<p>As a part of the fight against the global warming the energy production needs to be more efficient and redirected towards sustainable options. One alternative is cogeneration, which means that electricity and heat is produced in one plant. The purpose with this survey is to examine if there are any commercial available combined heat and power techniques, based on combustion of solid moist biomass, which are suitable to small-scale applications. The technique must be able to produce between 2 and 10 MW thermal and the heat demand is a Swedish district-heating system. When already published reports had been studied, the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) was chosen as the most suitable technique. The possibility of using the ORC to generate electricity from the district-heating return flow was considered simultaneously. The chosen ORC-technique was then evaluated in Excel. The first aspect to be examined was how the performance of a combined heat and power plant was affected by variations in the supply line temperature. It showed that the performance reaches top levels when the temperature is low. The second part contains an optimisation, in a techno-economical perspective, of the ratio between cogeneration and separate heat production for district-heating systems with heat demands below 50 GWh/year. The most profitable combined heat and power plant generates 45 % of the installed power in a 50 GWh system. The profit is, however, too low to justify any construction plans. The conclusion was that there are no economical reasons to choose combined heat and power based on an organic rankine cycle in Sweden today.</p>

<p>This project is a preliminary study in order to build a small power plant, located beside to Gavleån River. It has been designed with the aim of cooling a district of Gävle city, Sweden. That big project is carried out by the international consulting engineering company SWECO. The mentioned plant contains a thermodynamic cycle that takes water from the river and afterwards, it is returned back warmer. It will attempt to study the temperature raise downstream along the river due to the spill of hot water. In addition, it will try to quantify and weight which may be the importance of the increment of temperature compared to the entire river. This work could be vital for an environmental impact study. The thermo and fluid dynamic problem is going to be solved using typical procedure for numerical simulations. To do this, it will be used Computer Aided Design (CAD) to model Gavleån River path and Computational Fluent Dynamics (CFD) to predict the distribution of temperatures. Finally the results of the simulations will be analyzed and discussed to draw conclusions about the final temperature raise in Gavleån River.</p>

Examining methods for controlling the electricity demand in Kuwait was the main objective and motivation of this researchp roject. The extensiveu se of air-conditioning for indoor cooling in office and large commercial buildings in Kuwait and the Gulf States represents a major part of the power and electricity consumption in such countries. The rising electricity generation cost and growing rates of consumption continuously demand the construction new power plants. Devising and enforcing Demand-SideM anagemen(t DSM) in the form of energye fficient operations trategies was the response of this research project to provide a means to rectify this situation using the demand-side management technique known as demand levelling or load shifting. State of the art demand-sidem anagementte chniquesh ave been examined through the developmenot f a model basedp redictive control optimisations trategyf or an integrateda ndm odulara pproachto the provisiono f ice thermals torage. To evaluate the potential of ice-storage assisted air-conditioning systems in flattening the demand curve at peak times during the summer months in Kuwait, a model of a Heating, Ventilation, and Air-conditioning (HVAC) plant was developed in Matlab. The model engaged the use of model based predictive control (MPQ as an optimisation tool for the plant as a whole. The model with MPC was developed to chose and decide on which control strategy to operate the integrated ice-storage HVAC plant. The model succeeded in optimising the operation of the plant and introduced encouraging improvement of the performance of the system as a whole. The concept of the modular ice-storage system was introduced through a control zoning strategy based on zonal orientation. It is believed that such strategy could lead to the modularisation of ice-storage systems. Additionally, the model was examined and tested in relation to load flattening and demonstrated promising enhancement in the shape of the load curve and demonstrated flattened demand curves through the employed strategy. When compared with measured data from existing buildings, the model showed potential for the techniques utilised to improve the load factor for office buildings.

As a part of the fight against the global warming the energy production needs to be more efficient and redirected towards sustainable options. One alternative is cogeneration, which means that electricity and heat is produced in one plant. The purpose with this survey is to examine if there are any commercial available combined heat and power techniques, based on combustion of solid moist biomass, which are suitable to small-scale applications. The technique must be able to produce between 2 and 10 MW thermal and the heat demand is a Swedish district-heating system. When already published reports had been studied, the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) was chosen as the most suitable technique. The possibility of using the ORC to generate electricity from the district-heating return flow was considered simultaneously. The chosen ORC-technique was then evaluated in Excel. The first aspect to be examined was how the performance of a combined heat and power plant was affected by variations in the supply line temperature. It showed that the performance reaches top levels when the temperature is low. The second part contains an optimisation, in a techno-economical perspective, of the ratio between cogeneration and separate heat production for district-heating systems with heat demands below 50 GWh/year. The most profitable combined heat and power plant generates 45 % of the installed power in a 50 GWh system. The profit is, however, too low to justify any construction plans. The conclusion was that there are no economical reasons to choose combined heat and power based on an organic rankine cycle in Sweden today.

