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2018 EU–China Symposiums on Renewable Energy/Sustainable Energy and Energy Storage Technologies

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2018) | Viewed by 20250

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Prof. Dr. Xudong Zhao

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Guest Editor

1. Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies, Energy and Environment Institute, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK
2. Center of Intelligent Acoustics and Immersive Communications, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 127 Youyi West Road, Xi’an 710072, China
Interests: solar thermal and power technologies and systems; PV/thermal; heating; cooling; energy efficiency; heat and mass transfer
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Dr. Xiaoli Ma

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Guest Editor

School of Engineering and Computer Science, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK
Interests: renewable and sustainable energy; energy efficiency; power generation; heating and cooling technology; thermal energy storage; air cleaning, green building

Dr. Zishang Zhu

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Guest Editor

School of Engineering and Computer Science, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK
Interests: green building design theory; green building optimization algorithm; building energy performance simulation and analysis and building integration method with renewable energy systems

Dr. Guiqiang Li

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Guest Editor

School of Engineering and Computer Science, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK
Interests: solar thermal conversion; solar concentrator; solar photovoltaic/thermal technology; thermoelectric power generation; building energy systems and green building
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Prof. Dr. Yuanda Cheng

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Guest Editor

Department of Building Environment and Energy Application Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China
Interests: building energy savings; building integrated photovoltaics; thermal comfort evaluation
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The EU–China Symposiums on Renewable Energy/Sustainable Energy and Energy Storage Technologies will be held at the University of Hull, UK on the 29 July–1 August 2018. The symposiums will be constituted by the following three events:

The 1^st EU–China Symposium on Sustainable Energy Technologies
The 2^nd ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ International Symposium on Sustainable Refrigeration and Air Conditioning
The 2^nd UK–China Workshop for Renewable Energy and Phase Change Energy Storage Technologies in Buildings

The EU–China Symposiums will provide a platform for the exchange and presentation of the latest technical information and high-quality research results, and will address the scientific advances and direct the future development in the areas of renewable/sustainable energy, energy efficiency technology, energy storage, sustainable refrigeration and air-conditioning, and data center energy saving, as well as potential applications of these technologies.

To promote the dissemination of the advanced technologies and methodologies, selected high-quality papers from the symposiums will be published in this Special Issue. Topics include, but are not limited to:

Renewable/Sustainable energy;
Phase change materials;
Energy storage technologies;
Sustainable refrigeration and air conditioning;
Energy efficient technologies;
Energy saving technology for data centers;
District heating/cooling
Energy markets and political aspects of renewable/sustainable development.

Prof. Dr. Xudong Zhao
Dr. Xiaoli Ma
Dr. Zishang Zhu
Dr. Guiqiang Li
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yuanda Cheng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Renewable energy
Sustainable energy
Energy efficiency
Heating and cooling
Phase change materials
Energy storage
Refrigeration and air conditioning
Energy saving technology

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 3175 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Rheological Characteristics of Molten Salt Seeded with Al₂O₃ Nanopowder and Graphene for Concentrated Solar Power

by Xin Xiao, Gan Zhang, Yulong Ding and Dongsheng Wen

Energies 2019, 12(3), 467; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12030467 - 01 Feb 2019

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 4197

Abstract

HITEC salt (NaNO₂-NaO₃-KNO₃) and solar salt (NaO₃-KNO₃) are typical molten salts used in concentrated solar power. Adding nanoparticles is an effective method to improve the thermo-physical properties of pure salt. It is indispensable to experimentally study the rheological behaviours of salt seeded with nanoparticles, which can increase the specific heat capacity of pure salt. In this work, the viscosities of HITEC salt were measured with different shear rates in the temperature range of 200 °C to 450 °C firstly, while those of solar salt were measured in the temperature range of 250 °C to 500 °C. The experimental data showed reasonable agreement with the literature correlations, which verify the Newtonian behaviours of pure salts. The evolutions of the viscosities of nanocomposites in the same temperature range were measured and analysed, where the nanocomposites were synthesized with 1 wt.% or 2 wt.% Al₂O₃ nanopowder and graphene, respectively. Results showed that the addition of Al₂O₃ nanopowder had relatively little effect on viscosity, and the variations were about −35.4%~8.1% for the HITEC salt nanocomposites and −9.2%~68.1% for the solar salt nanocomposites. While graphene would apparently increase the viscosities of HITEC salt and solar salt, HITEC salt with the addition of graphene showed slight non-Newtonian fluid behaviour. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2018 EU–China Symposiums on Renewable Energy/Sustainable Energy and Energy Storage Technologies)

