Life cycle assessment of Irish district heating systems: a comparison of waste heat pump, biomass-based and conventional gas boiler

District heating systems are a way to integrate renewable energies into the heating sector, with the primary aim of decarbonizing this final use. In such systems, renewable energy sources are centrally managed with cutting-edge technological equipment, efficient maintenance rates and service guarantees. Both the decarbonization effect and the centralization lead to environmental benefits, which can go beyond the climate change indicator. In this study, life cycle assessment was used to assess the environmental sustainability of district heating solutions compared to standalones. The study aimed to examine a diverse set of options for large-scale district heating systems across Europe and to compare them to different standalone solutions. Eight technologies (five district-level and three standalone solutions) were analyzed in two densities of habitats and four areas of Europe. This study aimed to understand the drivers of district heating environmental performance and to provide guidelines for accounting said performance. The analysis showed better performance for district heating scenarios compared to isotechnology standalones for every environmental impact category: the climate change impact category were reduced from 5 to 90%, while respiratory inorganics were reduced from 45 to 64%, depending on the considered climatic area. This statement was true under key parameters, both technical and methodological—efficiencies and complement rates, but also the neutral carbon principle for biomass energy accounting and allocation rules.

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Life Cycle Assessment of Irish District Heating Systems: A Comparison of Waste Heat Pump, Biomass-Based and Conventional Gas Boiler

10.21203/rs.3.rs-462110/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Conall Mahon ◽

Maneesh Kumar Mediboyina ◽

Donna Gartland ◽

Fionnuala Murphy

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Natural Gas ◽

Heat Pump ◽

Waste Heat ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

District Heating ◽

Heating System ◽

District Heating System ◽

Ghg Reduction

Abstract This paper presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) of heat supply scenarios for the replacement of fossil-based energy systems through a case study focusing on an existing gas-fired boiler supplying heat for buildings located in Tallaght, Ireland. The three replacement systems considered are a waste heat fed heat pump district heating system (WHP-DH), a biomass CHP plant district heating system (BCHP-DH), and an individual gas boiler system (GB). The study found that both DH systems have lower environmental impact than the GB, with the BCHP-DH being superior to WHP-DH. However, using 2030 electricity data showed almost similar overall impacts for both the DH systems. Human toxicity potential (HTP) was highest among all impact categories studied and was due to the large additional infrastructure requirement for all three systems. Whereas the other impacts; Global warming (GWP), Fossil fuel depletion (FFD) and Eutrophication (EP), were due to involving usage of natural gas and electricity in use phase. The BCHP-DH showed reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 45% and FFD by 73% compared to the GB system. Using 2030 electricity data, the WHP-DH decreased GHG emissions by 42% and FFD by 47%. Further, replacing biomethane with the natural gas in the DH systems decreased GWP by at least 11.4%. The present study concludes that the environmental benefit of a DH system is largely dependent on the carbon intensity of the electricity it uses, thus recommending the DH systems for large scale retrofitting schemes in Ireland to reach Europe’s 2030 GHG reduction targets.

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The development of an algorithm based on dynamic programming for optimization of tree-like energy pipeline system

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/202021902005 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 219 ◽

pp. 02005

Author(s):

Valery Stennikov ◽

Dmitry Sokolov ◽

Evgeny Barakhtenko

Keyword(s):

Dynamic Programming ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Design Optimization ◽

District Heating ◽

Computational Procedure ◽

Pipeline System ◽

Heating Systems ◽

Life Cycle Design ◽

District Heating Systems ◽

Original Approach

The problem of optimizing the transmission capacity of a pipeline network is important for ensuring its operability. The problem arises at different stages of the network life cycle (design, optimization, development). The problem is to determine the diameters of the pipelines, the locations of the pumps and the heads on them, the locations of the regulators (flow and pressure) and their parameters. The article proposes a new algorithm based on dynamic programming, which implements an original approach to organizing a computational procedure. The general principles of the algorithm and the content of its steps do not depend on the purpose of the network and the composition of its equipment. The algorithm is versatile and allows one to optimize networks for various purposes. The proposed algorithm is implemented in the IRNET software. On its basis, calculations were made for the development of real district heating systems.

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Economic feasibility of booster heat pumps in heat pump-based district heating systems

Energy ◽

10.1016/j.energy.2018.05.076 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 155 ◽

pp. 921-929 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Poul Alberg Østergaard ◽

Anders N. Andersen

Keyword(s):

Heat Pump ◽

District Heating ◽

Heat Pumps ◽

Economic Feasibility ◽

Heating Systems ◽

District Heating Systems

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Techno-economic analysis of implementing thermal storage for peak load shaving in a campus district heating system with waste heat from the data centre

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/202124609003 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 246 ◽

pp. 09003

Author(s):

Haoran Li ◽

Juan Hou ◽

Yuemin Ding ◽

Natasa Nord

Keyword(s):

Waste Heat ◽

Peak Load ◽

District Heating ◽

Thermal Storage ◽

Heating System ◽

Water Tank ◽

District Heating System ◽

Heating Systems ◽

Heat Demand ◽

District Heating Systems

Peak load has significant impacts on the economic and environmental performance of district heating systems. Future sustainable district heating systems will integrate thermal storages and renewables to shave their peak heat demand from traditional heat sources. This article analysed the techno-economic potential of implementing thermal storage for peak load shaving, especially for the district heating systems with waste heat recovery. A campus district heating system in Norway was chosen as the case study. The system takes advantage of the waste heat from the campus data centre. Currently, about 20% of the heating bill is paid for the peak load, and a mismatch between the available waste heat and heat demand was detected. The results showed that introducing water tank thermal storage brought significant effects on peak load shaving and waste heat recovery. Those effects saved up to 112 000 EUR heating bills annually, and the heating bill paid for the peak load could be reduced by 15%. Meanwhile, with the optimal sizing and operation, the payback period of the water tank could be decreased to 13 years. Findings from this study might help the heat users to evaluate the economic feasibility of introducing thermal storage.

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