Modeling and Experiments on Fast Response Thermoelectric Co-Generation for Intermittent Renewable Energy Sources

Author(s):  
Kazuaki Yazawa ◽  
Vernon K. Wong ◽  
Morten Boje Blarke ◽  
Ali Shakouri

We present preliminary proof-of-concept experimental results on a thermoelectric heat pump system. In our previous work we proposed a thermal battery which would benefit from state-of-the-art heat pumps in order to provide useful cooling and heating. The preliminary analysis demonstrated the benefit of using excess electricity from intermittent renewable power sources, e.g. solar or wind, and converting it into the hot and cold water storage tanks typically used for residential applications. The time response of mechanical heat pumps is slow and their efficiency suffers from fluctuating electricity supplies. To overcome this issue, we propose thermoelectric (TE) co-generation systems that benefit from their fast response and scalability. Modeling has been performed to optimize the TE module for the effective harvesting of both heat and electricity from intermittent solar energy with response times in minutes. Throughout the modeling and experiments, the combined coefficient-of-performance (COP) is found to be 1.6, while the hot water is 52.5°C and cold water is 16.5°C, both from 22.3°C. The COP is moderate, but due to its quick response, the accumulated energy harvested by this thermoelectric system could be comparable to mechanical compressor systems.

HortScience ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 249a-249
Author(s):  
Eric A. Lavoie ◽  
Damien de Halleux ◽  
André Gosselin ◽  
Jean-Claude Dufour

The main objective of this research was to produce a simulated model that permitted the evaluation of operating costs of commercial greenhouse tomato growers with respect to heating methods (hot air, hot water, radiant and heat pumps) and the use of artificial lighting for 1991 and 1992. This research showed that the main factors that negatively influence profitability were energy consumption during cold periods and the price of tomatoes during the summer season. The conventional hot water system consumed less energy than the heat pump system and produced marketable fruit yields similar to those from the heat pump system. The hot water system was generally more profitable in regards to energy consumption and productivity. Moreover, investment costs were less; therefore, this system gives best overall financial savings. As for radiant and hot air systems, their overall financial status falls between that of the hot water system and the heat pump. The radiant system proved to be more energy efficient that the hot air system, but the latter produced a higher marketable fruit yield over the 2-year study.


2011 ◽  
Vol 374-377 ◽  
pp. 398-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Ning Hu ◽  
Ban Jun Peng ◽  
Shan Shan Hu ◽  
Jun Lin

A hot-water and air-conditioning (HWAC) combined ground sourse heat pump(GSHP) system with horizontal ground heat exchanger self-designed and actualized was presented in this paper. The heat transfer performance for the heat exchanger of two different pipe arrangements, three layers and four layers, respectively, was compared. It showed that the heat exchange quantity per pipe length for the pipe arrangement of three layers and four layers are 18.0 W/m and 15.0 W/m. The coefficient of performance (COP) of unit and system could remain 4.8 and 4.2 as GSHP system for heating water, and the COP of heating and cooling combination are up to 8.5 and 7.5, respectively. The power consumption of hot-water in a whole year is 9.0 kwh/t. The economy and feasibility analysis on vertical and horizontal ground heat exchanger were made, which showed that the investment cost per heat exchange quantity of horizontal ground heat exchanger is 51.4% lower than that of the vertical ground heat exchanger, but the occupied area of the former is 7 times larger than the latter's.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 3776
Author(s):  
Nguyen Van Duc Long ◽  
Thi Hiep Han ◽  
Dong Young Lee ◽  
Sun Yong Park ◽  
Byeng Bong Hwang ◽  
...  

Distillation for R-410A reclamation from a waste refrigerant is an energy-intensive process. Thus, various heat pump configurations were proposed to enhance the energy efficiency of existing conventional distillation columns for separating R-410A and R-22. One new heat pump configuration combining a vapor compression (VC) heat pump with cold water and hot water cycles was suggested for easy operation and control. Both advantages and disadvantages of each heat pump configuration were also evaluated. The results showed that the mechanical vapor recompression heat pump with top vapor superheating saved up to 29.5%, 100.0%, and 10.5% of the energy required in the condenser duty, reboiler duty, and operating cost, respectively, compared to a classical heat pump system, and 85.2%, 100.0%, and 60.8%, respectively, compared to the existing conventional column. In addition, this work demonstrated that the operating pressure of a VC heat pump could be lower than that of the existing distillation column, allowing for an increase in capacity of up to 20%. In addition, replacing the throttle valve with a hydraulic turbine showed isentropic expansion can decrease the operating cost by up to 20.9% as compared to the new heat pump configuration without a hydraulic turbine. Furthermore, the reduction in carbon dioxide emission was investigated to assess the environmental impact of all proposed sequences.


