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Reaching Net Zero—Energy Conversion and Storage Systems

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 December 2023) | Viewed by 5868

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Zhi Li

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Guest Editor

College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Interests: waste heat recovery; thermal energy storage; thermal management of vehicles; thermo-electrochemical systems

Dr. Jie Lin

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Guest Editor

Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Science, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
Interests: cooling and dehumidification; thermal management; battery diagnostics; battery multiscale characterization; battery modelling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Yiji Lu

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Guest Editor

James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
Interests: alternative fuels; energy conversion & storage; hydrogen economy; thermal energy engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Net Zero has become a worldwide energy policy due to the increasingly severe carbon emissions and greenhouse effect. To achieve the target of net zero, energy conversion and storage systems play a vital role in improving the energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions of existing energy systems. Energy conversion technologies, including thermodynamic cycles, thermoelectric generators, and thermo-electrochemical cells, can convert the low-grade heat of traditional energy systems to power or electricity; however, these technologies are hindered by the fluctuations and intermittence of heat sources, such as industrial waste heat and solar energy, which demonstrates the importance of energy storage technologies. On the one hand, energy storage can mitigate the effects of fluctuating heat sources on energy conversion systems. On the other hand, the development of energy storage technologies can accelerate the utilization and promotion of renewable energies, such as solar energy, wind energy, and hydrogen energy.

This Special Issue aims to provide a temporary platform for spreading the knowledge and solutions regarding net zero from the aspects of energy conversion and storage systems. We welcome the submission of original research articles, review articles, and other papers. Suggested topics include but are not limited to the following:

Heat-to-power technologies;
Heat-to-electricity technologies;
Heat recovery systems;
Management and optimization of energy systems;
Distributed energy systems;
Thermal energy storage;
Electrochemical energy storage;
Large-scale energy storage;
Renewable energy utilization;
Hydrogen energy;
Energy policy on energy storage;
Low-carbon and sustainable cities.

Dr. Zhi Li
Dr. Jie Lin
Dr. Yiji Lu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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. Sustainability 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

thermal energy storage
integrated energy system
energy conversion
waste heat recovery
thermal management

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 9191 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigation on Thermal and Electrical Performance of Late-Model Plate-and-Tube in Water-Based PVT-PCM Collectors

by Manfeng Li, Zongshuai Yang, Lanjing Lu, Kui Yin and Yiji Lu

Sustainability 2023, 15(7), 5988; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15075988 - 30 Mar 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1267

Abstract

A large amount of redundant energy gained from incident solar energy is dissipated into the environment in the form of low-grade heat, which significantly reduces and limits the performance of photovoltaic cells, so removing or storing redundant heat and converting it back into available thermal energy is a promising way to improve the utilization of solar energy. A new combined water-based solar photovoltaic-thermophotovoltaic system embedded in the phase change material (PCM) mainly is proposed and designed. The effects of the water flow rate, cell operating temperature, the presence of PCM, and the thickness of the PCM factor on the overall module performance are explored comprehensively. The maximum thermal power output and the corresponding efficiency of the combined-system-embedded PCM are calculated numerically, The results obtained are compared with those of the PV (photovoltaic) and PVT(photovoltaic-thermal) cells with the same solar operating conditions. In addition, the PVT-PCM system possesses a higher power output and overall efficiency in comparison with the PVT and PV system, and the maximum cell temperature reduction of 12.54 °C and 42.28 °C is observed compared with PVT and PV systems. Moreover, an increased average power of 1.13 W and 4.59 in PVT-PCM systems is obtained compared with the PVT system and the PV system. Numerical calculation results illustrate that the maximum power output density and efficiency of the PVT-PCM are 3.06% and 16.15% greater than those of a single PVT system and PV system in the working time range, respectively. The obtained findings show the effectiveness of using PCM to improve power output and overall efficiency. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reaching Net Zero—Energy Conversion and Storage Systems)

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18 pages, 4365 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Adaptive Equivalent Fuel Consumption Minimization Based Energy Management Strategy for Extended-Range Electric Vehicle

by Dongwei Yao, Xinwei Lu, Xiangyun Chao, Yongguang Zhang, Junhao Shen, Fanlong Zeng, Ziyan Zhang and Feng Wu

