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Sustainable and Renewable Energy Technologies in the Built Environment

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2022) | Viewed by 16831

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Wenye Lin

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Guest Editor

Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, 79110 Freiburg, Germany
Interests: Sustainable and renewable energy technologies in the built environment; Novel heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems; Thermal energy storage (TES) using phase change materials (PCMs) in buildings; Solar photovoltaic thermal (PVT) systems; Phase change material slurries; Analysis of indoor environment quality (IEQ) using data mining technologies; Dynamic modelling and optimization of buildings and building HVAC systems; Mechanical vapor re-compression (MVR) systems for heat recovery

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As one of the major consumers of energy, buildings account for a significant proportion of the global energy usage as well as a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions, which gives rise to a series of problems of public concern such as energy resource exhaustion, energy supply difficulties, global warming, and environmental pollution. These problems are expected to be drastically aggravated by the rapidly increasing building energy demand, easier access to energy, rapid growth in total floor area worldwide, and continuous improvement in the quality of life. Therefore, sustainability and energy efficiency in the built environment have become high priorities and attracted increasing attention. In recent decades, much effort has been made on the development and deployment of sustainable and renewable energy technologies to mitigate or address the global energy and environment challenges.

This Special Issue aims to gather original research and review articles regarding various sustainable and low-energy technologies, solutions, and systems in the built environment, thereby providing a platform to present the latest advancements, gain an in-depth understanding, and stimulate the further promotion of these technologies. Topics within the scope of this Special Issue include but are not limited to:

Renewable energy technologies, such as solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, wind, geothermal, and biomass technologies, , in the built environment;
Sustainable technologies, such as energy storage, green roof, radiative cooling, desiccant cooling, dehumidification technologies, , in the built environment;
Net-zero and low-energy buildings;
High-efficiency heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems;
Indoor environmental quality optimization for energy saving;
Integration of sustainable and renewable energy technologies on building façades;
Optimization of sustainable and renewable energy systems in the built environment;
Energy flexibility and demand-side management in buildings;
Building energy management using data mining;
Environmental assessment of sustainable and renewable energy systems in the built environment;
Economic analysis of sustainable and renewable energy systems in the built environment.

Dr. Wenye Lin
Guest Editor

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. 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

built environment
sustainable technologies
renewable energy
energy efficiency
energy management

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 4083 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Three-Dimensional Modeling and Performance Study of High Temperature Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell with Metal Foam

by Jianguo Zhao, Zihan Lin and Mingjue Zhou

Sustainability 2022, 14(12), 7064; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14127064 - 09 Jun 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1894

Abstract

Optimizing the flow field of solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) has a significant effect on improving performance. In this study, the effect of metal foam in high temperature SOEC electrolysis steam is investigated by a three-dimensional model. The simulation results show that the SOEC performance is improved by using metal foam as a gas flow field. The steam conversion rate of the SOEC increases from 72.21% to 76.18% and the diffusion flux of steam increases from 2.3 × 10⁻⁴ kg/(m²∙s) to 2.5 × 10⁻⁴ kg/(m²∙s) at 10,000 A/m². In addition, the permeability, temperature, steam mole fraction, and gas utilization are investigated to understand the effect of the improved performance of the SOEC with metal foam. The results of this study provide a baseline for the optimal design of SOECs with metal foam. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable and Renewable Energy Technologies in the Built Environment)

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18 pages, 2755 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Performance Enhancement and Life-Cycle Cost Savings of Supercooled Water Ice Slurry Generation Systems Using Heat Regeneration

by Chong Zhang, Luwei Yang, Wenye Lin, Juan Wei and Fengjun Guo

Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 3836; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14073836 - 24 Mar 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1466

Abstract

This paper presents the development and utilisation of a heat regeneration approach to enhancing the performance and reducing the life-cycle cost of supercooled water ice slurry generation systems. Two supercooled water systems with direct and indirect ice slurry generation were enhanced by the heat regeneration approach to avoid excessive cold loss and increase the supercooling degree, thereby improving system efficiency while reducing operational costs. Their respective performance and life-cycle costs were experimentally evaluated and compared to the ones without heat regeneration enhancement under different working conditions, as well as to a conventional scraped surface ice slurry generator used as a benchmark. It was found from the comparative investigation that the heat regeneration approach can effectively reduce the water temperature at the inlet of the supercooler, allowing a significant amount of cold loss to be saved for ice slurry generation. The effective utilisation rate of cold can be effectively improved by over 15% when using the heat regeneration approach, and the unit ice mass power consumption can be reduced by 12–20%. Due to the attractive energy-saving potential, the operational cost-effectiveness of the enhanced systems contributed to cut-down of life-cycle cost. It was found that the life-cycle costs of the enhanced direct and indirect ice slurry generation systems were 62.0% and 74.7% lower than that of the conventional scraped surface ice slurry generator, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable and Renewable Energy Technologies in the Built Environment)

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13 pages, 2299 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Efficiency Enhancement of an Ammonia-Based Solar Thermochemical Energy Storage System Implemented with Hydrogen Permeation Membrane

by Qi Xia, Shuaiming Feng, Mingmin Kong and Chen Chen

Sustainability 2021, 13(22), 12783; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su132212783 - 19 Nov 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1971

