Optimal Design of Polygeneration Systems for Buildings

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to contribute an article to this Special Issue titled “Optimal Design of Polygeneration Systems for Buildings”, which will be published in the journal Energies.

Energy demand from buildings is on the rise, mainly driven by growing space heating and cooling loads for thermal comfort and electricity consumption by household appliances. Meanwhile, polygeneration and its main sub-systems—combined heat and power (CHP) and combined cooling, heat and power (CCHP)—have been successfully applied to industrial applications for decades, promoting (thanks to an effective process integration) primary energy savings, lower unit costs of production, and less pollutant emissions relative to conventional separate production. Polygeneration generally refers to the combined production of electricity, heating, cooling, refrigeration, freshwater, hydrogen, biofuels, and/or any other useful energy product. Moreover, polygeneration systems offer great flexibility to exploit renewable energy sources and integrate energy storage, thereby allowing for a transition toward a low-carbon energy supply.

In this context, polygeneration provides a timely opportunity to tackle the growing energy demand from buildings with cost-efficiency and environmental sustainability. However, an appropriate design procedure is required in order to achieve these benefits. The major challenge of the optimal design of polygeneration systems for buildings lies in the complexity of the decisions to be taken: multiple energy resources, multiple energy products, multiple technology options, and multiple temporal scales.

This Special Issue aims to gather the latest accomplishments in the field of polygeneration systems design optimization for buildings considering energy efficiency, economic benefits, environmental impacts, and/or regulatory conditions. The contributions to this Special Issue are expected to address current and new paradigms, targeting the incorporation of renewable energy sources, the integration of new and emerging technologies (including energy storage systems), and the efficient management of the production of thermal and electrical energy. Other topics of interest are efficient thermal integration given the wide range of temperatures involved, and the effective recovery of residual heat. The modelling and design optimization of hybrid/renewable polygeneration systems of various scales are appropriate.

Original research articles and reviews are welcome in this Special Issue. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Synthesis, design, and operation optimization of polygeneration systems for buildings.
• Multiobjective optimization of polygeneration systems for buildings from energy, exergy, economic, and/or environmental viewpoints.
• Design optimization and analysis of hybrid/renewable polygeneration systems for buildings.
• Design optimization and analysis of polygeneration systems with new and emerging technologies.
• Thermal and/or electrical energy storage integration into polygeneration systems for buildings.
• Modelling and optimization of polygeneration systems for buildings with waste heat recovery and thermal integration considerations.
• Implementation of policy and regulatory aspects into the optimal design of polygeneration systems for buildings.
• Control strategies, energy system management, and operation scheduling.
• Distributed polygeneration systems and district energy networks.
• Thermoeconomic assessments and allocation methods for monetary costs and environmental impacts in polygeneration systems for buildings.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Eduardo Antonio Pina
Prof. Dr. Miguel Ángel Lozano Serrano
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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.