scholarly journals Feasibility Study and Economic Analysis of a Fuel-Cell-Based CHP System for a Comprehensive Sports Center with an Indoor Swimming Pool

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (20) ◽  
pp. 6625
Author(s):  
Jie Liu ◽  
Sung Chul Kim ◽  
Ki Yeol Shin
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Economic Analysis ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Swimming Pool ◽  
Utilization Efficiency ◽  
Conventional Heating ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Indoor Swimming Pool ◽  
Chp System

Unlike a general commercial building, heating for a building with an indoor swimming pool is highly energy-intensive due to the high energy demand for swimming water heating. In Korea, the conventional heating method for this kind of building is to use boilers and heat storage tanks that have high fuel costs and greenhouse gas emissions. In this study, a combined heat and power (CHP) system for such a building using the electricity and waste heat from a Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell (PAFC) system was designed and analyzed in terms of its primary energy saving, CO2 reduction, fuel cell and CHP efficiency, and economic feasibility. The mathematical model of the thermal load evaluation was used with the 3D multi-zone building model in TRNSYS 18 software (Thermal Energy System Specialists, LLC, Madison, MI, USA) to determine the space heating demand and swimming pool heat losses. The energy efficiency of the fuel cell unit was evaluated as a function of the part-load ratio from the operating data. The fundamental components, such as the auxiliary boiler, thermal storage tank, and heat exchanger are also integrated for the simulation of the system’s operation. The result shows that the system has a high potential to improve the utilization efficiency of fuel cell energy production. Referring to the local condition of the energy market in Korea, an economic analysis was also carried out by using a specific FC-CHP capacity at 440 kW. The economic benefit is significant in comparison with a conventional heating system, especially for the full-time operating (FTO) mode. The net profit made by comparison with the conventional energy supply system is about 178,352 to 273,879 USD per year, and the payback period is expected to be 6.9 to 10.7 years under different market conditions.

Feasibility Study on Combined Heat and Power with Different Distributed Generation Technologies for Various Commercial Buildings

2011 ◽  
Vol 347-353 ◽  
pp. 664-672 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Jun Ruan ◽  
Qing Rong Liu ◽  
Wei Guo Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Energy Saving ◽  
Distributed Generation ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Combined Heat And Power ◽  
Commercial Buildings ◽  
Utilization Efficiency ◽  
Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell ◽  
Power Ratio ◽  
Chp System

This paper has examined the energy consumption characteristics for six different buildings including apartments, offices, commercial buildings, hospitals, hotels and educational facilities. Then 50000m2 development site for respective building’s type has been assumed as case study to evaluate the introduction effect of Combined Heat and Power (CHP). All kinds of CHP systems with different distributed generation technologies including Gas Turbine (GT), Gas Engine (GE), Diesel Engine (DE), Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) and Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell (PEFC), have been simulated by using HEATMAP, CHP system analysis software. And their primary energy utilization efficiency, energy saving ratio and CO2 reduction ratio have evaluated and compared respectively. The results can be summarized as follows: various buildings have their special heat to power ratio characteristics. Matching the heat to power ratio demanded from an individual building with that supplied from a CHP system is very important. It is necessary to select a reasonable distributed generation technologies according to the load characteristics of various buildings. Distributed generation technologies with high energy generating efficiency and low heat to power ratio, like SOFC and PEFC is more reasonable selection for Building Combined Heat and Power (BCHP). CHP system is an attractive option for hotels, hospitals and apartments. The users can achieve high energy saving and environmental benefit by introducing a CHP systems. In others buildings, especially like commercial buildings and offices, the introduction of CHP system is unreasonable.

The Energy Efficiency and Economic Feasibility Analysis of the Distributed Absorption Cooling Combined With District Heating System

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qunli Zhang ◽  
Lin Fu ◽  
Lihua Li ◽  
Hongfa Di
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
District Heating ◽  
Heating System ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Utilization Efficiency ◽  
Coefficient Of Performance ◽  
District Heating System ◽  
Absorption Cooling ◽  
Energy Efficiency Evaluation ◽  
Chp System

The distributed absorption cooling based district heating system was investigated in order to utilizing the reject heat from the combined heat and power (CHP) plant in summer. Compared with the electric compressor cooling, the energy efficient and cost-effectiveness of the distributed absorption cooling were furthermore analyzed by the Fuel Energy Saving Ratio (FESR) method. The sensitivity of some variables, such as the average electric efficiency, heating and electric generation efficiency of the CHP system, and the coefficient of performance (COP) of the chiller, were analyzed. The marginal heating price of the distributed absorption cooling can be obtained. According to the evaluation results, the applicability of the distributed cooling with district heating system is limited by the lower energy efficiency and economical benefits. The approaches to increase the energy efficiency were suggested in this paper. The improved distributed absorption cooling combined with liquid desiccant dehumidification which has higher heating utilization efficiency was put forward and analyzed, and the energy efficiency evaluation results showed that the improved distributed cooling has higher energy efficiency and economical benefits, and great applicability.

