A poly-generation system can be defined as the simultaneous and collocated generation of two or more energy supply types, aimed to maximize the utilization of the thermodynamic potential (efficiency) of the consumed energy resources. A Polygeneration system may involve co-generation (power and heat) or tri-generation (power, heat, and cold) processes and may also be connected to a district energy system. A poly-generation plant reclaims heat in a useful form that would be wasted otherwise in separate electricity and heat (and chilled water in some cases) generating systems. By this way a poly-generation plant provides a variety of benefits including improved efficiency and fuel savings, reduction of the primary energy demand total cost of utility service and unit fuel cost, independency for energy and protection of environment. With the overall efficiencies in the range of 70-90%, poly-generation systems are gaining popularity all around the world. including Turkey. In spite of all their potential benefits and increasing interest for poly-generation systems, there is not yet any rating, testing, metrication and classification guidelines and standards. It is indeed very important to rate the performance and energy savings potential, determine the heat and power outputs, estimate the system efficiency and the ratio of the split of the power produced between thermal and electric. These are the information which are hard to determine since there are not enough common test standards, rating standards and nor consensus-based terminology for combined heat and power systems in the world literature. Even the classification of the cogeneration systems is hardly globalized. Aim of this study is to develop a common procedure with respect to the above shortcomings for testing and rating poly-generation systems under realistic operating conditions with accurate formulae which will help to contribute energy and exergy economy by establishing a robust metrication standard based on new evaluation parameters. This study aims to find a procedure to evaluate a poly-generation system by establishing standard test methods and evaluation tools in terms of parameters like energy and exergy characteristics of thermal and electric loads, temperature demand and power split for determining operational characteristics of the system. This may be achieved by revising and expanding DIRECTIVE 2004/8/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL. A case study is expected to be based on a trigeneration power plant to be received within the framework of the EU FP6 HEGEL Poly-generation project, to be tested at METU, which has a capacity of 145 kW electric and 160 kW useful heat.

In the current global climate of declining fossil fuel reserves and due to the impact of industry on the natural environment, industrial sustainability is becoming ever more important. However, sustainability is quite a vague concept for many, and there are a range of interpretations of the word. If the resource efficiency of a factory is taken as a measure of its sustainability, then the concept becomes better defined and quantifiable. In order to analyse the resource efficiency of a factory and suggest improvements, all flows through the manufacturing system need to be modelled. However the factory is a complex environment, there is a wide variation in the quality levels of energy as well as the composition of material flows in the system. The research presented in this thesis shows how the thermodynamics-based concept of ‘exergy’ can be used to quantify the resource efficiency of a factory. The factory is considered an ‘integrated system’, meaning it is composed of the building and the production processes, both interacting with each other. This is supported by three case studies in different industries that demonstrate the practical application of the approach. A review of literature identified that it was appropriate to develop a novel approach that combined exergy analysis with the integrated view of the factory. Such an approach would allow a ‘holistic’ assessment of resource efficiency for different technology options possibly employable. The development of the approach and its illustration through practical case studies is the main contribution of the work presented. Three case studies, when viewed together, illustrate all aspects of the novel exergy based resource accounting approach. The first case study is that of an engine production line, in which the resource efficiency of this part of the factory is analysed for different energy system options relating to heating ventilation and air conditioning. Firstly, the baseline is compared with the use of a solar photovoltaic array to generate electricity, and then a heat recovery unit is considered. Finally, both of these options were used together, and here it is found that the non-renewable exergy supply and exergy destruction are reduced by 51.6% and 49.2% respectively. The second case study is that of a jaggery (a sugar substitute) production line. The exergy efficiency of the process is calculated based on varying the operating temperature of the jaggery furnace. The case study describes the modelling of al flows through the jaggery process in terms of exergy. Since this is the first example of an exergy analysis of a jaggery process, it can be considered a minor contribution of the work. An imaginary secondary process that could utilize the waste heat from the jaggery process is considered in order to illustrate the application of the approach