Thermal performance of a solar-assisted heat pump drying system with thermal energy storage tank and heat recovery unit

Thermal performance parameters for a solar-assisted heat pump (SAHP) drying system with underground thermal energy storage (TES) tank and heat recovery unit (HRU) are investigated in this study. The SAHP drying system is made up of a drying unit, a heat pump, flat plate solar collectors, an underground TES tank, and HRU. An analytical model is developed to obtain the performance parameters of the drying system by using the solution of heat transfer problem around the TES tank and energy expressions for other components of the drying system. These parameters are coefficient of performances for the heat pump (COP) and system (COPs), specific moisture evaporation rate (SMER), temperature of water in the TES tank, and energy fractions for energy charging and extraction from the system. A MATLAB program has been prepared using the expressions for the drying system. The obtained results for COP, COPs, and SMER are 5.55, 5.28, and 9.25, respectively, by using wheat mass flow rate of 100 kg h⁻¹, Carnot efficiency of 40%, collector area of 100 m², and TES tank volume of 300 m³ when the system attains periodic operation duration in fifth year onwards for 10 years of operation. Annual energy saving is 21.4% in comparison with the same system without using HRU for the same input data.     

Solar multi-mode heating system based on latent heat thermal energy storage and its application

为克服太阳能间断性和不稳定性的缺点进而实现太阳能集热与采暖的能量供需调节和全天候连续供热,提出了基于相变储热的太阳能多模式采暖方法（太阳能集热直接采暖、太阳能集热采暖+相变储热、太阳能相变储热采暖）,并在西藏林芝市某建筑搭建了太阳能与相变储热相结合的采暖系统,该系统可根据太阳能集热温度和外界供热需求实现太阳能多模式采暖的自动控制和自动运行。实验研究表明：在西藏地区采用真空管太阳能集热器可以和中低温相变储热器很好地结合,白天储热器在储热过程中平均储热功率为10.63 kW,储热量达到92.67 kW·h,相变平台明显;晚上储热器在放热过程中供热量达85.23 kW·h,放热功率和放热温度平稳,储放热效率达92%,其储热密度是传统水箱的3.6倍,可连续供热时间长达10 h,从而实现了基于相变储热的太阳能全天候连续供热,相关研究结果对我国西藏地区实施太阳能采暖具有一定的指导作用。     

Experimental investigation on heat recovery from diesel engine exhaust using finned shell and tube heat exchanger and thermal storage system

The exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine carries away about 30% of the heat of combustion. The energy available in the exit stream of many energy conversion devices goes as waste, if not utilized properly. The major technical constraint that prevents successful implementation of waste heat recovery is due to its intermittent and time mismatched demand and availability of energy. In the present work, a shell and finned tube heat exchanger integrated with an IC engine setup to extract heat from the exhaust gas and a thermal energy storage tank used to store the excess energy available is investigated in detail. A combined sensible and latent heat storage system is designed, fabricated and tested for thermal energy storage using cylindrical phase change material (PCM) capsules. The performance of the engine with and without heat exchanger is evaluated. It is found that nearly 10–15% of fuel power is stored as heat in the combined storage system, which is available at reasonably higher temperature for suitable application. The performance parameters pertaining to the heat exchanger and the storage tank such as amount of heat recovered, heat lost, charging rate, charging efficiency and percentage energy saved are evaluated and reported in this paper.     

带相变蓄热小型热泵冷凝热回收性能实验研究

通过实验初步研究了采用光管螺旋相变蓄热器替代传统水蓄热器的小型家用热泵冷凝热回收系统的性能,对相变蓄热和水蓄热的冷凝热回收过程进行了对比实验,分析并得到了两类冷凝热回收系统的性能参数及综合能效系数。实验数据表明:与水蓄热系统相比,光管螺旋相变蓄热器体积减小,并且系统运行较传统水蓄热工况下更加平稳,但存在传热效果较差、热回收率低的缺点,回收率仅为15%,系统综合能效系数2.9。可知,相变蓄热器的内部结构对系统综合能效系数影响很大。     

Experimental investigation of thermal performance of a solar assisted heat pump system with an energy storage

An experimental solar assisted heat pump space heating system with a daily energy storage tank is designed and constructed, and its thermal performance is investigated. The heating system basically consists of flat plate solar collectors, a heat pump, a cylindrical storage tank, measuring units, and a heating room located in Gaziantep, Turkey (37.1°N). All measurements are automatically collected as a function of time by means of a measurement chain feeding to a data logger in combination with a PC. Hourly and daily variations of solar radiation, collector performance, coefficient of performance of the heat pump (COP_HP), and that of the overall system (COP_S) are calculated to evaluate the system performance. The effects of climatic conditions and certain operating parameters on the system performance parameters are investigated. COP_HP is about 2.5 for a lower storage temperature at the end of a cloudy day and it is about 3.5 for a higher storage temperature at the end of a sunny day, and it fluctuates between these values in other times. Also, COP_S turns out to be about 15–20% lower than COP_HP. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparative study on adsorbent characteristics for adsorption thermal energy storage system

