Feasibility of lowering the condenser's inlet water temperature of a chiller using thermal water storage

A novel approach is proposed for applying cool thermal storage to reduce the on-peak demand of a water-cooled chiller. By charging the store at night via a cooling tower, and using this water to supply the condenser of a chiller during on-peak hours, cooler than normal water is supplied to the chiller. A feasibility study of this system was conducted using TRNSYS — a transient simulation modeling program examining varying capacities of cooling tower and thermal store volumes. These systems were tested using geographic weather data that demonstrated conducive diurnal changes in wet-bulb temperature (T_wet). Results suggest that the use of cool water thermal storage in this way can reduce both on-peak energy demand and on-peak power use by as much as 35%. System optimization is dependent on the thermal storage efficiency, the capacity of the cooling tower, and the diurnal change in T_wet.     

Performance enhancement of a subcooled cold storage air conditioning system

This article experimentally investigates the enhancement of thermal performance for an air conditioning system utilizing a cold storage unit as a subcooler. The cold storage unit is composed of an energy storage tank, liquid-side heat exchanger, suction-side heat exchanger and energy storage material (ESM), water. When the cooling load is lower than the nominal cooling capacity of the system, the cold storage unit can store extra cold energy of the system to subcool the condenser outlet refrigerant. Hence, both the cooling capacity and coefficient of performance (COP) of the system will be increased. This experiment tests the two operation modes: subcooled mode with energy storage and non-subcooled mode without energy storage. The results show that for fixed cooling loads at 3.05 kW, 3.5 kW and 3.95 kW, the COP of the subcooled mode are 16.0%, 15.6% and 14.1% higher than those of the non-subcooled mode, respectively. In the varied cooling load experiments, the COP of the subcooled cold storage air conditioning system is 15.3% higher than the conventional system.     

带饮水机的多功能电冰箱设计

在传统电冰箱的基础上,另独立设置2个保温箱贮存冷热饮用水。冷水制取是在冷水箱中设置蒸发器,将冷水箱中的水制冷。热水制取是在热水箱中设置逆流套管式冷凝器,利用制冷系统的排热量将饮水机中的水加热到一定温度,如温度不够则再通过电加热器,可将饮用水加热至沸腾,冷凝管通热水箱后可采用风冷式和水冷却两种方式相结合。根据设计和理论计算,多功能电冰箱的冷凝器可将饮用水加热到65℃左右,再用电加热器,可将饮用水加热至沸腾,比市场上纯粹用电加热的饮水机可节电22.31W;利用制冷系统将冷水箱中的水制冷,每产生4℃冷饮用水2L比市场上一般的压缩式制冷饮水机可节约大约2.3×105J的能量。     

German central solar heating plants with seasonal heat storage

Central solar heating plants contribute to the reduction of CO₂-emissions and global warming. The combination of central solar heating plants with seasonal heat storage enables high solar fractions of 50% and more. Several pilot central solar heating plants with seasonal heat storage (CSHPSS) built in Germany since 1996 have proven the appropriate operation of these systems and confirmed the high solar fractions.Four different types of seasonal thermal energy stores have been developed, tested and monitored under realistic operation conditions: Hot-water thermal energy store (e.g. in Friedrichshafen), gravel-water thermal energy store (e.g. in Steinfurt-Borghorst), borehole thermal energy store (in Neckarsulm) and aquifer thermal energy store (in Rostock). In this paper, measured heat balances of several German CSHPSS are presented. The different types of thermal energy stores and the affiliated central solar heating plants and district heating systems are described. Their operational characteristics are compared using measured data gained from an extensive monitoring program. Thus long-term operational experiences such as the influence of net return temperatures are shown.     

Design and experimental testing of the performance of an outdoor LiBr/H2O solar thermal absorption cooling system with a cold store

A domestic-scale prototype experimental solar cooling system has been developed based on a LiBr/H₂O absorption system and tested during the 2007 summer and autumn months in Cardiff University, UK. The system consisted of a 12 m² vacuum tube solar collector, a 4.5 kW LiBr/H₂O absorption chiller, a 1000 l cold storage tank and a 6 kW fan coil. The system performance, as well as the performances of the individual components in the system, were evaluated based on the physical measurements of the daily solar radiation, ambient temperature, inlet and outlet fluid temperatures, mass flow rates and electrical consumption by component. The average coefficient of thermal performance (COP) of the system was 0.58, based on the thermal cooling power output per unit of available thermal solar energy from the 12 m² Thermomax DF100 vacuum tube collector on a hot sunny day with average peak insolation of 800 W/m² (between 11 and 13.30 h) and ambient temperature of 24 °C. The system produced an electrical COP of 3.6. Experimental results prove the feasibility of the new concept of cold store at this scale, with chilled water temperatures as low as 7.4 °C, demonstrating its potential use in cooling domestic scale buildings.     