Author(s):  
Michael J. Kazmierczak ◽  
Abhishek Gupta

Experiments were performed on a heat exchanger equipped with multiple thermoelectric (TE) modules. The TE-HX serves as the basic system component in a simple hydronic modular Peltier heat pump system designed to provide chilled or hot water for domestic use (or supplementary building climate control) of small residences [1]. The present work focuses on the detailed convection analysis inside the TE-HX component when 10 thermoelectric modules are utilized. The local heat transfer coefficient at different points along the channel are measured at steady-state, first, when a continuous heater is installed and then when replaced with 10 TE modules. The experimental heat transfer coefficients obtained are compared with available empirical correlations for “transition” (3000 < ReDh < 7000) turbulent flow inside the channel with fair-to-good results. Next, the resulting coefficient-of-performance of the TE heat pump system is measured with its value depending both on system input power and water flow rate. Testing showed that performance degradation, i.e. reduced COPs, occurred when operated at higher power levels but remains satisfactory for up to 688 Watts with higher flow rate.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Licharz ◽  
Peter Rösmann ◽  
Manuel S. Krommweh ◽  
Ehab Mostafa ◽  
Wolfgang Büscher

This study describes a 70-day investigation of three identical groundwater heat pumps (GWHP) for heating two pig houses located on the same farm in West Germany. Two of the three GWHPs were installed in a piglet-rearing barn, the third in a farrowing barn. All three heat pumps were fed from the same extraction well. The aim of this study was firstly the empirical performance measurement of the GWHP systems and secondly the energetic evaluation of the systems on barn level by calculating the coefficient of performance (COP). Three different assessment limits were considered in order to better identify factors influencing the COP. In total, the heat pumps supplied thermal energy of 47,160 kWh (piglet-rearing barn) and 36,500 kWh (farrowing barn). Depending on the assessment limit considered, the COP in piglet-rearing barn and farrowing barn ranged between 2.6–3.4 and 2.5–3.0, respectively. A significant factor influencing the COP is the amount of electrical current required to operate the groundwater feeding pump. The average groundwater flow rate was 168.4 m3 d−1 (piglet-rearing barn) and 99.1 m3 d−1 (farrowing barn). In conclusion, by using energy from groundwater, GWHPs have the potential to substitute fossil fuels, thus saving them and avoiding CO2 emissions.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Spitler ◽  
Signhild Gehlin

When the new student center at Stockholm University in Sweden was completed in the fall of 2013 it was thoroughly instrumented. The 6300 m2 four-story building with offices, a restaurant, study lounges, and meeting rooms was designed to be energy efficient with a planned total energy use of 25 kWh/m2/year. Space heating and hot water are provided by a ground source heat pump (GSHP) system consisting of five 40 kW off-the-shelf water-to-water heat pumps connected to 20 boreholes in hard rock, drilled to a depth of 200 m. Space cooling is provided by direct cooling from the boreholes. This paper uses measured performance data from Studenthuset to calculate the actual thermal performance of the GSHP system during one of its early years of operation. Monthly system coefficients-of-performance and coefficients-of-performance for both heating and cooling operation are presented. In the first months of operation, several problems were corrected, leading to improved performance. This paper provides long-term measured system performance data from a recently installed GSHP system, shows how the various system components affect the performance, presents an uncertainty analysis, and describes how some unanticipated consequences of the design may be ameliorated. Seasonal performance factors (SPF) are evaluated based on the SEPEMO (“SEasonal PErformance factor and MOnitoring for heat pump systems”) boundary schema. For heating (“H”), SPFs of 3.7 ± 0.2 and 2.7 ± 0.13 were obtained for boundaries H2 and H3, respectively. For cooling (“C”), a C2 SPF of 27 ± 5 was obtained. Results are compared to measured performance data from 55 GSHP systems serving commercial buildings that are reported in the literature.