The adsorption performance of the thermal energy storage (TES) system changes depending on the material properties of the adsorbent itself, but the change of the hardware structure can also substantially change the adsorption characteristics. In this study, a laboratory‐scale adsorption‐based TES system was constructed, and the adsorption performance of three adsorbents was evaluated in the same system to compare the adsorption performance between adsorbents. The adsorption characteristics of silica gel, zeolite 13X, and 4A, which are the most preferred adsorbents in the physical adsorption‐based TES system, were selected for evaluation. Experiments with each adsorbent were performed, including heat recovery to evaluate the heat transfer effect and the amount of heat recoverable in the actual TES system. Experimental results have identified several key characteristics of the adsorption and performance of each adsorbent in the TES system, as well as operating parameters that determine the influence of adsorption performance on the TES system. The actual energy storage density of the adsorbent is affected not only by the enthalpy of adsorption of the material itself but also by other factors. These factors include the difference in thermal conductivity that causes a difference in temperature distribution and the magnitude of mass transfer resistance due to the shape of the adsorbent particle and the actual TES system reactor structure. If the reaction heat generated during the adsorption reaction cannot be effectively released, the adsorption performance is significantly lowered due to the increased temperature of the reactor inside. This phenomenon was commonly observed in adsorbents examined in the present study. The uptake amount, X [g/g], was increased by allowing the inside of the reactor to be maintained at a lower temperature through heat recovery. In case of silica gel, the temperature rise during adsorption reaction is not high due to the difference of isotherm characteristics compared with zeolites, but it is possible to absorb more amount of adsorbate and to recover heat for a longer time. The energy storage density is affected by the temperature increase effect and the uptake amount of adsorbate during the adsorption reaction. The experimental results show that the energy storage density of zeolite 13X is 15% and 28.7% higher than that of silica gel and 4A, respectively, and the temperature rise due to heat generation during adsorption reaction is also high, which is advantageous in adsorption TES system performance.     

Design and analysis of a solar tower power plant integrated with thermal energy storage system for cogeneration

In the current study, a solar tower–based energy system integrated with a thermal energy storage option is offered to supply both the electricity and freshwater through distillation and reverse osmosis technologies. A high‐temperature thermal energy storage subsystem using molten salt is considered for the effective and efficient operation of the integrated system. The molten salt is heated up to 565°C through passing the solar tower. The thermal energy storage tanks are designed to store heat up to 12 hours. The temperature variations in the storage tanks are studied and compared accordingly for evaluation. The effect of operating temperatures on the freshwater production and overall system efficiency is determined. About 24.46 MW electricity is generated in the steam turbine under sunny conditions. Furthermore, the storage subsystem stores heat during sunny hours to utilize later in cloudy hours and night time. The produced power decreases to 20.17 MW in discharging hours due to temperature decrease in the tank. The electricity generated by the system is then used to produce freshwater through the reverse osmosis units and also to supply electricity for the residential use. A total flowrate of 240.02 kg/s freshwater is obtained by distillation and reverse osmosis subsystems.     

Integral-type solar-assisted heat pump water heater

An integral-type solar-assisted heat pump water heater (ISAHP) is designed and tested in the present study. The storage tank and the Rankine cycle unit are integrated together to make a more compact size. A thermosyphon loop is used to transfer the heat from the condenser to the water storage tank. The highest COP obtained in the tests is 3.83.     

反渗透海水淡化系统中的能量回收技术及装置研究进展

反渗透法是海水淡化的主要方法之一，能量回收是降低其淡化成本的主要手段。综合介绍了反渗透海水淡化系统中的主要能量回收技术，并对相应的能量回收装置的原理、性能以及应用等做了介绍和比较。     

Technological aspects of advancement in low-capacity solar thermal desalination units

Drinking water of acceptable quality has become a scarce commodity. The standard high-capacity desalination methods such as multi-stage flash evaporation and multi-effect evaporation, vapour compression and reverse osmosis are reliable in the range of about 100–500,000 m³/day fresh-water productions. However, the wide-scale implementations of these methods face numerous technological, economic and political barriers and these methods are not used in decentralised regions with a poor infrastructure due to their permanent need of qualified maintenance and electricity supply. In this paper, various low-capacity solar thermal desalination systems, with fresh-water output production in the range of 10–150 l/day for the use in rural areas, are reviewed and classified based on five technological aspects such as the development of the technology of the systems, the applicability of high-capacity thermal desalination technologies, the enhancement of solar heat collectors, the hybridisation of thermal desalination technologies and heat recovery processes. Most of the reviewed systems are in the research stage and have not cleared economic feasibility such as the price per cubic metre of water that may stimulate the decision-maker to direct these studies into the actual commercial applications to find a solution to the water scarcity problem in isolated and remote areas. Although many of the developed systems have several novel and valuable features, more efforts are required for further investigating more efficient, economic and applicable solar energy-driven low-capacity desalination systems.     