Transcritical CO2 refrigerator and sub‐critical R134a refrigerator: A comparison of the experimental results

This paper describes experiments comparing a commercial available R134a refrigeration plant subjected to a cold store and a prototype R744 (carbon dioxide) system working as a classical ‘split‐systems’ to cool air in residential applications in a transcritical cycle. Both plants are able to develope a refrigeration power equal to 3000 W. The R744 system utilizes aluminium heat exchangers, a semi‐hermetic compressor, a back‐pressure valve and a thermostatic expansion valve. The R134a refrigeration plant operates using a semi‐hermetic reciprocating compressor, an air condenser followed by a liquid receiver, a manifold with two expansion valves, a thermostatic one and a manual one mounted in parallel, and an air cooling evaporator inside the cold store. System performances are compared for two evaporation temperatures varying the temperature of the external air running over the gas‐cooler and over the condenser. The refrigeration load in the cold store is simulated by means of some electrical resistances, whereas the air evaporator of the R744 plant is placed in a very large ambient. The results of the comparison are discussed in terms of temperature of the refrigerants at the compressor discharge line, of refrigerants mass flow rate and of coefficient of performance (COP). The performances measured in terms of COPs show a decrease with respect to the R134a plant working at the same external and internal conditions. Further improvements regarding the components of the cycle are necessary to use in a large‐scale ‘split‐systems’ working with the carbon dioxide. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new zero energy cool chamber with a solar-driven adsorption refrigerator

A new zero energy cool chamber (ZECC) consisting of two cooling systems, a solar-driven adsorption refrigerator and an evaporative cooling system, was developed and then evaluated as low-cost and eco-friendly cooling storage for storing fruit with moderate respiration rates. The solar-driven adsorption refrigerator, consisting of a solar collector containing activated carbon as an adsorbent, a condenser and an evaporator, cools water based by evaporating methanol and adsorbing it on activated carbon, and then makes ice. The methanol adsorbed on the activated carbon is desorbed by applying solar heat. The ice is then used to cool the storage space, which can be done for a long time without the need for electricity. The evaporative cooling system also cools the storage space by evaporating water from the wet walls containing wet filler. The combined use of two cooling systems reduced the average inside temperature of the new ZECC to 12.07 °C compared with an average outside temperature of 31.5 °C and extended the shelf life of tomatoes from 7 to 23 days. These results suggest that the new ZECC proposed here is low-cost and energy-saving and is useful for storing fruit and vegetables in areas where electricity is unavailable.     

Performance analysis of phase-change material storage unit for both heating and cooling of buildings

Utilisation of solar energy and the night ambient (cool) temperatures are the passive ways of heating and cooling of buildings. Intermittent and time-dependent nature of these sources makes thermal energy storage vital for efficient and continuous operation of these heating and cooling techniques. Latent heat thermal energy storage by phase-change materials (PCMs) is preferred over other storage techniques due to its high-energy storage density and isothermal storage process. The current study was aimed to evaluate the performance of the air-based PCM storage unit utilising solar energy and cool ambient night temperatures for comfort heating and cooling of a building in dry-cold and dry-hot climates. The performance of the studied PCM storage unit was maximised when the melting point of the PCM was ～29°C in summer and 21°C during winter season. The appropriate melting point was ～27.5°C for all-the-year-round performance. At lower melting points than 27.5°C, declination in the cooling capacity of the storage unit was more profound as compared to the improvement in the heating capacity. Also, it was concluded that the melting point of the PCM that provided maximum cooling during summer season could be used for winter heating also but not vice versa.     

