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Applied Sciences
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Thermodynamics and Sustainable Development
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Thermodynamics and Sustainable Development

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Science and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 October 2021) | Viewed by 6942

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Javier Rodríguez-Martín

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Guest Editor
ETSI Industriales, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Interests: thermodynamics; energy and exergy optimization; solar thermal power plants; energy storage systems; modeling and simulation energy systems
Dr. Ignacio López-Paniagua

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Guest Editor
Energy Engineering Department, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), 28006 Madrid, Spain
Interests: exergy analysis; power plants; multiobjective optimisation
Dr. Antonio Soria-Verdugo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Thermal and Fluids Engineering, Carlos III University of Madrid, 28013 Madrid, Spain
Interests: thermochemical conversion of biomass; biomass torrefaction; biomass pyrolysis; biomass gasification; biomass combustion; production of bio-fuels; chemical kinetics of biomass conversion; fluidized bed
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The world of energy has become inseparable from the notion of sustainability. Through its philosophy, the United Nations’ resolution A/RES/70/1, better known as “The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, and the Objectives for Sustainable Development (ODS) inspire and set the direction for national energy plans and policies and will shape our consumer habits all over the world by a number of means, including sustainability-based subsidies and taxes. The task of establishing a body of scientific and technical knowledge to support the engineering of sustainability is immense. How can a system be designed to achieve maximum sustainability? How should the sustainability of processes be monitored? Sustainability must be integrated into the design process: indicators must be developed, thermodynamic-economic-environmental cost functions must be calculated, an optimum design solution must be selected. Efficiency is a central topic in sustainability. New, high-efficiency processes are required, as well as hybridization and other techniques for boosting the efficiency of state-of-the-art technologies. Minimizing exergy waste is critical: extensive research on new storage technologies and strategies to integrate storage in a wide range of processes is required. Indicators, functions and methodologies to monitor the full impact of technological processes on the environment need to be developed. In this sense, life cycle analysis is a powerful tool for a complete evaluation of different technologies. Criteria and studies for sustainability policy-making are also relevant.

Prof. Dr. Javier Rodríguez-Martín
Prof. Dr. Ignacio López-Paniagua
Dr. Antonio Soria-Verdugo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • thermodynamic analysis
  • indicators and methodologies
  • exergy analysis
  • economic analysis
  • environmental analysis
  • sustainability
  • process systems engineering
  • optimization
  • life cycle analysis

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 762 KiB  
Article
Optimal Control for a Hydraulic Recuperation System Using Endoreversible Thermodynamics
by Robin Masser and Karl Heinz Hoffmann
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(11), 5001; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11115001 - 28 May 2021
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 1871
Abstract
Energy savings in the traffic sector are of considerable importance for economic and environmental considerations. Recuperation of mechanical energy in commercial vehicles can contribute to this goal. One promising technology rests on hydraulic systems, in particular for trucks which use such system also [...] Read more.
Energy savings in the traffic sector are of considerable importance for economic and environmental considerations. Recuperation of mechanical energy in commercial vehicles can contribute to this goal. One promising technology rests on hydraulic systems, in particular for trucks which use such system also for other purposes such as lifting cargo or operating a crane. In this work the potential for energy savings is analyzed for commercial vehicles with tipper bodies, as these already have a hydraulic onboard system. The recuperation system is modeled based on endoreversible thermodynamics, thus providing a framework in which realistic driving data can be incorporated. We further used dissipative engine setups for modeling both the hydraulic and combustion engine of the hybrid drive train in order to include realistic efficiency maps. As a result, reduction in fuel consumption of up to 26% as compared to a simple baseline recuperation strategy can be achieved with an optimized recuperation control. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermodynamics and Sustainable Development)
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36 pages, 4947 KiB  
Article
The Potential of Gas Switching Partial Oxidation Using Advanced Oxygen Carriers for Efficient H2 Production with Inherent CO2 Capture
by Carlos Arnaiz del Pozo, Schalk Cloete, Ángel Jiménez Álvaro, Felix Donat and Shahriar Amini
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(10), 4713; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11104713 - 20 May 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2668
Abstract
The hydrogen economy has received resurging interest in recent years, as more countries commit to net-zero CO2 emissions around the mid-century. “Blue” hydrogen from natural gas with CO2 capture and storage (CCS) is one promising sustainable hydrogen supply option. Although conventional [...] Read more.
The hydrogen economy has received resurging interest in recent years, as more countries commit to net-zero CO2 emissions around the mid-century. “Blue” hydrogen from natural gas with CO2 capture and storage (CCS) is one promising sustainable hydrogen supply option. Although conventional CO2 capture imposes a large energy penalty, advanced process concepts using the chemical looping principle can produce blue hydrogen at efficiencies even exceeding the conventional steam methane reforming (SMR) process without CCS. One such configuration is gas switching reforming (GSR), which uses a Ni-based oxygen carrier material to catalyze the SMR reaction and efficiently supply the required process heat by combusting an off-gas fuel with integrated CO2 capture. The present study investigates the potential of advanced La-Fe-based oxygen carrier materials to further increase this advantage using a gas switching partial oxidation (GSPOX) process. These materials can overcome the equilibrium limitations facing conventional catalytic SMR and achieve direct hydrogen production using a water-splitting reaction. Results showed that the GSPOX process can achieve mild efficiency improvements relative to GSR in the range of 0.6–4.1%-points, with the upper bound only achievable by large power and H2 co-production plants employing a highly efficient power cycle. These performance gains and the avoidance of toxicity challenges posed by Ni-based oxygen carriers create a solid case for the further development of these advanced materials. If successful, results from this work indicate that GSPOX blue hydrogen plants can outperform an SMR benchmark with conventional CO2 capture by more than 10%-points, both in terms of efficiency and CO2 avoidance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermodynamics and Sustainable Development)
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26 pages, 6371 KiB  
Article
Modeling Heat Transport in Systems of Hydrate-Filled Sediments Using Residual Thermodynamics and Classical Nucleation Theory
by Mojdeh Zarifi, Bjørn Kvamme and Tatiana Kuznetsova
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(9), 4124; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11094124 - 30 Apr 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1285
Abstract
As in any other phase transition, hydrate phase transition kinetics involves an implicit coupling of phase transition thermodynamic control and the associated dynamics of mass and heat transport. This work provides a brief overview of certain selected hydrate film growth models with an [...] Read more.
As in any other phase transition, hydrate phase transition kinetics involves an implicit coupling of phase transition thermodynamic control and the associated dynamics of mass and heat transport. This work provides a brief overview of certain selected hydrate film growth models with an emphasis on analyzing the hydrate phase transition dynamics. Our analysis is based on the fundamental properties of hydrate and hydrate/liquid water interfaces derived from molecular modeling. We demonstrate that hydrate phase transitions involving water-dominated phases are characterized by heat transport several orders of magnitude faster than mass transport, strongly suggesting that any hydrate phase transition kinetic models based on heat transport will be entirely incorrect as far as thermodynamics is concerned. We therefore propose that theoretical studies focusing on hydrate nucleation and growth should be based on concepts that incorporate all the relevant transport properties. We also illustrate this point using the example of a fairly simplistic kinetic model, that of classical nucleation theory (CNT), modified to incorporate new models for mass transport across water/hydrate interfaces. A novel and consistent model suitable for the calculation of enthalpies is also discussed and appropriate calculations for pure components and relevant mixtures of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrogen are demonstrated. This residual thermodynamic model for hydrate is consistent with the free energy model for hydrate and ensures that our revised CNT model is thermodynamically harmonious. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermodynamics and Sustainable Development)
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