Modelling and optimisation of decentralised hybrid solar biogas system to power an organic Rankine cycle (ORC-Toluene) and air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) for desalination and electric power generation

The intensive use of fossil fuels to meet the world energy and water demand has caused several environmental issues, such as global warming, air pollution and ozone depletion. Therefore, the integration of stand-alone decentralised hybrid renewable energy systems is a promising solution to satisfy the global energy-water demands and minimize the effects of fossil fuels utilisation. Among these hybrid technologies, concentrated solar power (CSP) combined with waste-based biogas to power organic Rankine cycle for cogeneration provide the means to generate dispatchable, reliable, renewable electricity and water in high direct normal incidence (DNI) regions around the world. Due to the strong inverse correlation between DNI resources and freshwater availability, most of the best potential CSP regions also lack sufficient freshwater resources. The current study proposes and applies a novel multi-dimensional modelling technique based on artificial neural networks (ANN) for hourly solar radiation and wind speed data forecasting over six locations in Oman. The developed model is the first attempt to integrate two ANN models simultaneously by using enormous meteorological data points for both solar radiation and wind speed prediction. The developed model requires only three parameters as inputs, and it can predict solar radiation and wind speed data simultaneously with high accuracy. As a result, the model provides a user-friendly interface that can be utilised in the energy systems design process. Consequently, this model facilitates the implementation of renewable energy technologies in remote areas in which gathering of weather data is challenging. Meanwhile, the accuracy of the model has been tested by calculating the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and the correlation coefficient (R). Therefore, the model developed in this study can provide accurate weather data and inform decision makers for future instalments of energy systems. Furthermore, a novel proposed hybrid solar and biogas system for desalination and electric power generation using advanced modelling techniques to integrate the stand-alone off-grid system has been designed. The novelty emerges from some facts, which are centralised around the use of a hybrid electric generation via Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and anaerobic digestion biogas to achieve higher stability and profitability. Meanwhile, the cogeneration through the waste heat of the ORC drives the AGMD, which benefits as well from the higher stability due to hybridisation. In addition, an innovative and user-friendly modelling approach has been applied, and this efficiently integrates the individual energy components, i.e. PTC, anaerobic biogas boiler, ORC and AGMD, which fosters the optimisation of the proposed system. The models have been developed in the MATLAB/Simulink® software and have been used to investigate the system area, dimensions, and cost and to ensure that the electrical and water demand of the end-user are met. In addition, a new detailed thermo-economic assessment of the proposed hybrid solar biogas for cogeneration in off-grid applications has been investigated. An energy, exergy, and cost analysis has been performed and to fully utilise this, a sensitivity assessment on the developed model has been analysed to examine the effects of various design parameters on the thermo-economic performance. Finally, implementing an in-depth simulation testing of the system in a rural region in Oman is presented. The novel integrated solar and biogas system that has been designed through advanced modelling in the MATLAB/ Simulink® is integrated with a robust multi-objective optimisation technique to determine the best operating configuration. Three objective functions namely, maximising power and water production, and minimising the unit exergy product costs have been formulated. The turbine efficiency, top ORC vapor temperature and ORC condenser temperature has been selected as the decision variables. The non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) has been employed to solve the optimisation problem and produce a Pareto frontier of the optimal solutions. Further, the TOPSIS approach has been used to select the optimal solution from the Pareto set. The study constitutes the first attempt to holistically optimise such a hybrid off-grid cogeneration system in a robust manner

Study of low grade temperature CCHP systems for the realization of zero power buildings

Combined Cooling Heat and Power Generation (CCHP) or trigeneration has been considered worldwide as a suitable alternative to traditional energy systems in terms of significant energy saving and environmental conservation. The development and evaluation of a solar driven micro-CCHP system based on a ORC cogenerator and an Adsorption Chiller (AC) experimental prototypes has been the focus of this PhD research. The specific objectives of the overall project are: • To design, construct and evaluate an innovative Adsorption Chiller in order to improve the performances of the AC technology. • To thermodynamically model the proposed micro-scale solar driven CHP system and to prove that the concept of trigeneration through solar energy combined with an organic Rankine turbine cycle (ORC) and an adsorption chiller (AC) is suitable for residential applications