Sustainability 2023, 15(5), 4607; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15054607 - 04 Mar 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1536

Abstract

Unlike battery electric vehicles, extended-range electric vehicles have one more energy source, so a reasonable energy management strategy (EMS) is crucial to the fuel economy of the vehicles. In this paper, an adaptive equivalent fuel consumption minimization strategy (A-ECMS)-based energy management strategy is proposed for the extended-range electric vehicle. The equivalent fuel consumption minimization strategy (ECMS), which utilizes Pontryagin’s minimum principle (PMP), is introduced to design the EMS. Compared with other ECMS strategies, an adaptive equivalent factor algorithm, based on state of charge (SOC) feedback and a proportional–integral (PI) controller is designed to update the equivalent factor under different working conditions. Additionally, a start–stop penalty is added to the objective function to take the dynamic start–stop process of the range extender into account. As a result, under the WLTC driving cycle, the proposed strategy can achieve 6.78 L/100 km comprehensive fuel consumption, saving 6.2% and 3.4% fuel consumption compared with the conventional rule-based thermostat strategy and the power following strategy. Moreover, the proposed EMS achieves the lowest ampere-hour flux among the three EMSs, indicating its ability to improve battery life. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reaching Net Zero—Energy Conversion and Storage Systems)

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15 pages, 3209 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigation of Predictive Regulation Strategy of Secondary Loop in District Heating Systems

by Zhongbo Li, Zheng Luo, Ning Zhang, Xiaojie Lin, Wei Huang, Encheng Feng and Wei Zhong

Sustainability 2023, 15(4), 3524; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15043524 - 14 Feb 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1018

Abstract

The urban energy system is greatly dependent on the District Heating System (DHS). However, many difficulties with regulation and control are caused by its large scale and numerous coupling variables. Additionally, reliance on manual experience means it can be challenging to guarantee heating comfort and effectiveness in the regulation of DHS. This paper proposes a data-driven temperature response prediction model to predict secondary loop supply temperature based on the heating substation’s historical operating status, valve opening degree, weather conditions, etc. Further, the XGBoost model was established in this article with different input and prediction steps. The results show that the XGBoost model with 72 input steps and 24 prediction steps has better performance. As an application example, the model was applied to an urban central heating system. Based on this data-driven model, different operation strategies on primary loop valve opening are compared for temperature response analysis. Operators can check the temperature responses of different valve control strategies before being applied. This paper guides the regulation behavior of the DHS, which is of great significance for the operation of the actual DHS. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reaching Net Zero—Energy Conversion and Storage Systems)

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23 pages, 14167 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Bi-Objective Optimization and Emergy Analysis of Multi-Distributed Energy System Considering Shared Energy Storage

by Zhaonian Ye, Yongzhen Wang, Kai Han, Changlu Zhao, Juntao Han and Yilin Zhu

Sustainability 2023, 15(2), 1011; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15021011 - 05 Jan 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1333

Abstract

Shared energy storage (SES) provides a solution for breaking the poor techno-economic performance of independent energy storage used in renewable energy networks. This paper proposes a multi-distributed energy system (MDES) driven by several heterogeneous energy sources considering SES, where bi-objective optimization and emergy analysis methods are used for the system’s optimal capacity planning and operating scheduling considering economic, environmental, and sustainable performances, and Nash bargaining is adopted for the reasonable distribution of benefits of MDES. Then, an energy system composed of four different DESs (distributed energy system) considering one Shared Energy Storage Operator (SESO) is taken as an example for further study, namely one to four shared energy storage multi-energy systems, where MDES with and without SESO are compared. The results reveal that the operation cost of MDES considering SESO and Nash bargaining is reduced by 3.03%, while all the distributed energy systems have lower operating costs, and SESO has an additional income of $142.4/day. Correspondingly, the emergy yield ratio, emergy sustainability index, and emergy investment ratio of the corresponding system increase by 5.15%, 3.83%, and 9.94%, respectively, wherein the environmental load rate increases by 1.67% because of the greater consumption reduction of renewable resources than that of non-renewable resources under the premise of reduced emergy consumption. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reaching Net Zero—Energy Conversion and Storage Systems)

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