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Simulation of Polygeneration Systems

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2016) | Viewed by 51331

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Francesco Calise

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Guest Editor

Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, 80125 Naples, Italy
Interests: fuel cells; advanced optimization techniques; solar thermal systems; concentrating photovoltaic/thermal photovoltaic systems; energy saving in buildings; solar heating and cooling; organic Rankine cycles; geothermal energy; dynamic simulations of energy systems; renewable polygeneration systems
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Prof. Dr. Massimo Dentice D'Accadia

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Guest Editor

Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, P.le Tecchio 80, Naples, Italy
Interests: advanced energy system; solar heating and cooling; combined heat and power (CHP); energy efficiency; renewable energy; energy policy; geothermal energy; biomass and waste-to-energy systems
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims at collecting recent studies dealing with polygeneration systems. In particular, the papers must focus on the possible integration of different technologies in a single polygeneration system. This system can convert one or multiple types of energy sources in energy services (electricity, heat and cool) and useful products (e.g., desalinized water, hydrogen, glycerine, ammonia, etc.). The systems may include both renewable (solar, wind, hydro, biomass and geothermal) technologies and advanced systems fed by fossil fuels, such as fuel cells and cogeneration. Special attention must be paid to the control strategies and the management of the systems. Studies including thermoeconomic analyses and system optimizations are welcomed.

Papers in the relevant area of polygeneration systems, including, but not limited to, the following topics, are invited:

Advanced Cogeneration and trigeneration technologies
Polygeneration systems based on fuel cells
Polygeneration systems fed by biomass
Polygeneration systems on photovoltaic/thermal systems
System dynamic simulation
Integration of polygeneration systems in buildings
Control strategies and system management
Economical assessment and funding policies
Distributed generation
Hydrogen-based technologies
Polygeneration systems including desalination
Building dynamic simulation
District heating and cooling systems

Prof. Dr. Francesco Calise
Prof. Dr. Massimo Dentice d’Accadia
Guest Editors

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Keywords

Renewable energy
Polygeneration
Distributed generation
Dynamic simulations

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Published Papers (8 papers)

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Editorial

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183 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Simulation of Polygeneration Systems

by Francesco Calise and Massimo Dentice D’Accadia

Energies 2016, 9(11), 925; https://doi.org/10.3390/en9110925 - 8 Nov 2016

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 5323

Abstract

This Special Issue aims at collecting the recent studies dealing with polygeneration systems, with a special focus on the possible integration of different technologies into a single system, able to convert one or multiple energy sources into energy services (electricity, heat and cooling) and other useful products (e.g., desalinized water, hydrogen, glycerin, ammonia, etc.). Renewable sources (solar, wind, hydro, biomass and geothermal), as well as fossil fuels, feeding advanced energy systems such as fuel cells and cogeneration systems, are considered. Special attention is paid to control strategies and to the management of the systems in general. Studies including thermoeconomic analyses and system optimizations are presented. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Simulation of Polygeneration Systems)

Research

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5953 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of a Hybrid Solar-Assisted Trigeneration System

by Elisa Marrasso, Carlo Roselli, Maurizio Sasso and Francesco Tariello

Energies 2016, 9(9), 705; https://doi.org/10.3390/en9090705 - 1 Sep 2016

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 7075

Abstract

A hybrid solar-assisted trigeneration system is analyzed in this paper. The system is composed of a 20 m² solar field of evacuated tube collectors, a natural gas fired micro combined heat and power system delivering 12.5 kW of thermal power, an absorption heat pump (AHP) with a nominal cooling power of 17.6 kW, two storage tanks (hot and cold) and an electric auxiliary heater (AH). The plant satisfies the energy demand of an office building located in Naples (Southern Italy). The electric energy of the cogenerator is used to meet the load and auxiliaries electric demand; the interactions with the grid are considered in cases of excess or over requests. This hybrid solution is interesting for buildings located in cities or historical centers with limited usable roof surface to install a conventional solar heating and cooling (SHC) system able to achieve high solar fraction (SF). The results of dynamic simulation show that a tilt angle of 30° maximizes the SF of the system on annual basis achieving about 53.5%. The influence on the performance of proposed system of the hot water storage tank (HST) characteristics (volume, insulation) is also studied. It is highlighted that the SF improves when better insulated and bigger HSTs are considered. A maximum SF of about 58.2% is obtained with a 2000 L storage, whereas the lower thermal losses take place with a better insulated 1000 L tank. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Simulation of Polygeneration Systems)

