scholarly journals Technical and economic feasibility of the use of Solar Thermal Energy in Condominiums with Popular Dwellings

Author(s):  
E.C. Moraes-Santos ◽  
T.M. Souza ◽  
J.A.P. Balestieri
Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 4292
Author(s):  
Lidia Lombardi ◽  
Barbara Mendecka ◽  
Simone Fabrizi

Industrial anaerobic digestion requires low temperature thermal energy to heat the feedstock and maintain temperature conditions inside the reactor. In some cases, the thermal requirements are satisfied by burning part of the produced biogas in devoted boilers. However, part of the biogas can be saved by integrating thermal solar energy into the anaerobic digestion plant. We study the possibility of integrating solar thermal energy in biowaste mesophilic/thermophilic anaerobic digestion, with the aim of reducing the amount of biogas burnt for internal heating and increasing the amount of biogas, further upgraded to biomethane and injected into the natural gas grid. With respect to previously available studies that evaluated the possibility of integrating solar thermal energy in anaerobic digestion, we introduce the topic of economic sustainability by performing a preliminary and simplified economic analysis of the solar system, based only on the additional costs/revenues. The case of Italian economic incentives for biomethane injection into the natural gas grid—that are particularly favourable—is considered as reference case. The amount of saved biogas/biomethane, on an annual basis, is about 4–55% of the heat required by the gas boiler in the base case, without solar integration, depending on the different considered variables (mesophilic/thermophilic, solar field area, storage time, latitude, type of collector). Results of the economic analysis show that the economic sustainability can be reached only for some of the analysed conditions, using the less expensive collector, even if its efficiency allows lower biomethane savings. Future reduction of solar collector costs might improve the economic feasibility. However, when the payback time is calculated, excluding the Italian incentives and considering selling the biomethane at the natural gas price, its value is always higher than 10 years. Therefore, incentives mechanism is of great importance to support the economic sustainability of solar integration in biowaste anaerobic digestion producing biomethane.


Author(s):  
Abdul Mosaur Waseel ◽  
Najib Rahman Sabory ◽  
Hameedullah Zaheb ◽  
Abdul Kareem Waseel

Production of required thermal energy to heat residential buildings is a considerable issue in energy studies. Kabul city is a city in which the coal-fired central heating systems for providing the mentioned energy is in expansion process. And, coal as feeding source of these systems with generation of carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main cause of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions in winter. Fortunately, Kabul city has maximum solar radiation in summer warm season which can be used for fulfilling of this demand in winter cold season. The method which can perform this task is the central heating by seasonal sensible heat storage of solar thermal energy. But, the economic and environmental feasibility and viability of this method is a discussable issue. In this study, the central heating by seasonal sensible heat storage of solar thermal energy and its economic and environmental feasibility and viability is studied. It is tried that this system is compared in a logical method with current coal-fired systems. The economic feasibility study is accomplished by comparison of initial or capital cost and annual operation and maintenance cost with the usage of existing data and thermodynamic analytic methods. The environmental viability study is accomplished by comparison of annual emissions of CO2 with the usage of online emissions calculator. Unfortunately, it is found that seasonal sensible heat storage of solar thermal energy is not an economically feasible method for central heating due to its high initial cost and cannot be used in an economically beneficial manner for central heating. But fortunately, it is an environmentally viable method and environmentally friendly way due to its no and/or zero CO2 emissions. To sum up, it is suggested that, this method should be used for district heating which can make this system economically feasible.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolina Matuszek ◽  
R. Vijayaraghavan ◽  
Craig Forsyth ◽  
Surianarayanan Mahadevan ◽  
Mega Kar ◽  
...  

Renewable energy has the ultimate capacity to resolve the environmental and scarcity challenges of the world’s energy supplies. However, both the utility of these sources and the economics of their implementation are strongly limited by their intermittent nature; inexpensive means of energy storage therefore needs to be part of the design. Distributed thermal energy storage is surprisingly underdeveloped in this context, in part due to the lack of advanced storage materials. Here, we describe a novel family of thermal energy storage materials based on pyrazolium cation, that operate in the 100-220°C temperature range, offering safe, inexpensive capacity, opening new pathways for high efficiency collection and storage of both solar-thermal energy, as well as excess wind power. We probe the molecular origins of the high thermal energy storage capacity of these ionic materials and demonstrate extended cycling that provides a basis for further scale up and development.


Energy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 225 ◽  
pp. 120096
Author(s):  
Hongjuan Hou ◽  
Qiongjie Du ◽  
Chang Huang ◽  
Le Zhang ◽  
Eric Hu

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