This project is a preliminary study in order to build a small power plant, located beside to Gavleån River. It has been designed with the aim of cooling a district of Gävle city, Sweden. That big project is carried out by the international consulting engineering company SWECO. The mentioned plant contains a thermodynamic cycle that takes water from the river and afterwards, it is returned back warmer. It will attempt to study the temperature raise downstream along the river due to the spill of hot water. In addition, it will try to quantify and weight which may be the importance of the increment of temperature compared to the entire river. This work could be vital for an environmental impact study. The thermo and fluid dynamic problem is going to be solved using typical procedure for numerical simulations. To do this, it will be used Computer Aided Design (CAD) to model Gavleån River path and Computational Fluent Dynamics (CFD) to predict the distribution of temperatures. Finally the results of the simulations will be analyzed and discussed to draw conclusions about the final temperature raise in Gavleån River.

Modeling of heat transfer using Dymola. In this report a evaporator, economizer and superheater where modeled. The report describes how the models where modeled and what input was most suitable for a accurate model.

Severe accidents in a Light Water Reactor (LWR) have been a subject of intense research for the last three decades. The research in this area aims to reach understanding of the inherent physical phenomena and reduce the uncertainties in their quantification, with the ultimate goal of developing models that can be applied to safety analysis of nuclear reactors, and to evaluation of the proposed accident management schemes for mitigating the consequences of severe accidents.  In a hypothetical severe accident there is likelihood that the core materials will be relocated to the lower plenum and form a decay-heated debris bed (debris cake) or a melt pool. Interactions of core debris or melt with the reactor structures depend to a large extent on the debris bed or melt pool thermal hydraulics. In case of inadequate cooling, the excessive heat would drive the structures' overheating and ablation, and hence govern the vessel failure mode and timing. In turn, threats to containment integrity associated with potential ex-vessel steam explosions and ex-vessel debris uncoolability depend on the composition, superheat, and amount of molten corium available for discharge upon the vessel failure. That is why predictions of transient melt pool heat transfer in the reactor lower head, subsequent vessel failure modes and melt characteristics upon the discharge are of paramount importance for plant safety assessment.  The main purpose of the present study is to develop a method for reliable prediction of melt pool thermal hydraulics, namely to establish a computational platform for cost-effective, sufficiently-accurate numerical simulations and analyses of core Melt-Structure-Water Interactions in the LWR lower head during a postulated severe core-melting accident. To achieve the goal, an approach to efficient use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been proposed to guide and support the development of models suitable for accident analysis.   The CFD method, on the one hand, is indispensable for scrutinizing flow physics, on the other hand, the validated CFD method can be used to generate necessary data for validation of the accident analysis models. Given the insights gained from the CFD study, physics-based models and computationally-efficient tools are developed for multi-dimensional simulations of transient thermal-hydraulic phenomena in the lower plenum of a LWR during the late phase of an in-vessel core melt progression. To describe natural convection heat transfer in an internally heated volume, and molten metal layer heated from below and cooled from the top (and side) walls, the Effective Convectivity Models (ECM) are developed and implemented in a commercial CFD code. The ECM uses directional heat transfer characteristic velocities to transport the heat to cooled boundaries. The heat transport and interactions are represented through an energy-conservation formulation. The ECM then enables 3D heat transfer simulations of a homogeneous (and stratified) melt pool formed in the LWR lower head. In order to describe phase-change heat transfer associated with core debris or binary mixture (e.g. in a molten metal layer), a temperature-based enthalpy formulation is employed in the Phase-change ECM (so called the PECM). The PECM is capable to represent natural convection heat transfer in a mushy zone. Simple formulation of the PECM method allows implementing different models of mushy zone heat transfer for non-eutectic mixtures. For a non-eutectic binary mixture, compositional convection associated with concentration gradients can be taken into account. The developed models are validated against both existing experimental data and the CFD-generated data. ECM and PECM simulations show a superior computational efficiency compared to the CFD simulation method. The ECM and PECM methods are applied to predict thermal loads imposed on the vessel wall and Control Rod Guide Tubes (CRGTs) during core debris heatup and melting in a Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) lower plenum. It is found that during the accident progression, the CRGT cooling plays a very important role in reducing the thermal loads on the reactor vessel wall. Results of the ECM and PECM simulations suggest a high potential of the CRGT cooling to be an effective measure for severe accident management in BWRs. / <p>QC 20100812</p>