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4756 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Thermoeconomic Modeling and Parametric Study of a Photovoltaic-Assisted 1 MW_e Combined Cooling, Heating, and Power System

by Alexandros Arsalis, Andreas N. Alexandrou and George E. Georghiou

Energies 2016, 9(8), 663; https://doi.org/10.3390/en9080663 - 20 Aug 2016

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 5159 | Correction

Abstract

In this study a small-scale, completely autonomous combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) system is coupled to a photovoltaic (PV) subsystem, to investigate the possibility of reducing fuel consumption. The CCHP system generates electrical energy with the use of a simple gas turbine cycle, with a rated nominal power output of 1 MW_e. The nominal power output of the PV subsystem is examined in a parametric study, ranging from 0 to 600 kW_e, to investigate which configuration results in a minimum lifecycle cost (LCC) for a system lifetime of 20 years of service. The load profile considered is applied for a complex of households in Nicosia, Cyprus. The solar data for the PV subsystem are taken on an hourly basis for a whole year. The results suggest that apart from economic benefits, the proposed system also results in high efficiency and reduced CO₂ emissions. The parametric study shows that the optimum PV capacity is 300 kW_e. The minimum lifecycle cost for the PV-assisted CCHP system is found to be 3.509 million €, as compared to 3.577 million € for a system without a PV subsystem. The total cost for the PV subsystem is 547,445 €, while the total cost for operating the system (fuel) is 731,814 € (compared to 952,201 € for a CCHP system without PVs). Overall, the proposed system generates a total electrical energy output of 52,433 MWh (during its whole lifetime), which translates to a unit cost of electricity of 0.067 €/kWh. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Simulation of Polygeneration Systems)

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5385 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Energy Simulation of a Holographic PVT Concentrating System for Building Integration Applications

by Julia Marín-Sáez, Daniel Chemisana, Álex Moreno, Alberto Riverola, Jesús Atencia and María-Victoria Collados

Energies 2016, 9(8), 577; https://doi.org/10.3390/en9080577 - 25 Jul 2016

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 5370

Abstract

A building integrated holographic concentrating photovoltaic-thermal system has been optically and energetically simulated. The system has been designed to be superimposed into a solar shading louvre; in this way the concentrating unit takes profit of the solar altitude tracking, which the shading blinds already have, to increase system performance. A dynamic energy simulation has been conducted in two different locations—Sde Boker (Israel) and Avignon (France)—both with adequate annual irradiances for solar applications, but with different weather and energy demand characteristics. The simulation engine utilized has been TRNSYS, coupled with MATLAB (where the ray-tracing algorithm to simulate the holographic optical performance has been implemented). The concentrator achieves annual mean optical efficiencies of 30.3% for Sde Boker and 43.0% for the case of Avignon. Regarding the energy production, in both locations the thermal energy produced meets almost 100% of the domestic hot water demand as this has been considered a priority in the system control. On the other hand, the space heating demands are covered by a percentage ranging from 15% (Avignon) to 20% (Sde Boker). Finally, the electricity produced in both places covers 7.4% of the electrical demand profile for Sde Boker and 9.1% for Avignon. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Simulation of Polygeneration Systems)

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7932 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optimal Cooling Load Sharing Strategies for Different Types of Absorption Chillers in Trigeneration Plants

by Benedetto Conte, Joan Carles Bruno and Alberto Coronas

Energies 2016, 9(8), 573; https://doi.org/10.3390/en9080573 - 25 Jul 2016

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 5788

Abstract

Trigeneration plants can use different types of chillers in the same plant, typically single effect and double effect absorption chillers, vapour compression chillers and also cooling storage systems. The highly variable cooling demand of the buildings connected to a district heating and cooling (DHC) network has to be distributed among these chillers to achieve lower operating costs and higher energy efficiencies. This problem is difficult to solve due to the different partial load behaviour of each chiller and the different chiller combinations that can cover a certain cooling demand using an appropriate sizing of the cooling storage. The objective of this paper is to optimize the daily plant operation of an existing trigeneration plant based on cogeneration engines and to study the optimal cooling load sharing between different types of absorption chillers using a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model. Real data from a trigeneration plant connected to a DHC close to Barcelona (Spain) is used for the development of this model. The cooling load distribution among the different units is heavily influenced by the price of the electricity sold to the grid which rules the duration of the operation time of the engines. The main parameter to compare load distribution configurations is the primary energy saving indicator. Cooling load distribution among the different chillers changes also with the load of the whole plant because the chiller performance changes with load. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Simulation of Polygeneration Systems)

