Search results for "thermal energy"
showing 10 items of 126 documents
Like night and day: Reversals of thermal gradients across ghost crab burrows and their implications for thermal ecology
2018
Abstract Ghost crabs, Ocypode cordimanus, inhabit relatively hostile environments subject to thermal fluctuations, including both diurnal and seasonal cycles. For many ectotherms, including ghost crabs, a major challenge is to remain cool during hot daytime temperatures. This can be achieved by adopting a fossorial lifestyle, taking advantage of thermal refuge afforded by burrows of sufficient depth. Another consideration, often overlooked, is the potential advantage associated with ready access to a thermal energy source (a “charging station”) when surface temperatures are cooler. Being able to rapidly elevate body temperature during cool periods would enhance the crab's ability to maintai…
Biorefinery process for hydrothermal liquefaction of microalgae powered by a concentrating solar plant: A conceptual study
2017
Abstract A conceptual analysis of coupling a concentrating solar power plant with a biorefinery process consisting in the hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of microalgae to biocrude was performed. The configuration of the CSP-HTL plant was designed to allow continuous operation considering 10 kT of microalgae processed each year using, for the first time, a ternary nitrate mixture as heat transfer fluid and storage medium in the temperature range of 340–410 °C. With adopted models, the capital and operating costs of the solar plant marginally affect the minimum fuel selling prize (MFSP) of biocrude that decreases with the size of the solar field and of the thermal storage system provided that…
Long-term performance and life cycle assessment of energy piles in three different climatic conditions
2020
Abstract The main purpose behind the use of energy piles is to enable the exploitation of geothermal energy for meeting the heating/cooling demands of buildings in an efficient and environment-friendly manner. However, the long-term performance of energy piles in different climatic conditions, along with their actual environmental impacts, has not been fully assessed. In this paper, the results of a finite element model taking into consideration the heating and cooling demands of a reference building, and the intermittent operation of a ground source heat pump, are revealed to examine the long-term performance of energy piles. Furthermore, a life cycle assessment model is implemented to com…
A solar assisted seasonal borehole thermal energy system for a non-residential building in the Mediterranean area
2019
Abstract Solar heating and cooling systems are reliable and feasible solutions among renewable energy technologies. Indeed, solar thermal devices help reduce primary energy consumption and can reduce electricity demand, thus representing one of the best options for satisfying heating and/or cooling energy supply. The Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES) represents one of the best promising option among the various storage technologies, because the size of the storage can be easily extended by drilling additional boreholes and simply connecting the pipes to the existing boreholes; the overall energy efficiency of this system is about 40–60%. In this paper, the authors present an applicatio…
Energy and economic analysis of air-to-air heat pumps as an alternative to domestic gas boiler heating systems in the South of Italy
2019
Abstract According to the electricity tariff recently issued by the Italian government for the domestic heating systems fed with heat pumps (HP), an energy and economic analysis was carried out with the aim of investigating the effectiveness of the air-to-air heat pump systems (HPS) as an alternative to the traditional heating using domestic gas boilers systems (GBS). For the purpose of this study, the apartments of three residential buildings were examined. The hourly heating loads were calculated with the ASHRAE radiant time series and the coefficient of performance (COP) of the HPs was evaluated for each operating condition. The costs for the heating system installation and electricity a…
District heating networks: enhancement of the efficiency
2019
International audience; During the decades the district heating's (DH) advantages (more cost-efficient heat generation and reduced air pollution) overcompensated the additional costs of transmission and distribution of the centrally produced thermal energy to consumers. Rapid increase in the efficiency of low-power heaters, development of separated low heat density areas in cities reduce the competitiveness of the large centralized DH systems in comparison with the distributed cluster-size networks and even local heating. Reduction of transmission costs, enhancement of the network efficiency by optimization of the design of the DH networks become a critical issue. The methodology for determ…
Application of optimized artificial intelligence algorithm to evaluate the heating energy demand of non-residential buildings at European level
2019
Abstract A reliable preliminary forecast of heating energy demand of a building by using a detailed dynamic simulation software typically requires an in-depth knowledge of the thermal balance, several input data and a very skilled user. The authors will describe how to use Artificial Neural Networks to predict the demand for thermal energy linked to the winter climatization of non-residential buildings. To train the neural network it was necessary to develop an accurate energy database that represents the basis of the training of a specific Artificial Neural Networks. Data came from detailed dynamic simulations performed in the TRNSYS environment. The models were built according to the stan…
Multiple criteria assessment of methods for forecasting building thermal energy demand
2020
Abstract Nowadays worldwide directives have focused the attention on improving energy efficiency in the building sector. The research of models able to predict the energy consumption from the first design and energy planning phase is conducted to improve building sustainability. Use of traditional forecasting tools for building thermal energy demand tends to encounter difficulties relevant to the amount of data required, implementation of the models, computational costs and inability to generalize the output. Therefore, many studies focused on the research and development of alternative resolution methods, but the choice of the most convenient is not clear and simple. Single comparison of s…
Estimating energy balance fluxes above a boreal forest from radiometric temperature observations
2009
Abstract The great areal extent of boreal forests confers these ecosystems potential to impact on the global surface-atmosphere energy exchange. A modelling approach, based on a simplified two-source energy balance model, was proposed to estimate energy balance fluxes above boreal forests using thermal infrared measurements. Half-hourly data from the Solar-Induced Fluorescence Experiment, carried out in a Finnish boreal forest, was used to evaluate the performance of the model. Energy balance closure, determined by linear regression, found all fluxes to underestimate available energy by 9% (r2 = 0.94). Significance in the energy balance of the heat storage in the air and in the soil terms w…
Assessing the electricity consumption of outdoor lighting systems in the presence of automatic control: The OL-BAC factors method
2020
Abstract Building automation systems are able to influence significantly buildings’ energy performance. The BAC factors method, presented for the first time by the International Standard EN 15232, is the most used and simple instrument for evaluating the impact of such systems in terms of reduction of the electrical and thermal energy consumption of buildings services. Nevertheless, Standard EN 15232 does not take into consideration the automation of lighting systems serving buildings’ external areas like passages, gardens, entrance walkways, etc. In some cases, such areas can be very extended and, as a consequence, responsible for a not negligible percentage of the overall electricity cons…