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17 pages, 10810 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Frosting Performance of a Nanoporous Hydrophilic Aluminum Surface

by Wansheng Yang, Bin Zeng, Yanmei Zhang, Song He and Xudong Zhao

Energies 2018, 11(12), 3483; https://doi.org/10.3390/en11123483 - 13 Dec 2018

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2560

Abstract

As an efficient energy-saving piece of equipment, an air-source heat pump can not only reduce the energy consumption required for heating, but can also reduce the pollution from fossil consumption. However, when an air-source heat pump operates under low temperatures and high humidity, the heat exchanger surface of its outdoor evaporator often get covered with frost. The growth of the frost layer seriously affects the operation efficiency of the equipment and limits its engineering application. Looking for materials that can actively inhibit frost forming is a good strategy to solve the problem mentioned above. Numerous studies show that a hydrophilic surface (contact angle less than 90°) can inhibit the normal freezing process. Manufacturing nanostructures on the surface also affect frosting performance. In this paper, nanoporous hydrophilic aluminum sheets, with contact angles of 47.8° (Sample 2), 35.9° (Sample 3), and 22.9° (Sample 4), respectively, were fabricated by the anodic oxidation method. The frosting performance of the nanoporous hydrophilic aluminum was studied compared with polished aluminum, with a contact angle of 60.2° (Sample 1). The frosting performance of the aluminum surface was systematically studied by observing the frost structure from top and side cameras and measuring the frost thickness, frost mass, and frosting rate. It was found that nanoporous hydrophilic aluminum can reduce the frost thickness and frost mass. The frost mass reduction rate of sample 2 reached a maximum of 65.9% at the surface temperature of −15 °C, under test conditions. When the surface temperature was −15 °C, the frosting rate of Sample 2 was 1.71 g/(m²·min), which was about one-third of that on sample 1 (polished aluminum). Nanoporous hydrophilic aluminum behaved better at lessening frost than polished aluminum, which revealed that manufacturing nanopores and promoting hydrophilicity can delay the formation of frost. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2018 EU–China Symposiums on Renewable Energy/Sustainable Energy and Energy Storage Technologies)

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14 pages, 7704 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparative Study of the Cross-Flow Heat and Mass Exchangers for Indirect Evaporative Cooling Using Numerical Methods

by Yugang Wang, Xiang Huang and Li Li

Energies 2018, 11(12), 3374; https://doi.org/10.3390/en11123374 - 02 Dec 2018

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3539

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative study of the cross-flow regenerative heat and mass exchanger (HMX) and the conventional cross-flow HMX for indirect evaporative cooling (IEC) with numerical methods. The objective of this study is mainly to clarify the applicability of the two HMXs. The numerical model was built and validated by existing experimental data. The difference in heat and mass transfer between the two HMXs was revealed by analyzing the change of the temperature and moisture content of the air, and the influence of the main operating parameters on the cooling performance of the HMXs was analyzed. In the typical operating conditions, when the HMXs are used alone, the cooling performance of the regenerative HMX is better than that of the conventional HMX under low supply air flow rate. When the HMXs are used in the multistage evaporative cooling systems with high supply air flow rate, the conventional HMX is more suitable as the first stage of the system to pre-cool the supply air, while the regenerative HMX is more suitable as the second stage to re-cool the supply air. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2018 EU–China Symposiums on Renewable Energy/Sustainable Energy and Energy Storage Technologies)

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19 pages, 4996 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Study on Dehumidification Performance of a Multi-Stage Internal Cooling Solid Desiccant Adsorption Packed Bed

by Wansheng Yang, Jiayun Ren, Zhongqi Lin, Zhangyuan Wang and Xudong Zhao

Energies 2018, 11(11), 3038; https://doi.org/10.3390/en11113038 - 05 Nov 2018

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2969

Abstract

In this paper, the solid desiccant adsorption packed bed with a three-stage internal cooling (ICSPB) has been proposed to improve the dehumidification efficiency and make a comparison with that of non-internal cooling. To investigate the performance of the ICSPB, the dehumidification capacity, dehumidification efficiency, water content of solid desiccant, moisture ratio of solid desiccant, temperature of solid desiccant and inlet and outlet air temperature difference were discussed in different conditions of inlet air and supplying water temperature. It was found that the dehumidification performance of the bed with internal cooling could be improved greatly in the low temperature and low humidity conditions, while in the high temperature and humid, the improvement was not obvious. With internal cooling, the dehumidification efficiency and the water content of the solid desiccant could be improved 59.69% and 110.7%, respectively, and the temperature of solid desiccant could be reduced 2.2 °C when the ICSPB operated at the inlet air temperature of 20 °C, inlet humidity of 55%, and water temperature of 14 °C. Moreover, the dehumidification performance at each stage of ICSPB was studied. It was found that, the first stage played the most important role in the dehumidification process. In addition, the calculation models that can be used to predict the moisture ratio and the temperature of solid desiccant were established on the test results. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2018 EU–China Symposiums on Renewable Energy/Sustainable Energy and Energy Storage Technologies)