Performance simulation of solar-boosted ocean thermal energy conversion plant

Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) is a power generation method that utilizes small temperature difference between the warm surface water and cold deep water of the ocean. This paper describes the performance simulation results of an OTEC plant that utilizes not only ocean thermal energy but also solar thermal energy as a heat source. This power generation system was termed SOTEC (solar-boosted ocean thermal energy conversion). In SOTEC, the temperature of warm sea water was boosted by using a typical low-cost solar thermal collector. In order to estimate the potential thermal efficiency and required effective area of a solar collector for a 100-kWe SOTEC plant, first-order modeling and simulation were carried out under the ambient conditions at Kumejima Island in southern part of Japan. The results show that the proposed SOTEC plant can potentially enhance the annual mean net thermal efficiency up to a value that is approximately 1.5 times higher than that of the conventional OTEC plant if a single-glazed flat-plate solar collector of 5000-m² effective area is installed to boost the temperature of warm sea water by 20 K.     

Heat pipe based cold energy storage systems for datacenter energy conservation

In the present paper, design and economics of the novel type of thermal control system for datacenter using heat pipe based cold energy storage has been proposed and discussed. Two types of cold energy storage system namely: ice storage system and cold water storage system are explained and sized for datacenter with heat output capacity of 8800 kW. Basically, the cold energy storage will help to reduce the chiller running time that will save electricity related cost and decrease greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the electricity generation from non-renewable sources. The proposed cold energy storage system can be retrofit or connected in the existing datacenter facilities without major design changes. Out of the two proposed systems, ice based cold energy storage system is mainly recommended for datacenters which are located in very cold locations and therefore can offer long term seasonal storage of cold energy within reasonable cost. One of the potential application domains for ice based cold energy storage system using heat pipes is the emergency backup system for datacenter. Water based cold energy storage system provides more compact size with short term storage (hours to days) and is potential for datacenters located in areas with yearly average temperature below the permissible cooling water temperature (∼25 °C). The aforesaid cold energy storage systems were sized on the basis of metrological conditions in Poughkeepsie, New York. As an outcome of the thermal and cost analysis, water based cold energy storage system with cooling capability to handle 60% of datacenter yearly heat load will provide an optimum system size with minimum payback period of 3.5 years. Water based cold energy storage system using heat pipes can be essentially used as precooler for chiller. Preliminary results obtained from the experimental system to test the capability of heat pipe based cold energy storage system have provided satisfactory outcomes and validated the proposed system concept.     

Influence of cooling water temperature on the efficiency of a pressurized‐water reactor nuclear‐power plant

In this study, the influence of the cooling water temperature on the thermal efficiency of a conceptual pressurized‐water reactor nuclear‐power plant is studied through an energy analysis based on the first law of thermodynamics to gain some new insights into the plant performance. The change in the cooling water temperature can be experienced due to the seasonal changes in climatic conditions at plant site. It can also come into the question of design processes for the plant site selection. In the analysis, it is considered that the condenser vacuum varies with the temperature of cooling water extracted from environment into the condenser. The main findings of the paper is that the impact of 1°C increase in temperature of the coolant extracted from environment is predicted to yield a decrease of ～0.45 and ～0.12% in the power output and the thermal efficiency of the pressurized‐water reactor nuclear‐power plant considered, respectively. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An estimation of the performance limits and improvement of dry cooling on trough solar thermal plants

A study is reported of the potential performance of dry cooling on power generation. This is done in the context of a generic trough solar thermal power plant. The commercial power plant analysis code GateCycle is applied for this purpose. This code is used to estimate typical performance of both wet and dry cooling options. Then it is configured to estimate the performance of ideal wet and dry cooling options. The latter are defined as the condenser temperature being at the ambient wet bulb temperature or dry bulb temperature, respectively. Yearly power production of a solar power plant located in Las Vegas is presented for each of the cooling options. To move further toward approaching the possible improvement in dry cooling, the impact of a high-performance heat exchanger surface is evaluated. It is found that higher efficiency generation compared to current dry cooling designs is definitely possible. In fact the performance of these types of systems can approach that of wet cooling system units.     

