Seasonal performance assessment of sanitary hot water production systems using propane and CO2 heat pumps

[EN] This paper presents an experimental analysis and performance evaluation of a ground source heat pumpsystem providing heating/cooling to an office building, located at the Universitat Politècnica de Valènciain Spain. The experimental data and a detailed description of the analysis tool used were presented ina previous paper for the first six operational years. This paper provides the adaptation of such analysistool to the new configuration (heat pump with two compressors working in tandem), and provides anupdated complete reference data sets over more than eleven years which can be used by researchers formodel validation purposes.The work of M. Tammaro on electric heat pumps is supported by the Next Heat Pump Generation project (funded by the European Commission in the 7th Framework Programme, grant number 307169 - European Heat Pump Association, 2013), which is gratefully acknowledged.Tammaro, M.; Montagud, C.; Corberán, J.; Mauro, A.; Mastrullo, R. (2017). Seasonal performance assessment of sanitary hot water production systems using propane and CO2 heat pumps. International Journal of Refrigeration. 74:222-237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2016.09.0262222377

Hot sanitary water production with CO2 heat pumps: Effect of control strategy on system performance and stratification inside the storage tank

[EN] In this work three different control strategies for the production of sanitary hot water by means of an electric heat pump working with CO2 are investigated. The heat pump is a prototype, here modelled in the vapour-compression software package IMST-ART. By simulating this model, the performance of the heat pump is correlated to the boundary conditions and is scaled to different sizes, namely 1, 1.5, and 2 times larger than the reference system. After having chosen an application for which the load profile of sanitary hot water during the year is known, these heat pumps are simulated in a TRNSYS16 model where the production of sanitary hot water and the consumption are buffered by the presence of a tank. Key parameter in guaranteeing comfort and good performance of the system is the stratification inside the storage tank. The size of the tank necessary to keep a certain level of comfort at the user is then determined through a parametric analysis for each size of the heat pump. The energetic performance is also evaluated for each system in terms of seasonal performance factor. Then, the results obtained are compared with a different system where the heat pump is equipped with an inverter and the circulation pump follows a different control logic. The size of the tank and the seasonal performance factor are therefore determined in this case too. Moreover, a night&day control logic is compared to these first two options to have a baseline of comparison in terms of volume of storage needed to guarantee a same level of comfort and performance. To provide information also on the running costs, a parametric analysis was run varying the type of control, the heat pump and the tank sizes for different load profiles. The results show that the size of the heat pump has a significant effect on the comfort of the user, which usually leads to oversizing of the storage tank when the load profile is unknown. With regard to this, the results obtained for the alternative control system show a 20% reduction of the volume of the tank, given a certain level of comfort, and is therefore useful to reduce the size of the storage tank.The study related to thiswork has been partially supported by the FP7 European project ‘Next Generation of Heat Pumpsworkingwith Natural fluids’ (NxtHPG) Grant agreement no: 307169. The work of M. Tammaro on electric heat pumps is financially supported by Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II throughthe FP7 European project 'Next Generation of Heat Pumps working with Natural fluids' (NxtHPG).Tammaro, M.; Mauro, AW.; Montagud Montalvá, CI.; Corberán Salvador, JM.; Mastrullo, R. (2016). Hot sanitary water production with CO2 heat pumps: Effect of control strategy on system performance and stratification inside the storage tank. Applied Thermal Engineering. 101:730-740. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2016.01.094S73074010

Exploring Graphs with Time Constraints by Unreliable Collections of Mobile Robots

A graph environment must be explored by a collection of mobile robots. Some of the robots, a priori unknown, may turn out to be unreliable. The graph is weighted and each node is assigned a deadline. The exploration is successful if each node of the graph is visited before its deadline by a reliable robot. The edge weight corresponds to the time needed by a robot to traverse the edge. Given the number of robots which may crash, is it possible to design an algorithm, which will always guarantee the exploration, independently of the choice of the subset of unreliable robots by the adversary? We find the optimal time, during which the graph may be explored. Our approach permits to find the maximal number of robots, which may turn out to be unreliable, and the graph is still guaranteed to be explored. We concentrate on line graphs and rings, for which we give positive results. We start with the case of the collections involving only reliable robots. We give algorithms finding optimal times needed for exploration when the robots are assigned to fixed initial positions as well as when such starting positions may be determined by the algorithm. We extend our consideration to the case when some number of robots may be unreliable. Our most surprising result is that solving the line exploration problem with robots at given positions, which may involve crash-faulty ones, is NP-hard. The same problem has polynomial solutions for a ring and for the case when the initial robots' positions on the line are arbitrary. The exploration problem is shown to be NP-hard for star graphs, even when the team consists of only two reliable robots

A propane water-to-water heat pump booster for sanitary hot water production: Seasonal performance analysis of a new solution optimizing COP

