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In co-operation with the German Aerospace Center, the Solar-Institut Jülich has been analyzing the different technologies that are available for methanol production from CO2 using solar energy. The aim of the project is to extract CO2 from industrial exhaust gases or directly from the atmosphere to recycle it by use of solar energy. Part of the study was the modeling and simulating of a methane reformer for the production of synthesis gas, which can be operated by solar or hybrid heat sources. The reformer has been simplified in such a way that the model is accurate and enables fast calculations. The developed pseudo-homogeneous one- dimensional model can be regarded as a kind of counter-current heat exchanger and is able to incorporate a steam reforming reaction as well as a dry reforming reaction.
Concentrating solar power
(2022)
The focus of this chapter is the production of power and the use of the heat produced from concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) systems.
The chapter starts with the general theoretical principles of concentrating systems including the description of the concentration ratio, the energy and mass balance. The power conversion systems is the main part where solar-only operation and the increase in operational hours.
Solar-only operation include the use of steam turbines, gas turbines, organic Rankine cycles and solar dishes. The operational hours can be increased with hybridization and with storage.
Another important topic is the cogeneration where solar cooling, desalination and of heat usage is described.
Many examples of commercial CSP power plants as well as research facilities from the past as well as current installed and in operation are described in detail.
The chapter closes with economic and environmental aspects and with the future potential of the development of CSP around the world.
Concentrating Solar Power
(2021)
The focus of this chapter is the production of power and the use of the heat produced from concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) systems.
The chapter starts with the general theoretical principles of concentrating systems including the description of the concentration ratio, the energy and mass balance. The power conversion systems is the main part where solar-only operation and the increase in operational hours.
Solar-only operation include the use of steam turbines, gas turbines, organic Rankine cycles and solar dishes. The operational hours can be increased with hybridization and with storage.
Another important topic is the cogeneration where solar cooling, desalination and of heat usage is described.
Many examples of commercial CSP power plants as well as research facilities from the past as well as current installed and in operation are described in detail.
The chapter closes with economic and environmental aspects and with the future potential of the development of CSP around the world.
Concentrating solar power
(2012)
Solar thermal concentrated power is an emerging technology that provides clean electricity for the growing energy market. To the solar thermal concentrated power plant systems belong the parabolic trough, the Fresnel collector, the solar dish, and the central receiver system.
For high-concentration solar collector systems, optical and thermal analysis is essential. There exist a number of measurement techniques and systems for the optical and thermal characterization of the efficiency of solar thermal concentrated systems.
For each system, structure, components, and specific characteristics types are described. The chapter presents additionally an outline for the calculation of system performance and operation and maintenance topics. One main focus is set to the models of components and their construction details as well as different types on the market. In the later part of this article, different criteria for the choice of technology are analyzed in detail.
Solar thermal concentrated power is an emerging technology that provides clean electricity for the growing energy market. To the solar thermal concentrated power plant systems belong the parabolic trough, the Fresnel collector, the solar dish, and the central receiver system.
For high-concentration solar collector systems, optical and thermal analysis is essential. There exist a number of measurement techniques and systems for the optical and thermal characterization of the efficiency of solar thermal concentrated systems.
For each system, structure, components, and specific characteristics types are described. The chapter presents additionally an outline for the calculation of system performance and operation and maintenance topics. One main focus is set to the models of components and their construction details as well as different types on the market. In the later part of this chapter, different criteria for the choice of technology are analyzed in detail.
Solar tower power plants
(2008)
This chapter introduces performance and acceptance testing and describes state-of-the-art tools, methods, and instruments to assess the plant performance or realize plant acceptance testing. The status of the development of standards for performance assessment is given.
This study focuses on thermoelectric elements (TEE) as an alternative for room temperature control. TEE are semi-conductor devices that can provide heating and cooling via a heat pump effect without direct noise emissions and no refrigerant use. An efficiency evaluation of the optimal operating mode is carried out for different numbers of TEE, ambient temperatures, and heating loads. The influence of an additional heat recovery unit on system efficiency and an unevenly distributed heating demand are examined. The results show that TEE can provide heat at a coefficient of performance (COP) greater than one especially for small heating demands and high ambient temperatures. The efficiency increases with the number of elements in the system and is subject to economies of scale. The best COP exceeds six at optimal operating conditions. An additional heat recovery unit proves beneficial for low ambient temperatures and systems with few TEE. It makes COPs above one possible at ambient temperatures below 0 ∘C. The effect increases efficiency by maximal 0.81 (from 1.90 to 2.71) at ambient temperature 5 K below room temperature and heating demand Q˙h=100W but is subject to diseconomies of scale. Thermoelectric technology is a valuable option for electricity-based heat supply and can provide cooling and ventilation functions. A careful system design as well as an additional heat recovery unit significantly benefits the performance. This makes TEE superior to direct current heating systems and competitive to heat pumps for small scale applications with focus on avoiding noise and harmful refrigerants.