Abstract

The ammonia-based solar thermochemical energy storage (TCES) is one of the most promising solar TCESs. However, the solar-to-electric efficiency is still not high enough for further commercialization. The efficiency is limited by the high ammonia decomposition reaction temperature, which does not only increase the exergy loss through the heat recuperation but also causes a large re-radiation loss. Nonetheless, lowering the reaction temperature would impact the conversion and the energy storage capacity. Thanks to the recent development of the membrane technology, the hydrogen permeation membrane has the potential to enhance the conversion of ammonia decomposition under the moderate operating temperature. In this paper, an ammonia-based solar thermochemical energy storage system implemented with hydrogen permeation membrane is proposed for the first time. The system model has been developed using the Aspen Plus software implemented with user-defined Fortran subroutines. The model is validated by comparing model-generated reactor temperatures and conversions profiles with data from references. With the validated model, an exergy analysis is performed to investigate the main exergy losses of the system. Furthermore, the effects of the membrane on system efficiency improvement are studied. The results show that exergy loss in the charging loop is dominant, among which the exergy losses of Heat Exchanger E_h,A, together with that of the re-radiation E_r, play important roles. Compared with the conventional system, i.e., the system without the membrane, the E_h,A and E_r of the proposed system are more than 30% lower because the hydrogen permeation membrane can improve ammonia conversion at a lower endothermic reaction outlet temperature. Consequently, the proposed system, presumably realized by the parabolic trough collector at ~400 °C, has a theoretical solar-to-electric efficiency of η_ste, which is 4.4% higher than the conventional ammonia-based solar thermochemical energy storage system. Last but not least, the efficiency is 3.7% higher than that of a typical parabolic trough solar power plant, which verifies the thermodynamic feasibility of further commercialization. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable and Renewable Energy Technologies in the Built Environment)

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23 pages, 3735 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Performance Analysis of Solar-Assisted Ground-Coupled Heat Pump Systems with Seasonal Thermal Energy Storage to Supply Domestic Hot Water for Campus Buildings in Southern China

by Jin Zhou, Zhikai Cui, Feng Xu and Guoqiang Zhang

Sustainability 2021, 13(15), 8344; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13158344 - 27 Jul 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2238

Abstract

The supply of domestic hot water (DHW) on college and university campuses is indispensable and is also one of the main components of campus energy consumption. The density of residential patterns and similar occupancy behavior of college students make it economical to use centralized systems to cover the DHW demand, and utilization of solar energy can make the systems more economical. Seasonal thermal energy storage (STES) is a promising key technology that can minimize the imbalance between the availability of solar energy and thermal energy demand. In this paper, a solar-assisted ground-coupled heat pump (SAGCHP) system that meets the DHW demand of 960 students was investigated by means of dynamic simulation and energy-economic analysis. The simulation results in terms of the underground heat balance are compared with a standalone GCHP system and a SAGCHP system without STES. Results show that heat recharging operations during university summer and winter breaks (when there are minimal students on campus) lead to improved underground heat balance and energy performance. Finally, a sensitivity analysis on system performance was carried out by varying solar collector arrays. It was found that there exists an optimal value of solar collector area to achieve the lowest system lifecycle cost (LCC). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable and Renewable Energy Technologies in the Built Environment)

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21 pages, 5097 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Novel Oil-free Dual Piston Compressor Driven by a Moving Coil Linear Motor with Capacity Regulation Using R134a

by Jian Sun, Jianguo Li, Yuanli Liu, Zhijie Huang and Jinghui Cai

Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 5029; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13095029 - 30 Apr 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2788

Abstract

Improving compressor efficiency is very important to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A novel oil-free dual piston compressor prototype driven by a moving coil linear motor was developed, and its working principle was described in detail. The prototype was integrated with a test rig to measure the operation characteristics, the compressor efficiencies and the coefficient of performance (COP). The results show that the dual piston structure results in extraordinary sinusoidal gas force and electromagnetic force and significantly reduces piston offset, which is completely different from the traditional single piston structure. Compared with the variable frequency method, the variable stroke method has lower energy consumption and a higher COP, which is more suitable to cooling capacity regulation for the prototype. The maximum COP, motor efficiency and volumetric efficiency are 5.34, 87.9% and 79.1%, respectively, under the design condition (the evaporation pressure is 0.35 MPa, and the pressure ratio is 2.54). The COP of the linear compressor is 38%, 24% and 12% higher than the commercial crank-driven reciprocating compressor at the pressure ratios of 2.54, 2.80 and 3.90, respectively, which reflects the efficiency advantage of the dual piston linear compressor in household refrigeration. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable and Renewable Energy Technologies in the Built Environment)

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17 pages, 4902 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigation of Mixing Behavior of Hydrogen Blended to Natural Gas in Gas Network

by Mingmin Kong, Shuaiming Feng, Qi Xia, Chen Chen, Zhouxin Pan and Zengliang Gao

Sustainability 2021, 13(8), 4255; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13084255 - 12 Apr 2021

Cited by 31 | Viewed by 4839

Abstract

Hydrogen is of great significance for replacing fossil fuels and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The application of hydrogen mixing with natural gas in gas network transportation not only improves the utilization rate of hydrogen energy, but also reduces the cost of large-scale updating household or commercial appliance. This paper investigates the necessity of a gas mixing device for adding hydrogen to existing natural gas pipelines in the industrial gas network. A three-dimensional helical static mixer model is developed to simulate the mixing behavior of the gas mixture. In addition, the model is validated with experimental results. Parametric studies are performed to investigate the effect of mixer on the mixing performance including the coefficient of variation (COV) and pressure loss. The research results show that, based on the, the optimum number of mixing units is three. The arrangement of the torsion angle of the mixing unit has a greater impact on the COV. When the torsion angle θ = 120°, the COV has a minimum value of 0.66%, and when the torsion angle θ = 60°, the COV has a maximum value of 8.54%. The distance of the mixing unit has little effect on the pressure loss of the mixed gas but has a greater impact on the COV. Consecutive arrangement of the mixing units (Case A) is the best solution. Increasing the distance of the mixing unit is not effective for the gas mixing effect. Last but not least, the gas mixer is optimized to improve the mixing performance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable and Renewable Energy Technologies in the Built Environment)

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