Author(s):  
AA Ammar ◽  
K Sopian ◽  
M Mohanraj

In this research, a photovoltaic-thermal collector assisted heat pump has been developed and tested its performance under the tropical climatic conditions of Malaysia. The refrigerants such as, R134a and R1234yf were selected based on its thermodynamic and thermo-physical properties. The temperature of the photovoltaic module was theoretically predicted under the influence of tube diameter, tube spacing and refrigerant mass flow rate. Further, the energy performance of the photovoltaic-thermal evaporator and the heat pump system are investigated experimentally. Finally, the economical feasibility of the photovoltaic-thermal collector evaporator was assessed for the period of 20 years. The results showed that, the tube spacing and diameter of the copper tubes used in the photovoltaic-thermal evaporator/collector using R134a and R1234yf were optimized to 80 mm and 12.7 mm, respectively. It was observed that, during the clear sunny day, the average photovoltaic module temperature was reduced to 30.9 °C under the influence of panel cooling using refrigerant. The output of the panel was enhanced by 21%–44% with increase in solar radiation from 400 W/m2 to 1000 W/m2. The coefficient of performance of the heat pump was varied from 4.8 to 6.84 with an average coefficient of performance of 5.8 during clear sunny days. The life cycle economic analysis indicated that, the photovoltaic-thermal collector evaporator assisted heat pump has a payback period of 3 years, whereas the reference photovoltaic system has a payback period of 8 years.


Author(s):  
Rabih Al Haddad ◽  
Hussein Basma ◽  
Charbel Mansour

Given the continuous tightening of emissions regulations on vehicles, battery-electric buses (BEB) play an essential role in the transition toward cleaner transport technologies, as they represent the most promising solution to replace diesel buses and reduce their environmental impact in the short term. However, heating the bus cabin leads to a considerable increase in energy consumption under cold weather conditions, which significantly reduces the driving range, given the limited battery capacity. Heat pumps (HP) are the primary heating technology used in BEB for their improved consumption performance compared to other technologies. Therefore, this study aims at optimizing the coefficient of performance (COP) of an HP system in a BEB for maximizing the bus electric driving range under cold weather conditions while maintaining satisfactory thermal comfort levels for passengers. Accordingly, an HP model is developed and integrated into an electric bus model using Dymola. A genetic algorithm (GA) based controller is proposed to find the optimal combination of the HP operating parameters, namely the compressor speed, the air mass flow rate at the inlet of the condenser, and the recirculation rate in order to maximize the system’s COP, and extend the BEB driving at different external temperatures, and as a function of the passengers’ occupancy levels. Results are carried under transient and steady-state operating conditions and show that the proposed GA-based controller saves up to 39% of the HP energy consumption as compared to the conventional HP control strategy, and therefore, enhances the BEB driving range up to 17%.


2019 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 06075
Author(s):  
Calin Sebarchievici

A ground-coupled heat pump system (GCHP) and an air source heat pump (ASHP) driven by photovoltaic panels are used to provide domestic hot preparation for a NZEB house. The experimental measurements are used to test both the heat pump models in the same conditions of water temperature and volume of domestic hot water. A comparative analysis of the two heat pumps for domestic hot water preparation is performed. In addition, using the software TRNSYS (Transient Systems Simulation), two numerical simulation models of thermal and electrical energy consumption in DHW mode are developed. Finally, the simulations obtained using TRNSYS software are analysed and compared to the experimental data.


2019 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 07014
Author(s):  
Gheorghe Ilisei ◽  
Tiberiu Catalina ◽  
Marian Alexandru ◽  
Robert Gavriliuc

Underground energy sources are becoming increasingly popular and now geothermal heat pumps are frequently used to heat/cool different types of buildings, including for solar passive houses. This article aims at giving a contribution in the development of the thermal modelling of borehole heat storage systems, investigating the possibility of a GSHP (ground source heat pump) implementation with vertical boreholes in a solar passive house. A case study analysing a residential solar passive house is presented as a suitable modelling tool for the estimation of the thermal behaviour of GSHP systems by combining the outcome from different modelling programs. The software DesignBuilder, Earth Energy Designer and a sizing method for borehole’s length are used for producing the numerical results. The results highlight that the length of the borehole, a major index in estimating the system’s cost, is directly influenced by fundamental variables like thermal conductivity of grout or soil. Additionally, correlations between these parameters and the coefficient of performance of GSHP were made. Furthermore, the length of borehole is very important as it is responsible for almost half of the total installation cost and triggered a difference in electricity consumption of the GSHP up to 14%.


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