel. At the same time, from a technological point of view, it is easier to implement a gradual shift to the use of hydrogen in power plants by burning methane–hydrogen blends. This paper presents the results of thermodynamic studies of the influence of the chemical composition of the methane–hydrogen blend on the performance of binary and trinary power units. It is shown that an increase in the hydrogen volume fraction in the fuel blend from 0 to 80% leads to a decrease in the Wobbe index by 16% and an increase in the power plant auxiliaries by almost 3.5 times. The use of a trinary CCGT unit with a single-circuit WHB and working fluid water condensation makes it possible to increase the net efficiency by 0.74% compared to a binary CCGT with a double-circuit WHB and a condensate gas heater. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermodynamic and Technical Analysis for Sustainability (Volume 2))

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19 pages, 3473 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Feasibility Study of the CO₂ Regenerator Parameters for Oxy-Fuel Combustion Power Cycle

by Vladimir Kindra, Ivan Komarov, Sergey Osipov, Olga Zlyvko and Igor Maksimov

Inventions 2022, 7(3), 66; https://doi.org/10.3390/inventions7030066 - 29 Jul 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1840

Abstract

The atmosphere carbon dioxide content grows subsequently due to anthropogenic factors. It may be considerably mitigated by the development of thermal power plants with near zero emissions. A promising way is the transition to the semi-closed oxy-fuel combustion power cycles with carbon dioxide and water vapor mixture as a working fluid. However, their wide implementation requires reduction of the metal consumption for the highly efficient regeneration system. This paper discloses the results of feasibility study for the regeneration system of the prospective oxy-fuel combustion power plant. The effect of operating parameters on the cycle energy efficiency, overall dimensions, and the cost of the regenerator was determined. Underheating increase in the regenerator by 1 °C leads to the net efficiency factor drop of the oxy-fuel combustion power cycle by 0.13% at average and increases fuel costs by 0.28%. Increase of pressure drop in the hot channel by 1% leads to efficiency drop by 0.14%. The optimum set of design and operating parameters of the feed heating system has been determined, which ensures the best technical and economic indicators of electrical power generation: the minimum cumulative costs are achieved when underheating in the regenerator is 20 °C and pressure drop in the hot channel is 4%, under the use of S-shaped fins channels. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermodynamic and Technical Analysis for Sustainability (Volume 2))

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18 pages, 2648 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research and Development of Hybrid Power Units Heat Flow Diagrams with Cooled High-Temperature Steam Turbines

by Nikolay Rogalev, Daria Kharlamova, Andrey Vegera, Vladimir Naumov and Timofey Karev

Inventions 2022, 7(3), 64; https://doi.org/10.3390/inventions7030064 - 27 Jul 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1871

Abstract

Fossil fuel thermal power plants account for almost 60% of Russian electricity and heat. Steam turbine units make almost 80% of this amount. The main method for steam turbine unit efficiency improvement is the increase in the initial steam parameters’ temperature and pressure. This reduces fossil fuel consumption and harmful emissions but requires the application of heat-resistant steel. The improvement in steel’s heat resistance leads to a non-linear price increase, and the larger the temperature increase, the more the steel costs. One of the methods of improving efficiency without a significant increase in the capital cost of equipment is an external combustion chamber. These allow an increase in the steam temperature outside the boiler without the need to use heat-resistant alloys for boiler superheaters and steam pipelines between the boiler and the steam turbine. The most promising is hydrogen–oxygen combustion chambers, which produce steam with high purity and parameters. To reduce the cost of high-temperature steam turbines, it is possible to use a cooling system with the supply of a steam coolant to the most thermally stressed elements. According to the calculations, the efficiency reduction of a power unit due to the turbine cooling is 0.6–1.27%. The steam superheating up to 720 °C in external combustion chambers instead of a boiler unit improves the unit efficiency by 0.27%. At the initial steam temperatures of 800 °C, 850 °C, and 900 °C, the unit efficiency reduction caused by cooling is 4.09–5.68%, 7.47–9.73%, and 8.28–10.04%, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermodynamic and Technical Analysis for Sustainability (Volume 2))

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15 pages, 5079 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Methods for Competitiveness Improvement of High-Temperature Steam Turbine Power Plants

by Andrey Rogalev, Nikolay Rogalev, Ivan Komarov, Vladimir Kindra and Sergey Osipov

Inventions 2022, 7(2), 44; https://doi.org/10.3390/inventions7020044 - 16 Jun 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2127

Abstract

The paper is concerned with the problem of the development of high-temperature steam turbine power plants with ultra-supercritical (USC) initial parameters. One of the main disadvantages of the USC power unit’s creation is high price due to the application of expensive heat-resistant materials for boiler, live and reheat steam pipelines in turbines. To solve this problem, the following technical improvements to reduce the application of the heat-resistant materials and equipment metal consumption are proposed: horizontal boiler layout, high temperature steam turbine with a cooling system, oxy-hydrogen combustion chambers, and two-tier low-pressure turbine. The influence of the above-mentioned solutions on the high-temperature steam turbine power plant efficiency was estimated using thermodynamic analysis. The promising equipment design was developed based on the results of numerical and experimental research. The analysis of the proposed solutions’ influence upon the economic parameters of a high-temperature power facility was investigated based on the developed cost analysis model, which included the equipment metal and manufacturing expenses. The introduction of all the mentioned cost reduction methods led to a decrease in the facility’s price by RUB 10.5 billion or 15%. The discounted payback period was reduced from 27.5 to 10 years and the net present value increased by RUB 9.6 billion or 16 times. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermodynamic and Technical Analysis for Sustainability (Volume 2))

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