The Energy Performance Gap in Swiss residential buildings: a roadmap for improvement

This work deals with the Energy Performance Gap (EPG) in buildings, defined as the difference between actual and theoretical energy consumption. This paper investigates how to close the EPG of existing buildings in Switzerland, by which measures, until when, and at which costs. To address these questions an extensive literature review was conducted combined with qualitative interviews in order to better understand practitioners’ experience and to support the findings from the literature. Several approaches have been found to reduce the EPG. These include both measures to make the building consume as expected and to arrive at a more accurate calculation of the theoretical consumption. We highlight the most relevant solutions for the Swiss context.

Evaluation of energy consumption during the seawater desalination process simulated to the aqueous ternary system {NaCl + KCl}(aq)

Energy consumption is a purely thermodynamic concept very useful in several scientific fields such as desalination, oceanography, biology, geochemistry and environmental processes, as well as in industrial applications. In this investigation, based on a thermodynamic approach, the calculation of energy consumption was evaluated during the desalination of seawater simulated to the aqueous ternary system {NaCl + KCl}(aq). The mixing ionic parameters, obtained in our previous work, are used to predict the osmotic and activity coefficients in the aqueous solutions at different salinities ranging from 3.6 up to 72 g.L-1 at T = 298.15 K using the ion interaction model. The theoretical energy consumption of desalination was calculated at various salinities and recovery ratios.

Minimizing the Energy Loss of the Bi-Articular Actuation in Bipedal Robots

In this work, we investigate the effect actuator position on the theoretical energy consumption of an electrically powered bipedal robot. Specifically, considerable gains are possible through the optimization of the actuator placement relative to joints and their axes, in particular biarticular actuators, are proposed. The energy losses of electric actuators on the two most powerful and inefficient joints of a biped, the hip and the knee, are considered. In standing or walking tasks of a biped’s legs within mathematical model, furthermore, imposing constraints on the actuator placement is used in a genetic algorithm to find the optimum configuration of various biarticular configurations.

Thermodynamic Analysis Method for Iron and Steel Manufacturing System Based on Enthalpy Balance

Thermodynamic analysis method for iron and steel manufacturing system is developed to describe the energy flow. The theoretical energy consumption for the manufacturing process is proposed to analyze the energy-saving potential. Energy balance based on enthalpy with a uniform reference state is established to analyze the amounts and forms of energy flow in the manufacturing system. The energy-saving potential of blast furnace system is discussed to choose the appropriate energy-saving methods and technologies.