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25 pages, 6478 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Fabrication and Frosting Properties Study of Surface-Active Agents Coating Based on Nanoporous Aluminum Substrate

by Song He, Yanmei Zhang, Wansheng Yang, Xudong Zhao and Bin Zeng

Energies 2018, 11(10), 2797; https://doi.org/10.3390/en11102797 - 17 Oct 2018

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2280

Abstract

In order to solve the frosting and blockage problem of an air conditioning evaporator’s fin in winter, the nanoporous aluminum plates with low surface energy has been proposed in this paper, which are fabricated by an anodizing method and then modified by lauric acid. The nanoporous aluminum plates with different nanoporous diameters ranging from 15 nm to 400 nm are obtained by changing the magnitude of the oxidation current. The surface contact angle of the nanoporous aluminum plates is an important factor influencing its surface frost and condensation. The test results show that the surface contact angle is decreased with the increasing of nanoporous diameter. When the nanoporous aluminum plates are modified by lauric acid, the contact angle is proportional to the nanoporous diameter, and the maximum contact angle can reach about 171°. A set of experimental instruments has been set up to simulate the typical winter climate in northern China, and the frosting properties of the nanoporous aluminum plate’s fin is analyzed by experiment. The results show that increasing the contact angle of aluminum plates can effectively improve its anti-frosting properties. The average frosting rate of the aluminum plate with the contact angle of 60° is about 0.33 [g/(min∙m²)], which is 1.74 times that of the aluminum plate with the contact angle of 171°, whose frosting rate is about 0.19 [g/(min∙m²)]. After taking the expanded aperture processing to the aluminum plate, the diameter with 30 nm, 100 nm, 200 nm, 300 nm, and 400 nm nanoporous aluminum plates are obtained and the polished aluminum plates are also prepared for comparing. Through the test results, the nanoporous aluminum plates are shown to have anti-frosting properties, and the nanoporous aluminum plates with diameter of 300 nm are shown to have the best anti-frosting properties. The calculation mode of frosting growth is derived on the base of experimental results. This research will be helpful in indicating the potential research area of the low-carbon-emission and energy-saving technology for the researchers all over the world. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2018 EU–China Symposiums on Renewable Energy/Sustainable Energy and Energy Storage Technologies)

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19 pages, 5380 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Thermal Performance Enhancement of a Cross-Flow-Type Maisotsenko Heat and Mass Exchanger Using Various Nanofluids

by Rasikh Tariq, Changhong Zhan, Nadeem Ahmed Sheikh and Xudong Zhao

Energies 2018, 11(10), 2656; https://doi.org/10.3390/en11102656 - 05 Oct 2018

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 4091

Abstract

The incorporation of a Maisotsenko (M) Cycle into an indirect evaporative cooler has led to the achievement of sub-wet bulb temperature without any humidification, thus making it a possible green and sustainable alternative for handling the cooling load of a building. In this work, the thermal performance of a cross-flow heat and mass exchanger (HMX) is enhanced by the addition of nanoparticles in the wet channel because they significantly influence the heat and mass transfer characteristics of the base fluid. A governing model for the temperature and humidity variations of the HMX is numerically simulated. Initial benchmarking is achieved using water properties. Afterward, a comparative study is conducted using aluminum-oxide-, copper-oxide-, and titanium-oxide-based nanofluids. Enhancements of 24.2% in heat flux, 19.24% in wet bulb effectiveness, 7.04% in dew point effectiveness, 29.66% in cooling capacity, and 28.43% in energy efficiency ratio are observed by using alumina-based nanofluid as compared to water in the wet channel of the cross-flow HMX. Furthermore, a particle volume concentration of 1% and a particle diameter of 20nm are recommended for maximum performance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 2018 EU–China Symposiums on Renewable Energy/Sustainable Energy and Energy Storage Technologies)

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