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Solar Thermal Energy Storage and Conversion

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "J: Thermal Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 June 2019) | Viewed by 28931

Special Issue Editors

Newcastle Univ, Sir Joseph Swan Ctr Energy Res, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU, Tyne & Wear, UK
Interests: CHP; trigeneration and energy storage; renewable thermal energy system design; alternative fuel use; engine thermal overload prediction; dynamic modelling and control of complex systems; system identification, modelling and control; intelligent decision making and control; marine propulsion safety, environmental impact, efficiency and operation
Sir Joseph Swan Centre of Energy Research, Stephenson Building, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK
Interests: thermal energy storage; renewable thermal energy; low-grade heat utilization; thermodynamic cycle analysis; Ab/adsorption; liquid desiccant

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Solar energy is clean, free, abundant and environmentally-friendly, whereas, fossil fuels are depleting and causing pollution and negative environmental impacts. The usage of solar energy to produce thermal and electrical power enables the world to meet the increasing demand of energy and has a green footprint. Solar thermal utilization and its conversion to cooling, dehumidification, drying, power generation, etc., have been rapidly developed recently, and thermal energy storage technology is essential to promote the utilization of solar thermal energy, because it potentially overcomes the intermittent nature and balances between solar heat supply and demand with respect to both disparities in time and magnitude. This has driven numerous studies and applications of solar thermal energy storage and conversion technologies cross a variety of aspects at different levels.

This Special Issue provides a platform for publishing and sharing novel, inspiring and promising researches on solar thermal energy storage and conversion. Potential topic include, but are not limited to:

  • Novel solar thermal energy storage materials;
  • Novel solar thermal energy storage methods;
  • Long-term and seasonal solar thermal energy storage;
  • Heat transfer enhancement of solar thermal energy storage material and system;
  • Efficient solar thermal energy conversion technologies, e.g., for heating, cooling, desalination, dehumidification/drying, CO2 capture and sequestration, and power generation;
  • Issues related to control, diagnostics and integration of solar thermal energy storage and conversion in buildings and manufacturing processes;
  • Economic, environmental and policy related analysis and review of solar thermal energy storage and conversion in various applications.

Prof. Dr. Tony Roskilly
Dr. Zhiwei Ma
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

  • Solar thermal energy
  • Thermal energy storage
  • Phase change material
  • Thermochemical storage
  • Heat transfer enhancement
  • Thermal driven refrigeration
  • Thermal driven dehumidification
  • Solar thermal power
  • Solar thermal system integration
  • Control and diagnostics