[EN] Electrical heat pumps for sanitary hot water production achieve a high performance with a good matching of water and refrigerant temperature profiles during the heat rejection stage, as it happens in CO2 systems. This work considers the thermodynamic possibility to adapt the condenser pressure of a propane heat pump to maximize the COP, while producing sanitary hot water up to 60 C from a heat sink equal to 15 or 25 C. The performance of the heat pump is calculated through specific models which, in combination with a TRNSYS model of the whole system, allowed to assess its seasonal performance for a hotel in Strasbourg, also varying the control logic and the size of the storage tank. Results obtained led to the conclusion that, for achieving a high seasonal performance, the control logic of the tank has the largest influence.Part of the results of this study were developed in the mainframe of the FP7 European project ‘Next Generation of Heat Pumps working with Natural fluids’ (NxtHPG). Part of the work presented was carried by M. Tammaro during his visit at the Instituto de Ingenierı´a Energetica, Universitat Politecnica de Val encia and by C. Montagud during her visit at the Department of Industrial Engineering, Federico II University of Naples, with the financial support of the POLIGRID project.Tammaro, M.; Montagud Montalvá, CI.; Corberán Salvador, JM.; Mauro, AW.; Mastrullo, R. (2015). A propane water-to-water heat pump booster for sanitary hot water production: Seasonal performance analysis of a new solution optimizing COP. International Journal of Refrigeration. 51:59-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2014.12.008S59695

Borehole modelling: a comparison between a steady-state model and a novel dynamic model in a real ON/OFF GSHP operation

The correct design and optimization of complex energy systems requires the ability to reproduce the dynamic thermal behavior of each system component. In ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems, modelling the borehole heat exchangers (BHE) dynamic response is especially relevant in the development of control strategies for energy optimization purposes. Over the last years, several models have been developed but most of them are based on steady state approaches, which makes them unsuitable for short-term simulation purposes. In fact, in order to accurately predict the evolution of the fluid temperatures due to the ON/OFF cycles of the heat pump, it is essential to correctly characterize the dynamic response of BHE for very short time periods. The aim of the present paper is to compare the performance of an analytical steady-state model, available in TRNSYS environment (Type 557), with a novel short-term dynamic model. The new dynamic model is based on the thermal-network approach coupled with a vertical discretization of the borehole which takes into account both the advection due to the fluid circulating along the U-tube, and the heat transfer in the borehole and in the ground. These two approaches were compared against experimental data collected from a real GSHP system installed at the Universitat Polit ècnica de Val ència. The analysis was performed comparing the outlet temperature profiles predicted by both models during daily standard ON/OFF operating conditions, both in heating and cooling mode, and the between both approaches were highlighted. Finally, the obtained results have been discussed focusing on the potential impact that the differences found in the prediction of the temperature evolution could have in design and optimization of GSHP systems.De Rosa, M.; Ruiz Calvo, F.; Corberán Salvador, JM.; Montagud Montalvá, CI.; Tagliafico, L. (2014). Borehole modelling: a comparison between a steady-state model and a novel dynamic model in a real ON/OFF GSHP operation. Journal of Physics: Conference Series. 547:1-10. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/547/1/012008S11054

Copper-catalyzed diastereo- and enantioselective desymmetrization of cyclopropenes: Synthesis of cyclopropylboronates

This document is the accepted manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Journal of American Chemical Society 136.45, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see DOI: 10.1021/ja510419zA novel Cu-catalyzed diastereo- and enantioselective desymmetrization of cyclopropenes to afford nonracemic cyclopropylboronates is described. Trapping the cyclopropylcopper intermediate with electrophilic amines allows for the synthesis of cyclopropylaminoboronic esters and demonstrates the potential of the approach for the synthesis of functionalized cyclopropanesWe thank the European Research Council (ERC-337776) and MINECO (CTQ2012-35957) for financial support. M. T. and A. P. thank MICINN for RyC and JdC contract

Hydrogen-transfer catalysis with Cp*Ir^III complexes:The influence of the ancillary ligands

Fourteen Cp*IrIII complexes, bearing various combinations of N- and C-spectator ligands, are assayed in hydrogen-transfer catalysis from isopropyl alcohol to acetophenone under various conditions to investigate ligand effects in this widely used reaction. The new cationic complexes bearing monodentate pyridine and N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands were characterized crystallographically and by variable-temperature nuclear magnetic resonance (VT-NMR). Control experiments and mercury poisoning tests showed that iridium(0) nanoparticles, although active in the reaction, are not responsible for the high activity observed for the most active precatalyst [Cp*Ir(IMe) 2Cl]BF4 (6). For efficient catalysis, it was found necessary to have both NHCs in monodentate form; tying them together in a bis-NHC chelate ligand gave greatly reduced activity. The kinetics of the base-assisted reaction showed induction periods as well as deactivation processes, and H/D scrambling experiments cast some doubt on the classical monohydride mechanism. © 2013 American Chemical Society

A GRASP for the Mixed Postman Problem

[EN] Arc routing problems (ARPs) consist of finding a traversal on a graph satisfying some conditions related to the links of the graph. In the Chinese postman problem (CPP) the aim is to find a minimum cost tour (closed walk) traversing all the links of the graph at least once. Both the Undirected CPP, where all the links are edges that can be traversed in both ways, and the Directed CPP, where all the links are arcs that must be traversed in a specified way, are known to be polynomially solvable. However, if we deal with a mixed graph (having edges and arcs), the problem turns out to be,N P-hard. In this paper, we present a heuristic algorithm for this problem, the so-called Mixed CPP (MCPP), based on greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (GRASP) techniques. The algorithm has been tested and compared with other known and recent methods from the literature on a wide collection of randomly generated instances, with up to 200 nodes and 600 links, producing encouraging computational results. As far as we know, this is the best heuristic algorithm for the MCPP, with respect to solution quality, published up to now.S7080142