Analysis and comparison of energy efficiency code requirements for buildings: A Morocco–Spain case study

The trend in energy consumption, with a particular focus on heating and cooling demand, is an issue that is relevant to the promotion of new energy policies and more efficient energy systems. Moreover, heating and cooling energy demand is expected to rise in the next several decades, mainly due to climate change as well as increasing incomes in developing countries. In this context, the building sector is currently a relevant energy-intensive economic sector in Morocco; it accounts for 33% of the country’s total energy demand (as the sector with the second highest energy demand, after the transport sector), with the residential sector accounting for 25% and the tertiary sector accounting for 8%. Aiming to reduce energy dependence and promote sustainable development, the Moroccan government recently issued a comprehensive plan to increase the share of renewables and improve energy efficiency. This strategy includes novel thermal building regulations promoted by the Moroccan Agency for Energy Efficiency. This paper analyzes the thermal behavior and heating-cooling energy demand of a residential building located in Tangier (Morocco) as a case example, based on the country’s new thermal regulations and considering specific climatological conditions. A comparison with common Moroccan residential buildings as well as with those in nearby countries with similar meteorological conditions but significant differences in terms of energy demand regulation and requirements, such as Spain, is also included. Simulations were carried out using the DesingBuilder and EnergyPlus Software packages. According to the results, the last building thermal regulation requirements in Morocco need to be revised and extended in order to achieve the energy efficiency objectives established by the Moroccan government for 2030

Reduced Detailed Mechanism for Methane Combustion

Simulated results from a detailed elementary reaction mechanism for methane-containing species in flames consisting of nitrogen (NOx), C1 or C2 fuels are presented, and compared with reduced mechanism; this mechanism have been constructed with the analysis of the rate sensitivity matrix f (PCAF method), and the computational singular perturbation (CSP). The analysis was performed on solutions of unstrained adiabatic premixed flames with detailed chemical kinetics described by GRI 3.0 for methane including NOx formation. A 9-step reduced mechanism for methane has been constructed which reproduces accurately laminar burning velocities, flame temperatures and mass fraction distributions of major species for the whole flammability range. Many steady-state species are also predicted satisfactorily. This mechanism is especially for lean flames. This mechanism is accurate for a wide range of the equivalence ratio (1, 0.9, 0.8, and 0.7) and for pressures as high as 40 atm to 60 atm. For both fuels, the CSP algorithm automatically pointed to the same steady-state species as those identified by laborious analysis or intuition in the literature and the global reactions were similar to well established previous methane-reduced mechanisms. This implies that the method is very well suited for the study of complex mechanisms for heavy hydrocarbon combustion

Performance analysis and optimal parameters of a direct evaporative pad cooling system under the climate conditions of Morocco

In this study, a direct evaporative pad cooling system to be used for a poultry house is simulated under the climate conditions of six Moroccan cities. The objective is to optimize the parameters affecting the performance of the system for each city. The thermodynamic properties of humid air are extracted from the open source program CoolProp, and a computer program is used to perform a parametric study in order to find the impacts of the pad thickness and the frontal velocity on system's performance. Simulations have been conducted on cellulosic pad cooling and obtained results show that the system has the potential to lower the outdoor temperature during the hottest period with a coefficient of performance higher than 80, while the average rate of water consumption is higher than 3.3 kg per hour. Keywords: Direct evaporative pad cooling, Cellulosic, Simulated, Coefficient of performance, Optimizatio

Analysis and Comparison of Energy Efficiency Code Requirements for Buildings: A Morocco–Spain Case Study

The trend in energy consumption, with a particular focus on heating and cooling demand, is an issue that is relevant to the promotion of new energy policies and more efficient energy systems. Moreover, heating and cooling energy demand is expected to rise in the next several decades, mainly due to climate change as well as increasing incomes in developing countries. In this context, the building sector is currently a relevant energy-intensive economic sector in Morocco; it accounts for 33% of the country’s total energy demand (as the sector with the second highest energy demand, after the transport sector), with the residential sector accounting for 25% and the tertiary sector accounting for 8%. Aiming to reduce energy dependence and promote sustainable development, the Moroccan government recently issued a comprehensive plan to increase the share of renewables and improve energy efficiency. This strategy includes novel thermal building regulations promoted by the Moroccan Agency for Energy Efficiency. This paper analyzes the thermal behavior and heating-cooling energy demand of a residential building located in Tangier (Morocco) as a case example, based on the country’s new thermal regulations and considering specific climatological conditions. A comparison with common Moroccan residential buildings as well as with those in nearby countries with similar meteorological conditions but significant differences in terms of energy demand regulation and requirements, such as Spain, is also included. Simulations were carried out using the DesingBuilder and EnergyPlus Software packages. According to the results, the last building thermal regulation requirements in Morocco need to be revised and extended in order to achieve the energy efficiency objectives established by the Moroccan government for 2030