Thermal energy storage (TES), the storage of heat or cooling, is a cost-effective energy storage technology that can greatly enhance the performance of the energy systems with which it interacts. TES acts as a buffer between transient supply and demand of energy. In solar thermal systems, TES enables the power output of the plant to be effectively regulated, despite fluctuating solar irradiance. In district energy systems, TES can be used to shift loads, allowing the system to avoid or take advantage of peak energy prices. The benefit of TES, however, can be significantly enhanced by dynamically optimizing the complete energy system. The ability of TES to shift loads gives the system newfound degrees of freedom which can be exploited to yield optimal performance. In the hybrid solar thermal/fossil fuel system explored in this work, the use of TES enables the system to extract nearly 50% more solar energy when the system is optimized. This requires relaxing some constraints, such as fixed temperature and power control, and dynamically optimizing the over a one-day time horizon. In a district cooling system, TES can help equipment to run more efficiently, by shifting cooling loads, not only between chillers, but temporally, allowing the system to take advantage of the most efficient times for running this equipment. This work also highlights the use of TES in a district energy system, where heat, cooling and electrical power are generated from central locations. Shifting the cooling load frees up electrical generation capacity, which is used to sell power to the grid at peak prices. The combination of optimization, TES, and participation in the electricity market yields a 16% cost savings. The problems encountered in this work require modeling a diverse range of systems including the TES, the solar power plant, boilers, gas and steam turbines, heat recovery equipment, chillers, and pumps. These problems also require novel solution methods that are efficient and effective at obtaining workable solutions. A simultaneous solution method is used for optimizing the solar power plant, while a static/dynamic decoupling method is used for the district energy system. / text

Οι ανανεώσιμες πηγές ενέργειας (ΑΠΕ), όπως η ηλιακή και αιολική ενέργεια μπορούν να προσφέρουν εναλλακτικούς τρόπους παραγωγής ενέργειας. Κάθε μορφή ΑΠΕ έχει τις δικές της ιδιομορφίες και μπορούν να εφαρμοστούν είτε σε μεγάλες εγκαταστάσεις παραγωγής ηλεκτρικής και θερμικής ενέργειας είτε σε μικρότερες μονάδες όπως στα κτίρια. Ενδιαφέρον παρουσιάζει η συνδυασμένη αξιοποίηση των παραπάνω ενεργειακών πηγών, ιδίως για την κάλυψη των ηλεκτρικών και θερμικών αναγκών των κτιρίων. Αντικείμενο της διπλωματικής αυτής εργασίας είναι η μελέτη ενός συστήματος αποτελούμενο από μικρή ανεμογεννήτρια, φωτοβολταϊκά πλαίσια και θερμικό ηλιακό συλλέκτη. Αρχικά γίνεται αναφορά στα επιμέρους συστήματα ΑΠΕ από τα οποία αποτελείται η εγκατάσταση. Στη συνέχεια, αναλύονται τα μετεωρολογικά δεδομένα της περιοχής και ακολουθεί η ενεργειακή μελέτη της συμπεριφοράς του υβριδικού συστήματος. Το κύριο θέμα που εξετάζεται είναι η παροχή ηλεκτρικής ενέργειας για θέρμανση του νερού σε περιπτώσεις που υπάρχει πλεόνασμα ηλεκτρικής ενέργειας. Επίσης αναλύεται η προοπτική συνδυασμού υβριδικών/φωτοβολταϊκών συλλεκτών με Α/Γ. Τέλος παρατίθενται τα συμπεράσματα και οι εκτιμήσεις σχετικά με τη συμπεριφορά του υβριδικού συστήματος στις μεταβολές της ταχύτητας του ανέμου και της ηλιακής ακτινοβολίας σε ημερήσια και ετήσια βάση. / The renewable energy sources (RES) like solar and wind energy can offer an alternative solution to produce power. Each form of RES, has its own specifications and they can applied in big installations of production electric and thermal energy or in smaller units as the buildings. This thesis investigates the performance of a system consist of a small wind turbine, solar photovoltaic modules and solar thermal collector. In the beginning, the design and components of installation is presented. Then, the measured data are used to analyzed the meteorological condition of test site and evaluate the performance of the hybrid system. The main concept, regarding the energy use of electrical to heat water in case that there is surplus of it, is presented. Finally conclusions and considerations about the behavior of hybrid system from the daily and yearly variation of wind speed and solar radiation are included.