Advanced window systems and building energy performance / S. Reilly ; J. Göttsche ; V. Wittwer
(1991)
The Passivhaus building standard is a concept developed for the realization of energy-efficient and economical buildings with a simultaneous high utilization comfort under European climate conditions. Major elements of the Passivhaus concept are a high thermal insulation of the external walls, the use of heat and/or solar shading glazing as well as an airtight building envelope in combination with energy-efficient technical building installations and heating or cooling generators, such as an efficient energy-recovery in the building air-conditioning. The objective of this research project is the inquiry to determine the parameters or constraints under which the Passivhaus concept can be implemented under the arid climate conditions in the Arabian Peninsula to achieve an energy-efficient and economical building with high utilization comfort. In cooperation between the Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC), Barwa Real Estate (BRE) and Kahramaa the first Passivhaus was constructed in Qatar and on the Arabian Peninsula in 2013. The Solar-Institut Jülich of Aachen University of Applied Science supports the Qatar Green Building Council with a dynamic building and equipment simulation of the Passivhaus and the neighbouring reference building. This includes simulation studies with different component configurations for the building envelope and different control strategies for heating or cooling systems as well as the air conditioning of buildings to find an energetic-economical optimum. Part of these analyses is the evaluation of the energy efficiency of the used energy recovery system in the Passivhaus air-conditioning and identification of possible energy-saving effects by the use of a bypass function integrated in the heat exchanger. In this way it is expected that on an annual basis the complete electricity demand of the building can be covered by the roof-integrated PV generator.
The optical performance of a 2-axis solar concentrator was simulated with the COMSOL Multiphysics® software. The concentrator consists of a mirror array, which was created using the application builder. The mirror facets are preconfigured to form a focal point. During tracking all mirrors are moved simultaneously in a coupled mode by 2 motors in two axes, in order to keep the system in focus with the moving sun. Optical errors on each reflecting surface were implemented in combination with the solar angular cone of ± 4.65 mrad. As a result, the intercept factor of solar radiation that is available to the receiver was calculated as a function of the transversal and longitudinal angles of incidence. In addition, the intensity distribution on the receiver plane was calculated as a function of the incidence angles.
Eldorado summer schools
(1994)
Ceramic hot gas filters are widely used in combined cycles based on pressurised fluidised beds. They fulfil most of the demands with respect to cleaning efficiency and long time durability, but their operation regarding the consumption of pulse gas and energy still has to be optimised. Experimental investigations were carried out to measure the flow field, the pressure and the gas temperature inside the filter candle during pulse jet cleaning. These results are compared with the results of a numerical procedure based on a solution of the two - dimensional conservation equations for momentum and energy. The observed difficulties handling different flow regimes like highly turbulent flow as well as Darcy flow simultaneously are discussed.
An approach to automatically generate a dynamic energy simulation model in Modelica for a single existing building is presented. It aims at collecting data about the status quo in the preparation of energy retrofits with low effort and costs. The proposed method starts from a polygon model of the outer building envelope obtained from photogrammetrically generated point clouds. The open-source tools TEASER and AixLib are used for data enrichment and model generation. A case study was conducted on a single-family house. The resulting model can accurately reproduce the internal air temperatures during synthetical heating up and cooling down. Modelled and measured whole building heat transfer coefficients (HTC) agree within a 12% range. A sensitivity analysis emphasises the importance of accurate window characterisations and justifies the use of a very simplified interior geometry. Uncertainties arising from the use of archetype U-values are estimated by comparing different typologies, with best- and worst-case estimates showing differences in pre-retrofit heat demand of about ±20% to the average; however, as the assumptions made are permitted by some national standards, the method is already close to practical applicability and opens up a path to quickly estimate possible financial and energy savings after refurbishment.
In the past, CSP and PV have been seen as competing technologies. Despite massive reductions in the electricity generation costs of CSP plants, PV power generation is - at least during sunshine hours - significantly cheaper. If electricity is required not only during the daytime, but around the clock, CSP with its inherent thermal energy storage gets an advantage in terms of LEC. There are a few examples of projects in which CSP plants and PV plants have been co-located, meaning that they feed into the same grid connection point and ideally optimize their operation strategy to yield an overall benefit. In the past eight years, TSK Flagsol has developed a plant concept, which merges both solar technologies into one highly Integrated CSP-PV-Hybrid (ICPH) power plant. Here, unlike in simply co-located concepts, as analyzed e.g. in [1] – [4], excess PV power that would have to be dumped is used in electric molten salt heaters to increase the storage temperature, improving storage and conversion efficiency. The authors demonstrate the electricity cost sensitivity to subsystem sizing for various market scenarios, and compare the resulting optimized ICPH plants with co-located hybrid plants. Independent of the three feed-in tariffs that have been assumed, the ICPH plant shows an electricity cost advantage of almost 20% while maintaining a high degree of flexibility in power dispatch as it is characteristic for CSP power plants. As all components of such an innovative concept are well proven, the system is ready for commercial market implementation. A first project is already contracted and in early engineering execution.