to industrial symbiosis. The non-renewable exergy supply and exergy destruction are determined for the baseline and the alternative option. The goal of this case study is not to present a thermally optimized design; rather it illustrates how the exergy concept can be used to assess the impact of changes to individual process operations on the overall efficiency in industrial symbiosis. When considering natural resource consumption in manufacturing, accounting for clean water consumption is increasingly important. Therefore, a holistic methodology for resource accounting in factories must be able to account for water efficiency as well. The third case study is that of a food production facility where the water supply and effluent are modelled in terms of exergy. A review of relevant literature shows that previously, the exergy content of only natural water bodies and urban wastewater had been quantified. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first example of applying this methodology of modelling water flows in a manufacturing context. The results show that due to a high amount of organic content in food process effluent, there is significant recoverable exergy in it. Therefore, a hypothetical water treatment process was assumed to estimate the possible savings in exergy consumption. The results show that at least a net 4.1% savings in terms of exergy could be possible if anaerobic digestion water treatment was employed. This result can be significant for the UK since the food sector forms a significant portion of the industry in the country. Towards the end of the thesis, a qualitative study is also presented that aims to evaluate the practical utility of the approach for the industry. A mixed method approach was used to acquire data from experts in the field and analyse their responses. The exergy based resource accounting method developed in this thesis was first presented to them before acquiring the responses. A unanimous view emerged that the developed exergy based factory resource accounting methodology has good potential to benefit industrial sustainability. However, they also agreed that exergy was too complex a concept to be currently widely applied in practice. To this effect, measures that could help overcome this barrier to its practical application were presented which form part of future work.

Yes / In this study, air, steam and CO2-enhanced gasification of rice straw was simulated using Aspen PlusTM simulator and compared in terms of their energy, exergy and environmental impacts. It was found that the addition of CO2 had less impact on syngas yield compared with gasification temperature. At lower CO2/Biomass ratios (below 0.25), gasification system efficiency (GSE) for both conventional and CO2-enhanced gasification was below 22.1%, and CO2-enhanced gasification showed a lower GSE than conventional gasification. However at higher CO2/Biomass ratios, CO2-enhanced gasification demonstrated higher GSE than conventional gasification. For CO2-enhanced gasification, GSE continued to increase to 58.8% when CO2/Biomass was raised to 0.87. In addition, it was found that syngas exergy increases with CO2 addition, which was mainly due to the increase in physical exergy. Chemical exergy was 2.05 to 4.85 times higher than physical exergy. The maximum exergy efficiency occurred within the temperature range of 800 oC to 900 oC because syngas exergy peaked in this range. For CO2-enhanced gasification, exergy efficiency was found to be more sensitive to temperature than CO2/Biomass ratios. In addition, the preliminary environmental analysis showed that CO2-enhanced gasification resulted in significant environmental benefits compared with stream gasification. However improved assessment methodologies are still needed to better evaluate the advantages of CO2 utilization.

There has been renewed significance for innovative energy conversion technologies, particularly the heat recovery-to-power technologies for sustainable power generation from renewable energies and waste heat. This is due to the increasing concern over high demand for electricity, energy shortage, global warming and thermal pollution. Among the innovative heat recovery-to- power technologies, the proposed trilateral flash cycle (TFC) is a promising option, which presents a great potential for development. Unlike the Rankine cycles, the TFC starts the working fluid expansion from the saturated liquid condition rather than the saturated, superheated or supercritical vapour phase, bypassing the isothermal boiling phase. The challenges associated with the need to establish system design basis and facilitate system configuration design-supporting analysis from proof-of-concept towards a market-ready TFC technology are significant. Thus, there is a great need for research to improve the understanding of its operation, behaviour and performance. The objective of this study is to develop and establish simulation tools of the TFCs for improving the understanding of their operation, physics of performance metrics and to evaluate novel system configurations for low-grade heat recovery-to-power generation. This study examined modelling and process simulation of the TFC engines in order to evaluate their performance metrics, predictions for guiding system design and parameters estimations. A detailed thermodynamic analysis, performance optimization and parametric analysis of the cycles were conducted, and their optimized performance metrics compared. These were aimed at evaluating the effects