Solar energy is a virtually inexhaustible energy resource, and thus, has great potential in helping meet many of our future energy requirements. Current technology used for solar energy conversion, however, is not cost effective. In addition, solar thermal power systems are also generally less efficient as compared to fossil fuel based thermal power plants. There is a large variety of systems for solar thermal power generation, each with certain advantages and disadvantages. A distinct advantage of solar thermal power generation systems is that they can be easily integrated with a storage system and/or with an auxiliary heating system (as in hybrid power systems) to provide stable and reliable power. Also, as the power block of a solar thermal plant resembles that of a conventional thermal power plant, most of the equipment and technology used is already well defined, and hence does not require major break through research for effective utilisation. Manufacturing of components, too, can be easily indigenized. A solar collector field is generally used for solar thermal energy conversion. The field converts high grade radiation energy to low grade heat energy, which will inevitably involve energy losses as per the laws of thermodynamics. The 2nd law of thermodynamics requires that a certain amount of heat energy cannot be utilised and has to be rejected as waste heat. This limits the efficiency of solar thermal energy technology. However, in many situations, the waste heat can be effectively utilized to perform refrigeration and desalination using absorption or solid sorption systems, with technologies popularly known as “polygeneration”. There is extensive research done in the area of solar collectors, including but not limiting to thermal analysis, testing of solar collectors, and economic analysis of solar collectors. Exergy and optimization analyses have also been done for certain solar collector configurations. Research on solar thermal power plants includes energy analysis at system level with certain configurations. Research containing analysis with insolation varying throughout the day is limited. Hence, there is scope for analysis incorporating diurnal variation of insolation for a solar thermal power system. This thesis centres on the thermodynamic analysis at system level of a solar thermal power system using a concentrating solar collector field and a simple Rankine cycle power generation (with steam as the working fluid) for Indian conditions. The aim is to develop a tool for thermodynamic analysis of solar thermal power systems, with a generalised approach that can also be used with different solar collector types, different heat transfer fluids in the primary loop, and also different working fluids in the secondary loop. This analysis emphasises the solar collector field and a basic sensible heat storage system, and investigates the various energy and exergy losses present. Comparisons have been made with and without a storage unit and resulting performance issues of solar thermal power plants have been studied. Differences between the system under consideration and commercially used thermal power plants have also been discussed, which brought out certain limitations of the technology currently in use. A solution from an optimization analysis has been utilized and modified for maximization of exergy generated at collector field. The analysis has been done with models incorporating equations using the laws of thermodynamics. MATLAB has been used to program and simulate the models. Solar radiation data used is from NREL’s Indian Solar Resource Data, which is obtained using their SUNY model by interpreting satellite imagery. The performance of the system has been analysed for Bangalore for four different days with different daylight durations, each day having certain differences in the incident solar radiation or insolation received. A particular solution of an optimization analysis has been modified using the simulation model developed and analysed with the objective of maximization of exergy generated at collector field. It has been found that the performance of the solar thermal power system was largely dependent on the variation of incident solar radiation. The storage system provided a stableperformance for short duration interruptions of solar radiation occurred on Autumn Equinox (23-09-2002).The duration of the interruption was within the limits of storage unit capacity. The major disruption in insolation transpired on Summer Solstice (21-06-2002) caused a significantly large drop in the solar thermal system performance; practically the system ceased to function due to lack of energy resource. Hence, the use of an auxiliary heating system hasbeen considered desirable. The absence of a storage unit has been shown to cause a significant loss in gross performance of the power system. The Rankine cycle turbine had many issues coping with a highly fluctuating energy input, and thus caused efficiency losses and even ceased power generation. A storage unit has been found to be ideal for steady power generation purposes. Some commercial configurations may lack a storage system, but they have been compensated by the auxiliary heating system to ensure stable power generation. The optimization of the solar collector determines that optimal collector temperatures vary in accordance to the incident solar radiation. Hence, the collector fluid outlet temperature must not be fixed so as to handle varying insolation for optimal exergy extraction. The optimal temperatures determined for Bangalore are around 576 K which is close to the values obtained by the simulation of the solar thermal power system. The tools for analysis and simulation of solar thermal power plants developed in this thesis is fairly generalised, as it can be adapted for various types of solar collectors and for different working fluids (other than steam), such as for Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC). The model can also be easily extended to other types of power cycles such as Brayton and Stirling cycles.