Humidification-dehumidification water desalination system integrated with multiple evaporators/condensers heat pump unit

A study of the performance enhancement of a humidification-dehumidification (HDH) system integrated with multiple evaporators/condensers heat pump (HP) and heat recovery units is presented. The HP unit is intended to deliver necessary heating for humidifier and heating/cooling for dehumidifier in a new strategy. The proposed integrated system is capable to produce fresh water from the HDH system and HP unit. Four different configurations of the system formed by excluding/adding condensers and evaporators were investigated; mode-A (seawater precooling and reheating), mode-B (seawater reheating), mode-C (seawater precooling and humid air reheating), and mode-D (humid air reheating). Fresh water productivity, fresh water ratio, system water recovery, gain output ratio, specific work consumption, and fresh water production cost were used as performance measuring parameters of the system. The influences of operating parameters on the system performance were analytically studied and experimentally validated for different system configurations. The results indicate the enhancement of the systems' performance with increasing ambient air temperature and humidity, seawater and air flow rates, and with decreasing seawater temperature. The system configuration of mode-B shows the best performance with fresh water production of 61.94 kg/h and gain output ratio of 4.97 which are higher than those of the other configurations by 13%, 55%, 85% and 11%, 48%, and 75%, respectively. Comparisons of the proposed configurations with the other HDH desalination systems available in the literature were presented and better performance of the proposed systems was noticed.     

能量地下蓄存及其传热效能分析

储能技术是实现能源可再生化和高效利用的一种有效途径,提高其综合利用率和实现能源的实时补充。着重论述地下蓄能技术发展状况和面临的研究问题,并通过实验和模拟计算,对蓄能的传热作用进行了分析和探讨,指出蓄能改变地下蓄能体的能位,并表现为蓄能体温度和分布的变化,这种变化随时间而改变。建议进一步开展完善地下蓄能理论研究,推动中国地下蓄能技术的发展。     

Characteristics of medium deep borehole thermal energy storage

Seasonal energy storage is an important component to cope with the challenges resulting from fluctuating renewable energy sources and the corresponding mismatch of energy demand and supply. The storage of heat via medium deep borehole heat exchangers is a new approach in the field of Borehole Thermal Energy Storage. In contrast to conventional borehole storages, fewer, but deeper borehole heat exchangers tap into the subsurface, which serves as the storage medium. As a result, the thermal impact on shallow aquifers is strongly reduced mitigating negative effects on the drinking water quality. Furthermore, less surface area is required. However, there are no operational experiences, as the concept has not been put into practice so far. In this study, more than 250 different numerical storage models are compared. The influence of the characteristic design parameters on the storage system's behaviour and performance is analysed by variation of parameters like borefield layout, fluid inlet temperatures and properties of the reservoir rocks. The results indicate that especially larger systems have a high potential for efficient seasonal heat storage. Several GWh of thermal energy can be stored during summertime and extracted during the heating period with a high recovery rate of up to 83%. Medium deep borehole heat exchanger arrays are suitable thermal storages for fluctuating renewable energy sources and waste heat from industrial processes. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A review on theory and application of chemical heat pump in thermal energy storage

化学热泵是高效,环保的新型能源技术,在余热回收,储热,可再生能源等领域具有广泛的应用前景.本文综述了化学热泵系统的一般理论和在储热技术中的应用,介绍了化学热泵系统技术在反应与工质对选择,传热强化以及工业研究与应用等方面的发展.     

Comparison of energy and exergy efficiencies of an underground solar thermal storage system

In this experimental study, solar energy was stored daily using the volcanic material with the sensible heat technique. The external heat collection unit consisted of 27 m² of south‐facing solar air collectors mounted at a 55° tilt angle. The dimensions of the packed‐bed heat storage unit were 6 × 2 × 0.6 m deep. The packed‐bed heat storage unit was built under the soil. The heat storage unit was filled with 6480 kg of volcanic material. Energy and exergy analyses were applied in order to evaluate the system efficiency. During the charging periods, the average daily rates of thermal energy and exergy stored in the heat storage unit were 1242 and 36.33 W, respectively. Since the rate of exergy depends on the temperature of the heat transfer fluid and surrounding, the rate of exergy increased as the difference between the inlet and outlet temperatures of the heat transfer fluid increased during the charging periods. It was found that the average daily net energy and exergy efficiencies in the charging periods were 39.7 and 2.03%, respectively. The average daily net energy efficiency of the heat storage system remained nearly constant during the charging periods. The maximum energy and exergy efficiencies of the heat storage system were 52.9 and 4.9%, respectively. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigation of thermal performance of a ground coupled heat pump system with a cylindrical energy storage tank

