Energy performance of the Serbian and Estonian family house with a selective absorption facade

© Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd. In this paper the influence of selective absorption facade on heating energy consumption of the family house is analyzed. Two houses built according to Serbian and Estonian building energy performance regulation (minimum requirements) are simulated by EnergyPlus software. For simulation process the appropriate weather data are used (Serbia-Kragujevac and Estonia-Tallinn). Heat transfer by radiation, gains and losses can be a significant part of the energy consumption, during heating season. Using selective absorption facade those gains and losses could be increased and reduced, respectively. Several simulation scenarios of Serbian and Estonian house are carried out. Different weather conditions in case of the defined houses point on specific impact of the applied improvement on family house energy performance. Maximum annual percentage savings of heating energy compared to house without selective facade, in case of Serbian house are obtained as 8.32%. In case of Estonian house maximum savings are obtained as 1.92%

Reed as a gasification fuel: a comparison with woody fuels

Reed and coniferous wood can be used for energy production via thermochemical conversion, for instance by gasification. The rate-determining step of the gasification process is the reaction between the char and the gaseous environment in the gasifier, whose rate depends on variables such as pressure, temperature, particle size, mineral matter content, porosity, etc. It is known that reactivity can be improved by increasing the temperature, but on the other hand the temperature achieved in the reactor is limited due to the ash fusion characteristics. Usually, the availability of reed as a fuel is locally modest and, therefore, it must be blended with other fuels such as wood. Blending of fuels brings together several problems relating to ash behaviour, i.e. ash fusion issues. Because there is no correlation between the ash fusion characteristics of biomass blends and their individual components, it is essential to carry out prior laboratory-scale ash fusion tests on the blends. This study compares the reactivity of reed and coniferous wood, and the ash fusion characteristics of blends of reed and coniferous wood ashes. When compared with Douglas fir and reed chars, pine pellets have the highest reactivity. Reed char exhibits the lowest reactivity and, therefore, it is advantageous to gasify reed alone at higher gasification temperatures because the ash fusion temperatures of reed are higher than those of woody fuels. The ash produced by reed and wood blends can melt at lower temperatures than ash from both reed and wood gasified separately. Due to this circumstance the gasification temperature should be chosen carefully when gasification of blends is carried out