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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25 pages, 6872 KiB  
Article
Multi-Objective Optimization of Off-Grid Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems in Buildings with Prior Design-Variable Screening
by Paolo Conti, Giovanni Lutzemberger, Eva Schito, Davide Poli and Daniele Testi
Energies 2019, 12(15), 3026; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12153026 - 06 Aug 2019
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 3363
Abstract
This work presents an optimization strategy and the cost-optimal design of an off-grid building served by an energy system involving solar technologies, thermal and electrochemical storages. Independently from the multi-objective method (e.g., utility function) and algorithm used (e.g., genetic algorithms), the optimization of [...] Read more.
This work presents an optimization strategy and the cost-optimal design of an off-grid building served by an energy system involving solar technologies, thermal and electrochemical storages. Independently from the multi-objective method (e.g., utility function) and algorithm used (e.g., genetic algorithms), the optimization of this kind of systems is typically characterized by a high-dimensional variables space, computational effort and results uncertainty (e.g., local minimum solutions). Instead of focusing on advanced optimization tools to handle the design problem, the dimension of the full problem has been reduced, only considering the design variables with a high “effect” on the objective functions. An off-grid accommodation building is presented as test case: the original six-variable design problem consisting of about 300,000 possible configurations is reduced to a two-variable problem, after the analysis of 870 Monte Carlo simulations. The new problem includes only 220 possible design alternatives with a clear benefit for the multi-objective optimization algorithm. The energy-economy Pareto frontiers obtained by the original and the reduced problems overlap, showing the validity of the proposed methodology. The No-RES (no renewable energy sources) primary energy consumption can be reduced up to almost 0 kWh/(m2yr) and the net present value (NPV) after 20 years can reach 70 k€ depending on the number of photovoltaic panels and electrochemical storage size. The reduction of the problem also allows for a plain analysis of the results and the drawing of handy decision charts to help the investor/designer in finding the best design according to the specific investment availability and target performances. The configurations on the Pareto frontier are characterized by a notable electrical overproduction and a ratio between the two main design variables that goes from 4 to 8 h. A sensitivity analysis to the unitary price of the electrochemical storage reveals the robustness of the sizing criterion. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solar Thermal Energy Storage and Conversion)
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13 pages, 2317 KiB  
Article
Solar Still Efficiency Enhancement by Using Graphene Oxide/Paraffin Nano-PCM
by Mohammad Reza Safaei, Hamid Reza Goshayeshi and Issa Chaer
Energies 2019, 12(10), 2002; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12102002 - 25 May 2019
Cited by 154 | Viewed by 6276
Abstract
Solar-driven water desalination technologies are rapidly developing with various links to other renewable sources. However, the efficiency of such systems severely depends on the design parameters. The present study focused on using graphene oxide (GO) with the Φ = 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 [...] Read more.
Solar-driven water desalination technologies are rapidly developing with various links to other renewable sources. However, the efficiency of such systems severely depends on the design parameters. The present study focused on using graphene oxide (GO) with the Φ = 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 wt.% dispersed in paraffin, as phase-change materials (PCMs), to improve the productivity of a solar still for desalination applications. The outcomes showed that by adding more graphene oxide to paraffin, the melting temperature got reduced. Solar still with GO/paraffin showed 25% productivity improvement in comparison with the solar still with only PCM. The obtained Nusselt number during the melting time also represented that free convection heat transfer into the melted region of the solar still has been enhanced by adding dispersed GO to the PCM, compared to the base paraffin. Also, increasing the hot wall temperature augments the Nusselt number. Finally, an empirical equation was derived to correlate the average Nusselt number as a function of Rayleigh number (Ra), the Stefan number (Ste), the subcooling factor (Sb), and the Fourier number (Fo). The obtained correlation depicted that Nusselt number enhancement has a reverse relation with Fourier number. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solar Thermal Energy Storage and Conversion)
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18 pages, 5338 KiB  
Article
Comparison of Direct and Indirect Active Thermal Energy Storage Strategies for Large-Scale Solar Heating Systems
by Xiaofeng Guo, Alain Pascal Goumba and Cheng Wang
Energies 2019, 12(10), 1948; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12101948 - 21 May 2019
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3744
Abstract
Large-scale solar heating for the building sector requires an adequate Thermal Energy Storage (TES) strategy. TES plays the role of load shifting between the energy demand and the solar irradiance and thus makes the annual production optimal. In this study, we report a [...] Read more.
Large-scale solar heating for the building sector requires an adequate Thermal Energy Storage (TES) strategy. TES plays the role of load shifting between the energy demand and the solar irradiance and thus makes the annual production optimal. In this study, we report a simplified algorithm uniquely based on energy flux, to evaluate the role of active TES on the annual performance of a large-scale solar heating for residential thermal energy supply. The program considers different types of TES, i.e., direct and indirect, as well as their specifications in terms of capacity, storage density, charging/discharging limits, etc. Our result confirms the auto-regulation ability of indirect (latent using Phase Change Material (PCM), or Borehole thermal storage (BTES) in soil) TES which makes the annual performance comparable to that of direct (sensible with hot water) TES. The charging and discharging restrictions of the latent TES, until now considered as a weak point, could retard the achievement of fully-charged situation and prolong the charging process. With its compact volume, the indirect TES turns to be promising for large-scale solar thermal application. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solar Thermal Energy Storage and Conversion)
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22 pages, 3576 KiB  
Article
Comparative Analysis of Small-Scale Organic Rankine Cycle Systems for Solar Energy Utilisation
by Ruiqi Wang, Long Jiang, Zhiwei Ma, Abigail Gonzalez-Diaz, Yaodong Wang and Anthony Paul Roskilly
Energies 2019, 12(5), 829; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12050829 - 02 Mar 2019
Cited by 28 | Viewed by 4982
Abstract
Small-scale organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems driven by solar energy are compared in this paper, which aims to explore the potential of power generation for domestic utilisation. A solar thermal collector was used as the heat source for a hot water storage tank. [...] Read more.
Small-scale organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems driven by solar energy are compared in this paper, which aims to explore the potential of power generation for domestic utilisation. A solar thermal collector was used as the heat source for a hot water storage tank. Thermal performance was then evaluated in terms of both the conventional ORC and an ORC using thermal driven pump (TDP). It is established that the solar ORC using TDP has a superior performance to the conventional ORC under most working conditions. Results demonstrate that power output of the ORC using TDP ranges from 72 W to 82 W with the increase of evaporating temperature, which shows an improvement of up to 3.3% at a 100 °C evaporating temperature when compared with the power output of the conventional ORC. Energy and exergy efficiencies of the ORC using TDP increase from 11.3% to 12.6% and from 45.8% to 51.3% when the evaporating temperature increases from 75 °C to 100 °C. The efficiency of the ORC using TDP is improved by up to 3.27%. Additionally, the exergy destruction using TDP can be reduced in the evaporator and condenser. The highest exergy efficiency in the evaporator is 96.9%, an improvement of 62% in comparison with that of the conventional ORC, i.e., 59.9%. Thus, the small-scale solar ORC system using TDP is more promising for household application. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solar Thermal Energy Storage and Conversion)
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Review

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35 pages, 5482 KiB  
Review
Kinetics of Solid-Gas Reactions and Their Application to Carbonate Looping Systems
by Larissa Fedunik-Hofman, Alicia Bayon and Scott W. Donne
Energies 2019, 12(15), 2981; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12152981 - 02 Aug 2019
Cited by 71 | Viewed by 9669
Abstract
Reaction kinetics is an important field of study in chemical engineering to translate laboratory-scale studies to large-scale reactor conditions. The procedures used to determine kinetic parameters (activation energy, pre-exponential factor and the reaction model) include model-fitting, model-free and generalized methods, which have been [...] Read more.
Reaction kinetics is an important field of study in chemical engineering to translate laboratory-scale studies to large-scale reactor conditions. The procedures used to determine kinetic parameters (activation energy, pre-exponential factor and the reaction model) include model-fitting, model-free and generalized methods, which have been extensively used in published literature to model solid-gas reactions. A comprehensive review of kinetic analysis methods will be presented using the example of carbonate looping, an important process applied to thermochemical energy storage and carbon capture technologies. The kinetic parameters obtained by different methods for both the calcination and carbonation reactions are compared. The experimental conditions, material properties and the kinetic method are found to strongly influence the kinetic parameters and recommendations are provided for the analysis of both reactions. Of the methods, isoconversional techniques are encouraged to arrive at non-mechanistic parameters for calcination, while for carbonation, material characterization is recommended before choosing a specific kinetic analysis method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solar Thermal Energy Storage and Conversion)
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