太阳能烟囱制冷系统的研究

通过分析制冷系统和太阳能烟囱热气流发电系统的技术和特点,提出了太阳能烟囱制冷系统.将太阳能烟囱系统与制冷系统相结合进行制冷,可实现制冷不用电.该系统由烟囱、集热棚、蓄热层、涡轮机、开启式制冷压缩机、冷凝器和变速器等组成.介绍了太阳能烟囱制冷系统的结构特点、工作原理以及系统相关参数的计算方法.分析结果表明,太阳能烟囱制冷系统结构简单,运行维护方便,制冷不用电,无污染,具有良好的环境效应,可根据环境温度改变压缩机运行转速调节供冷负荷,能有效解决热带及沙漠地区的供冷及供电问题.     

An Efficient Summer Operation Scheme for a Thermal Power Plant Air Cooling System based on Electric Peak Shaving

We proposed a novel efficient operation scheme for a thermal power plant’s air-cooling system based on peak shaving, in order to cope with high ambient temperature in summer. We introduced an absorptiongeneration equipment with water/lithium working pairs into the air cooled condenser(ACC) to reconstruct the traditional thermal power plant, and established a dynamic thermodynamic model adopting Ebsilon code. We studied the thermodynamic performance variation of the reconstructed thermal power plant throughout a 24-hour cycle and found that the fluctuation ratio of the turbine back pressure decreased to 6% from 78%, which is beneficial for the stable and safe operation of the electric power system. The thermal performance improvement benefited from the exploitation of the heat transfer potential of ACC, which realized via cold duty schedule throughout the day, under different ambient temperature conditions. In this system, the generated power was higher at relatively high ambient temperature than that at relatively low ambient temperature, which solved the electricity demand-supply imbalance problem under high ambient temperature. Finally, the same optimization effects for power thermal plants with an indirect air-cooling system were obtained using the same operation scheme.     

Development of an integrated membrane condenser system with LNG cold energy for water recovery from humid flue gases in power plants

This paper investigates a detailed thermodynamic analysis of a modular-type membrane condenser system where a cooler or condenser is connected in series upstream of the membrane condenser module. A coolant circulates inside the cooler/condenser to cool down the industrial flue gas up to saturation conditions. The analysis covers water recovery rate and energy requirement for different combinations of flue gas humidity, flow rate, and temperature. Additionally, a case study is included which considers a practical industrial exhaust flue gas where the constituents of the flue gas with volumetric ratio and the feed parameters are referred from the literature. The case study investigated the utilization of cold energy obtained by LNG regasification facility as a cooling power source for the water vapor recovery process. A detailed heat transfer analysis based on the heat exchanger model is performed to determine the required mass flow rate of cooling water and natural gas. It is concluded that, the water self-sufficiency of a power plant can be achieved if the mass flow rate of the −50 °C natural gas which is entering the membrane condenser is kept around 0.3 kg s⁻¹ for every 1  kg s⁻¹ flow rate of the 168 °C flue gas.     

Performance review of a novel combined thermoelectric power generation and water desalination system

A novel combined thermoelectric power generation and water desalination system is described with a system schematic. The proposed system utilises low grade thermal energy to heat thermoelectric generators for power generation and water desalination. A theoretical analysis presents the governing equations to estimate the systems performance characteristics combined with experimental validation. Experimental set-up consists of an electric heat source, thermoelectric modules, heat pipes, a heat sink and an evaporator vessel. Four heat pipes are embedded in a heat spreader block to passively cool the bottom side of the thermoelectric cells. The condenser of these four heat pipes is immersed in a pool of saline water stored in an evaporation vessel which is maintained at sub-atmospheric pressure. The liquid to vapour phase change cooling method achieve low saturation temperature and offers a high heat transfer coefficient for the cooling of the thermoelectric generators. At the same time this method utilises the low temperature heat extracted from the cold side of the thermoelectric generator for water desalination. It was observed that at low saturation temperatures greater heat flux could be supplied to the thermoelectric generators with less heat losses to the atmosphere.     

Thermodynamic performance assessment of ocean thermal energy conversion based hydrogen production and liquefaction process

In the proposed study, the thermodynamic performance assessment of ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) based hydrogen generation and liquefaction system are evaluated. In this context, the energetic and exergetic analyses of integrated system are conducted for multigeneration. This integrated process is consisted of the heat exchangers, turbine, condenser, pumps, solar collector system, hot storage tank, cold storage tank and proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer. In addition to that, the impacts of different design indicators and reference ambient parameters on the exergetic performance and exergy destruction rate of OTEC based hydrogen production system are analyzed. The energetic and exergetic efficiencies of integrated system are founded as 43.49% and 36.49%, respectively.     