Geothermal Energy Utilization and Technologies 2020

Rising pollution, climate change and the depletion of fossil fuels are leading many countries to focus on renewable-based energy conversion systems. In particular, recently introduced energy policies are giving high priority to increasing the use of renewable energy sources, the improvement of energy systems’ security, the minimization of greenhouse gas effect, and social and economic cohesion. Renewable energies’ availability varies during the day and the seasons and so their use must be accurately predicted in conjunction with the management strategies based on load shifting and energy storage. Thus, in order to reduce the criticalities of this uncertainty, the exploitation of more flexible and stable renewable energies, such as the geothermal one, is necessary. Geothermal energy is an abundant renewable source with significant potential in direct use applications, such as in district heating systems, in indirect use ones to produce electricity, and in cogeneration and polygeneration systems for the combined production of power, heating, and cooling energy. This Special Issue includes geothermal energy utilization and the technologies used for its exploitation considering both the direct and indirect use applications

ECOS 2012

The 8-volume set contains the Proceedings of the 25th ECOS 2012 International Conference, Perugia, Italy, June 26th to June 29th, 2012. ECOS is an acronym for Efficiency, Cost, Optimization and Simulation (of energy conversion systems and processes), summarizing the topics covered in ECOS: Thermodynamics, Heat and Mass Transfer, Exergy and Second Law Analysis, Process Integration and Heat Exchanger Networks, Fluid Dynamics and Power Plant Components, Fuel Cells, Simulation of Energy Conversion Systems, Renewable Energies, Thermo-Economic Analysis and Optimisation, Combustion, Chemical Reactors, Carbon Capture and Sequestration, Building/Urban/Complex Energy Systems, Water Desalination and Use of Water Resources, Energy Systems- Environmental and Sustainability Issues, System Operation/ Control/Diagnosis and Prognosis, Industrial Ecology

Sustainable energy for a resilient future: proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies

Volume I, 898 pages, ISBN 9780853583134 Energy Technologies & Renewables Session 1: Biofuels & Biomass Session 5: Building Energy Systems Session 9: Low-carbon/ Low-energy Technologies Session 13: Biomass Systems Session 16: Solar Energy Session 17: Biomass & Biofuels Session 20: Solar Energy Session 21: Solar Energy Session 22: Solar Energy Session 25: Building Energy Technologies Session 26: Solar Energy Session 29: Low-carbon/ Low-energy Technologies Session 32: Heat Pumps Session 33: Low-carbon/ Low-energy Technologies Session 36: Low-carbon/ Low-energy Technologies Poster Session A Poster Session B Poster Session C Poster Session E Volume II, 644 pages, ISBN 9780853583141 Energy Storage & Conversion Session 2: Heating and Cooling Systems Session 6: Heating and Cooling Systems Session 10: Ventilation and Air Conditioning Session 14: Smart and Responsive Buildings Session 18: Phase Change Materials Session 23: Smart and Responsive Buildings Session 30: Heating and Cooling System Session 34: Carbon Sequestration Poster Session A Poster Session C Poster Session D Policies & Management Session 4: Environmental Issues and the Public Session 8: Energy and Environment Security Session 12: Energy and Environment Policies Poster Session A Poster Session D Volume III, 642 pages, ISBN 9780853583158 Sustainable Cities & Environment Session 3: Sustainable and Resilient Cities Session 7: Energy Demand and Use Optimization Session 11: Energy Efficiency in Buildings Session 15: Green and Sustainable Buildings Session 19: Green Buildings and Materials Session 24: Energy Efficiency in Buildings Session 27: Energy Efficiency in Buildings Session 28: Energy Efficiency in Buildings Session 31: Energy Efficiency in Buildings Session 35: Energy Efficiency in Buildings Poster Session A Poster Session D Poster Session