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9667 KiB

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Code-to-Code Validation and Application of a Dynamic Simulation Tool for the Building Energy Performance Analysis

by Annamaria Buonomano

Energies 2016, 9(4), 301; https://doi.org/10.3390/en9040301 - 21 Apr 2016

Cited by 34 | Viewed by 7313

Abstract

In this paper details about the results of a code-to-code validation procedure of an in-house developed building simulation model, called DETECt, are reported. The tool was developed for research purposes in order to carry out dynamic building energy performance and parametric analyses by taking into account new building envelope integrated technologies, novel construction materials and innovative energy saving strategies. The reliability and accuracy of DETECt was appropriately tested by means of the standard BESTEST validation procedure. In the paper, details of this validation process are accurately described. A good agreement between the obtained results and all the reference data of the BESTEST qualification cases is achieved. In particular, the obtained results vs. standard BESTEST output are always within the provided ranges of confidence. In addition, several test cases output obtained by DETECt (e.g., dynamic profiles of indoor air and building surfaces temperature and heat fluxes and spatial trends of temperature across walls) are provided. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Simulation of Polygeneration Systems)

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4884 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Development of an ICE-Based Micro-CHP System Based on a Stirling Engine; Methodology for a Comparative Study of its Performance and Sensitivity Analysis in Recreational Sailing Boats in Different European Climates

by Guillermo Rey, Carlos Ulloa, Jose Luis Míguez and Elena Arce

Energies 2016, 9(4), 239; https://doi.org/10.3390/en9040239 - 25 Mar 2016

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 6788

Abstract

Micro combined heating and power (micro-CHP) systems are becoming more than important, and even essential, if we pretend to take full advantage of available energy. The efficiency of this kind of systems reaches 90% and important savings in energy transport processes can occur. In this research, an internal combustion engine (ICE)-based micro-CHP system was developed and tested under specific constraints. The system uses a two cylinder Otto engine as prime mover, coupled to an electrical alternator, and it uses exhaust gases and engine cooling circuit heat. The micro-CHP system was developed to match the electrical power of a typical Stirling engine (SE)-based micro-CHP unit, in order to later compare both systems’ performance under similar circumstances. Different operating modes were tested under different engine speeds, in order to find the optimum operating point. A stand-alone portable application of this system was performed using recreational sailing boats as mobile homes. Specific considerations had to be taken, related to boundary conditions with sea water, and a transient simulation was performed, considering the boat under three different European climates. Results were compared for the different locations and the performance of the equipment shown. A comparative study with the SE-based micro-CHP system performance was done, and a sensitivity analysis of the influence of the battery size was carried out under the same conditions. The SE and ICE-based proposed micro-CHP system have similar behavior, except for the differences found due to the electric/thermal power ratios in both systems. Battery bank size sensitivity analysis reflects a limit in performance improvement. This limit is caused by the uniform distribution of electrical demand profile. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Simulation of Polygeneration Systems)

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2513 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Crisscross Optimization Algorithm and Monte Carlo Simulation for Solving Optimal Distributed Generation Allocation Problem

by Xiangang Peng, Lixiang Lin, Weiqin Zheng and Yi Liu

Energies 2015, 8(12), 13641-13659; https://doi.org/10.3390/en81212389 - 1 Dec 2015

Cited by 24 | Viewed by 7029

Abstract

Distributed generation (DG) systems are integral parts in future distribution networks. In this paper, a novel approach integrating crisscross optimization algorithm and Monte Carlo simulation (CSO-MCS) is implemented to solve the optimal DG allocation (ODGA) problem. The feature of applying CSO to address the ODGA problem lies in three interacting operators, namely horizontal crossover, vertical crossover and competitive operator. The horizontal crossover can search new solutions in a hypercube space with a larger probability while in the periphery of each hypercube with a decreasing probability. The vertical crossover can effectively facilitate those stagnant dimensions of a population to escape from premature convergence. The competitive operator allows the crisscross search to always maintain in a historical best position to quicken the converge rate. It is the combination of the double search strategies and competitive mechanism that enables CSO significant advantage in convergence speed and accuracy. Moreover, to deal with system uncertainties such as the output power of wind turbine and photovoltaic generators, an MCS-based method is adopted to solve the probabilistic power flow. The effectiveness of the CSO-MCS method is validated on the typical 33-bus and 69-bus test system, and results substantiate the suitability of CSO-MCS for multi-objective ODGA problem. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Simulation of Polygeneration Systems)

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