Feasibility study of a district energy system with seasonal water thermal storage

In this paper, performance of three types of district heating/cooling and hot water supply system with natural and unused energy utilization were examined by using system simulation. An area zoned for both commercial and residential buildings was chosen for this study. The first system is the conventional system in which an electric driven turbo chiller and a gas-fired boiler are installed as the heat source. This is considered as the reference system. Two alternative systems utilize waste heat from space cooling and heating. One is designed based on short-term heat recovery and the other employs the concept of an annual cycle energy system (i.e. seasonal heat recovery). All of the three systems use solar thermal energy for hot water supply to the residential zone. The index for evaluation is the coefficient of performance of the overall system, based on primary energy. As a result, it was found that the seasonal storage system could decrease the energy consumption by about 26% and the short-term heat recovery system could decrease it by about 16% compared with the reference system. In designing the heat recovery system, a balance of cooling/heating demand is an important factor. Therefore a sensitivity analysis of performance of the overall system and the seasonal thermal storage for several load patterns was performed. From these results, it was found that if the amount of heating/cooling demand were well balanced, an improvement of energy performance could be achieved and the utilization factor of the seasonal tank would become higher. Furthermore, the volume of the seasonal storage tank could be reduced.     

A methodology to assess suitability of a site for small scale wet and dry CSP systems

This study presents a methodology to assess suitability of a site for small scale concentrated solar power (CSP) systems for its energy conversion efficiency and make‐up water requirement. Energy conversion efficiency of CSPs relies not only on the level of direct solar radiation but also on the performance of the cooling system. Regions with high solar potential have to deal with heat rejection at elevated temperatures which causes reduced energy conversion efficiencies due to high condenser temperatures. It is desirable to utilize wet cooling systems as they can achieve temperatures lower than the dry bulb temperature by evaporative cooling. On the other hand, such regions usually lack water resources which deteriorate the sustainable nature of CSP applications. This study combines various available models for both solar resource estimation and cooling systems' performance considering (i) the influence of ambient temperatures, and (ii) the influence of humidity levels. These models are integrated together to analyze the use of dry or wet cooling systems in terms of overall energy output and water consumption at a selected site in northern Cyprus. The model inputs consist of only annual hourly surface weather data and the location of the site of interest. The results show that dry cooling unit at northern Cyprus is capable of saving water about 18.7 ton/MWh while it produces 27% less energy compared to the wet cooling alternative for the representative annual weather data. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A highly-advanced solar house with solar thermal and sky radiation cooling

A unique energy-independent house (‘HARBEMAN house’; HARmony BEtween Man And Nature) incorporating solar thermal, underground coolers, sky radiation cooling, photovoltaic electricity generation and rain-water collection was built in Sendai (latitude; 38° 17′00″ north and longitude; 140° 50′14″ east), Japan during July, 1996. The average solar energy received on a horizontal surface there in January is 7900 kJ/m²/day. This paper reports the experimental results since September 1996 to date. The annual variations of water temperature in the underground main tank, heating /cooling/domestic hot water demands, collected and emitted heats by solar collector and sky radiator, were measured. The paper also clarifies the method of computer simulation results for the HARBEMAN house and its results compared with the annual experimental data. The proposed HARBEMAN house, which meets almost all its energy demands, including space heating and cooling, domestic hot water, electricity generated by photovoltaic cell and rainwater for standard Japanese homes. The proposed system has two operational modes: (i) a long-term thermal energy storage mode extending from September to March and (ii) a long-term cool storage mode extending from April to August. The system is intended to utilize as little energy as possible to collect and emit the heat. This paper also clarifies the primary energy consumption, the external costs (externalities) and the means for the reduction of carbon-dioxide (CO₂) emissions. The primary-energy consumption and carbon-dioxide emissions of the proposed house are only one-tenth of those of the conventional standard house. Moreover, the thermal performance of this house will be compared with the results of the IEA solar low-energy house TASK 13. Finally, this paper validates the external costs of this house, which have been intensively discussed in recent years in European countries. The present energy-sufficient house will be attempting in 21st century to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which will be one of the key factors for mitigating global warming.