of the key parameters on system performances and to improve the understanding of the performance behaviour. Four distinct system configurations of the TFC, comprising the simple TFC, TFC with IHE, reheat TFC and TFC with feed fluid-heating (or regenerative TFC) were examined. Steady-state steady-flow models of the TFC power plants, corresponding to their thermodynamic processes were thermodynamically modelled and implemented using engineering equation solver (ESS). These models were used to determine the optimum synthesis/ design parameters of the cycles and to evaluate their performance metrics, at the subcritical operating conditions and design criteria. Thus, they can be valuable tools in the preliminary prototype system design of the power plants. The results depict that the thermal efficiencies of the simple TFC, TFC with IHE, reheat TFC and regenerative TFC employing n-pentane are 11.85 - 21.97%, 12.32 - 23.91%, 11.86 - 22.07% and 12.01 - 22.9% respectively over the cycle high temperature limit of 393 - 473 K. These suggest that the integration of an IHE, fluid-feed heating and reheating in optimized design of the TFC engine enhanced the heat exchange efficiencies and system performances. The effects of varying the expander inlet pressure at the cycle high temperature and expander isentropic efficiency on performance metrics of the cycles were significant. They have assisted in selecting the optimum-operating limits for the maximum performance metrics. The thermal efficiencies of all the cycles increased as the inlet pressures increased from 2 - 3 MPa and increased as the expander isentropic efficiencies increased from 50 - 100%, while their exergy efficiencies increased. This is due to increased net work outputs that suggest optimal value of pressure ratios between the expander inlets and their outlets. A comprehensive evaluation depicted that the TFC with IHE attained the best performance metrics among the cycles. This is followed by the regenerative TFC whereas the simple TFC and reheat TFC have the lowest at the same subcritical operating conditions. The results presented show that the performance metrics of the cycles depend on the system configuration, and the operating conditions of the cycles, heat source and heat sink. The results also illustrate how system configuration design and sizing might be altered for improved performance and experimental measurements for preliminary prototype development.

La micro-cogénération, production simultanée d’électricité et de chaleur à échelle domestique, se développe actuellement en Europe du fait notamment de son intérêt en termes d’économie d’énergie primaire. L’utilisation d’un combustible biomasse dans un système de micro-cogénération contribue à augmenter la part d’énergie renouvelable dans le mix énergétique. L’objet de ce travail est le développement d’un banc d’essai d’une unité de micro-cogénération biomasse composée d’une chaudière à pellets, d’un moteur à air chaud de type Ericsson (décomposé en une partie compression et une partie détente) et d’un échangeur gaz brûlés-air pressurisé inséré dans la chaudière. Des modèles de chacun de ces composants ont été établis pour caractériser leur fonctionnement sur la plage de réglage des paramètres influents et pour dimensionner l’unité prototype. Deux modèles du moteur Ericsson, en régime permanent et en régime dynamique, ont été mis en place. Ils ont montré l’influence prépondérante sur les performances du moteur des conditions de température et pression de l’air en entrée de détente et des réglages des instants de fermeture des soupapes. L’effet de la prise en compte des pertes dynamiques (pertes de charge, pertes thermiques à la paroi du cylindre, frottements mécaniques) sur l’estimation des performances du moteur a été étudié. Deux modélisations de l’échangeur ont permis de caractériser les transferts thermiques qui le traversent, incluant le rayonnement et l’encrassement par des particules de suie du côté des gaz brûlés. Le banc d’essai de l’unité de micro-cogénération mis en place / Nowadays, the micro combined heat and electrical power (micro-CHP) systems are developing in Europe, in particular because of their interest in terms of primary energy savings. The use of biomass fuel in micro-CHP systems enhances the share of renewable energy in the energy mix. The objective of this work is to develop a test bench for a biomass-fuelled micro-CHP unit composed of a pellet boiler, an Ericsson type hot air engine (decomposed into a compression and an expansion part) and a burned gas-pressurized air heat exchanger inserted in the boiler. Models of every component have been established to characterize their working conditions depending on influent parameter settings and to size the micro-CHP unit. Two models of Ericsson engine, with established and dynamic regimes, were implemented. The preponderant influence of the temperature and pressure conditions at the inlet of the expansion cylinder and of the timing of valve closing on the engine performances are shown. The dynamic model shows the effect of considering the dynamic losses (pressure loss, heat transfer at the cylinder wall, mechanical friction) on the estimation of engine performances. Two models of the heat exchanger allow the characterization of the heat transfers crossing it, taking into account the radiation and the fouling by soot particles on the side of combustion gases. Experimental measurements obtained from the test bench of the micro-CHP unit set up were used in the developed models.