Geothermal Energy: Delivering on the Global Potential

After decades of being largely the preserve of countries in volcanic regions, the use of geothermal energy—for both heat and power applications—is now expanding worldwide. This reflects its excellent low-carbon credentials and its ability to offer baseload and dispatchable output - rare amongst the mainstream renewables. Yet uptake of geothermal still lags behind that of solar and wind, principally because of (i) uncertainties over resource availability in poorly-explored reservoirs and (ii) the concentration of full-lifetime costs into early-stage capital expenditure (capex). Recent advances in reservoir characterization techniques are beginning to narrow the bounds of exploration uncertainty, both by improving estimates of reservoir geometry and properties, and by providing pre-drilling estimates of temperature at depth. Advances in drilling technologies and management have potential to significantly lower initial capex, while operating expenditure is being further reduced by more effective reservoir management — supported by robust mathematical models — and increasingly efficient energy conversion systems (flash, binary and combined-heat-and-power). Advances in characterization and modelling are also improving management of shallow low-enthalpy resources that can only be exploited using heat-pump technology. Taken together with increased public appreciation of the benefits of geothermal, the technology is finally ready to take its place as a mainstream renewable technology, This book draws together some of the latest developments in concepts and technology that are enabling the growing realisation of the global potential of geothermal energy in all its manifestations.After decades of being largely the preserve of countries in volcanic regions, the use of geothermal energy—for both heat and power applications—is now expanding worldwide. This reflects its excellent low-carbon credentials and its ability to offer baseload and dispatchable output - rare amongst the mainstream renewables. Yet uptake of geothermal still lags behind that of solar and wind, principally because of (i) uncertainties over resource availability in poorly-explored reservoirs and (ii) the concentration of full-lifetime costs into early-stage capital expenditure (capex). Recent advances in reservoir characterization techniques are beginning to narrow the bounds of exploration uncertainty, both by improving estimates of reservoir geometry and properties, and by providing pre-drilling estimates of temperature at depth. Advances in drilling technologies and management have potential to significantly lower initial capex, while operating expenditure is being further reduced by more effective reservoir management — supported by robust mathematical models — and increasingly efficient energy conversion systems (flash, binary and combined-heat-and-power). Advances in characterization and modelling are also improving management of shallow low-enthalpy resources that can only be exploited using heat-pump technology. Taken together with increased public appreciation of the benefits of geothermal, the technology is finally ready to take its place as a mainstream renewable technology

WP3 – Innovation in Agriculture and Forestry Sector for Energetic Sustainability

The papers published in this Special Issue “WP3—Innovation in Agriculture and Forestry Sector for Energetic Sustainability” bring together some of the latest research results in the field of biomass valorization and the process of energy production and climate change and other areas relevant to energetic sustainability [1–20]. Moreover, several works address the very important topic of evaluating the safety aspects for energy plant use [21–24]. Responses to our call generated the following statistics:• Submissions (21);• Publications (15);• Rejections (6);• Article types: research articles (13), reviews (2). Of the submitted papers, 15 have been successfully published as articles. Reviewing and selecting the papers for this Special Issue was very inspiring and rewarding. We also thank the editorial staff and reviewers for their efforts and help during the process. For better comprehension, the contributions to this Special Issue are divided into sections, as follows

Energy, Science and Technology 2015. The energy conference for scientists and researchers. Book of Abstracts, EST, Energy Science Technology, International Conference & Exhibition, 20-22 May 2015, Karlsruhe, Germany

We are pleased to present you this Book of Abstracts, which contains the submitted contributions to the "Energy, Science and Technology Conference & Exhibition EST 2015". The EST 2015 took place from May, 20th until May, 22nd 2015 in Karlsruhe, Germany, and brought together many different stakeholders, who do research or work in the broad field of "Energy". Renewable energies have to present a relevant share in a sustainable energy system and energy efficiency has to guarantee that conventional as well as renewable energy sources are transformed and used in a reasonable way. The adaption of existing infrastructure and the establishment of new systems, storages and grids are necessary to face the challenges of a changing energy sector. Those three main topics have been the fundament of the EST 2015, which served as a platform for national and international attendees to discuss and interconnect the various disciplines within energy research and energy business. We thank the authors, who summarised their high-quality and important results and experiences within one-paged abstracts and made the conference and this book possible. The abstracts of this book have been peer-reviewed by an international Scientific Programme Committee and are ordered by type of presentation (oral or poster) and topics. You can navigate by using either the table of contents (page 3) or the conference programme (starting page 4 for oral presentations and page 21 for posters respectively)

Swarm Intelligence

Swarm Intelligence has emerged as one of the most studied artificial intelligence branches during the last decade, constituting the fastest growing stream in the bio-inspired computation community. A clear trend can be deduced analyzing some of the most renowned scientific databases available, showing that the interest aroused by this branch has increased at a notable pace in the last years. This book describes the prominent theories and recent developments of Swarm Intelligence methods, and their application in all fields covered by engineering. This book unleashes a great opportunity for researchers, lecturers, and practitioners interested in Swarm Intelligence, optimization problems, and artificial intelligence