An analytical and computational model for a solar assisted heat pump heating system with an underground seasonal cylindrical storage tank is developed. The heating system consists of flat plate solar collectors, an underground cylindrical storage tank, a heat pump and a house to be heated during winter season. Analytical solution of transient field problem outside the storage tank is obtained by the application of complex finite Fourier transform and finite integral transform techniques. Three expressions for the heat pump, space heat requirement during the winter season and available solar energy are coupled with the solution of the transient temperature field problem. The analytical solution presented can be utilized to determine the annual variation of water temperature in the cylindrical store, transient earth temperature field surrounding the store and annual periodic performance of the heating system. A computer simulation program is developed to evaluate the annual periodic water and earth temperatures and system performance parameters based on the analytical solution. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical simulation of the hydrogen storage with reaction heat recovery using metal hydride in the totalized hydrogen energy utilization system

Numerical simulation of a hydrogen storage tank of a Totalized Hydrogen Energy Utilization System (THEUS) for application to commercial buildings was done to verify the practicality of THEUS. THEUS consists of a fuel cell, water electrolyzer, hydrogen storage tank and their auxiliary machinery. The hydrogen storage tanks with metal hydrides for load leveling have been previously experimentally investigated as an important element of THEUS. A hydrogen storage tank with 50 kg AB5 type metal hydride was assembled to investigate the hydrogen-absorbing/desorbing process, which is exothermic/endothermic process. The goal of this tank is to recover the cold heat of the endothermic process for air conditioning, and thus improve the efficiency of THEUS. To verify the practical effectiveness of this improved system, we developed a numerical simulation code of hydrogen storage tank with metal hydride. The code was validated by comparing its results with experimental results. In this code the specific heat value of the upper and lower flanges of the hydrogen storage tank was adjusted to be equal to the thermal capacity of the entire tank. The simulation results reproduce well the experimental results.     

Current status of ground source heat pumps and underground thermal energy storage in Europe

Geothermal Heat Pumps, or Ground Coupled Heat Pumps (GCHP), are systems combining a heat pump with a ground heat exchanger (closed loop systems), or fed by ground water from a well (open loop systems). They use the earth as a heat source when operating in heating mode, with a fluid (usually water or a water–antifreeze mixture) as the medium that transfers the heat from the earth to the evaporator of the heat pump, thus utilising geothermal energy. In cooling mode, they use the earth as a heat sink. With Borehole Heat Exchangers (BHE), geothermal heat pumps can offer both heating and cooling at virtually any location, with great flexibility to meet any demands. More than 20 years of R&D focusing on BHE in Europe has resulted in a well-established concept of sustainability for this technology, as well as sound design and installation criteria. Recent developments are the Thermal Response Test, which allows in-situ-determination of ground thermal properties for design purposes, and thermally enhanced grouting materials to reduce borehole thermal resistance. For cooling purposes, but also for the storage of solar or waste heat, the concept of underground thermal energy storage (UTES) could prove successful. Systems can be either open (aquifer storage) or can use BHE (borehole storage). Whereas cold storage is already established on the market, heat storage, and, in particular, high temperature heat storage (> 50 °C) is still in the demonstration phase. Despite the fact that geothermal heat pumps have been in use for over 50 years now (the first were in the USA), market penetration of this technology is still in its infancy, with fossil fuels dominating the space heating market and air-to-air heat pumps that of space cooling. In Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France and the USA, large numbers of geothermal heat pumps are already operational, and installation guidelines, quality control and contractor certification are now major issues of debate.     

Exploring storage capacity in thermal energy storage using a combination of solid and liquid desiccant sorption media for water sorption

The combination of solid and liquid sorption media for thermal energy storage has been explored in order to improve heat flow as well as storage capacity with respect to the incomplete space-filling of closely packed solid sorbents. Three scenarios were elucidated from which in two cases the liquid/solid combinations perform worse than the neat liquid or solid and a third scenario where the combination performs better than the separate sorbents. We identified a mixture of zeolite 13XBF with tripropylene glycol as an example for such a superior combination showing a similar adsorption curve over time as the pure zeolite or glycol. After complete saturation of the zeolite in the mixture, glycol continues to absorb water, thereby increasing the overall capacity of the system. We identified a low direct attractive interaction (dipolar and dispersive) of the liquid sorbent (tripropylene glycol) with the solid sorbent (zeolite 13XBF) as a prerequisite for improved performance.