Current progress and performance improvement of Pt/C catalysts for fuel cells

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (46) ◽  
pp. 24284-24306
Author(s):  
Xuefeng Ren ◽  
Yiran Wang ◽  
Anmin Liu ◽  
Zhihong Zhang ◽  
Qianyuan Lv ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cells ◽  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Energy Conversion ◽  
Performance Improvement ◽  
Electric Energy ◽  
Energy Conversion Efficiency ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Carnot Cycle ◽  
High Energy Conversion Efficiency ◽  
And Performance

Fuel cell is an electrochemical device, which can directly convert the chemical energy of fuel into electric energy, without heat process, not limited by Carnot cycle, high energy conversion efficiency, no noise and pollution.

scholarly journals Processing Methodologies of Wet Microalga Biomass Toward Oil Separation: An Overview

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 641
Author(s):  
Vânia Pôjo ◽  
Tânia Tavares ◽  
Francisco Xavier Malcata
Keyword(s):  
Food System ◽  
Lipid Extraction ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Alternative Source ◽  
Microalgal Biomass ◽  
Energy Demands ◽  
Chemical Profiles ◽  
System Sustainability ◽  
Industrial Level

One of the main goals of Mankind is to ensure food system sustainability—including management of land, soil, water, and biodiversity. Microalgae accordingly appear as an innovative and scalable alternative source in view of the richness of their chemical profiles. In what concerns lipids in particular, microalgae can synthesize and accumulate significant amounts of fatty acids, a great fraction of which are polyunsaturated; this makes them excellent candidates within the framework of production and exploitation of lipids by various industrial and health sectors, either as bulk products or fine chemicals. Conventional lipid extraction methodologies require previous dehydration of microalgal biomass, which hampers economic feasibility due to the high energy demands thereof. Therefore, extraction of lipids directly from wet biomass would be a plus in this endeavor. Supporting processes and methodologies are still limited, and most approaches are empirical in nature—so a deeper mechanistic elucidation is a must, in order to facilitate rational optimization of the extraction processes. Besides circumventing the current high energy demands by dehydration, an ideal extraction method should be selective, sustainable, efficient, harmless, and feasible for upscale to industrial level. This review presents and discusses several pretreatments incurred in lipid extraction from wet microalga biomass, namely recent developments and integrated processes. Unfortunately, most such developments have been proven at bench-scale only—so demonstration in large facilities is still needed to confirm whether they can turn into competitive alternatives.

scholarly journals Solar Integrated Anaerobic Digester: Energy Savings and Economics

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 4292
Author(s):  
Lidia Lombardi ◽  
Barbara Mendecka ◽  
Simone Fabrizi
Keyword(s):  
Anaerobic Digestion ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Economic Analysis ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Solar Thermal ◽  
Base Case ◽  
Economic Sustainability ◽  
Solar Thermal Energy ◽  
Solar Integration

Industrial anaerobic digestion requires low temperature thermal energy to heat the feedstock and maintain temperature conditions inside the reactor. In some cases, the thermal requirements are satisfied by burning part of the produced biogas in devoted boilers. However, part of the biogas can be saved by integrating thermal solar energy into the anaerobic digestion plant. We study the possibility of integrating solar thermal energy in biowaste mesophilic/thermophilic anaerobic digestion, with the aim of reducing the amount of biogas burnt for internal heating and increasing the amount of biogas, further upgraded to biomethane and injected into the natural gas grid. With respect to previously available studies that evaluated the possibility of integrating solar thermal energy in anaerobic digestion, we introduce the topic of economic sustainability by performing a preliminary and simplified economic analysis of the solar system, based only on the additional costs/revenues. The case of Italian economic incentives for biomethane injection into the natural gas grid—that are particularly favourable—is considered as reference case. The amount of saved biogas/biomethane, on an annual basis, is about 4–55% of the heat required by the gas boiler in the base case, without solar integration, depending on the different considered variables (mesophilic/thermophilic, solar field area, storage time, latitude, type of collector). Results of the economic analysis show that the economic sustainability can be reached only for some of the analysed conditions, using the less expensive collector, even if its efficiency allows lower biomethane savings. Future reduction of solar collector costs might improve the economic feasibility. However, when the payback time is calculated, excluding the Italian incentives and considering selling the biomethane at the natural gas price, its value is always higher than 10 years. Therefore, incentives mechanism is of great importance to support the economic sustainability of solar integration in biowaste anaerobic digestion producing biomethane.

scholarly journals Experimental Measurements of the Water Evaporation Rate of a Physical Model

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Róbert Turza ◽  
Belo B. Füri
Keyword(s):  
Energy Demand ◽  
Evaporation Rate ◽  
High Water ◽  
Hvac Systems ◽  
Swimming Pool ◽  
Water Evaporation ◽  
Specific Enthalpy ◽  
High Water Content ◽  
Indoor Environments ◽  
Indoor Swimming Pool

Abstract As the number of indoor swimming pools and wellness centers are currently growing, it is necessary to concentrate on the parameters of indoor environments. These parameters are necessary for the design of the HVAC systems that operate these premises. In indoor swimming-pool facilities, the energy demand is large due to ventilation losses from exhaust air. Since water evaporates from a pool’s surface, exhaust air has a high water content and specific enthalpy. In this paper the results of the water evaporation rate measured from swimming pool surfaces at higher thermal water temperatures are described.

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