Avoidable and unavoidable exergy destruction and exergoeconomic evaluation of the thermal processes in a real industrial plant

Exergy analysis is a universal method for evaluating the rational use of energy. It can be applied to any kind of energy conversion system or chemical process. An exergy analysis identifies the location, the magnitude and the causes of thermodynamic inefficiencies and enhances understanding of the energy conversion processes in complex systems. Conventional exergy analyses pinpoint components and processes with high irreversibility. To overcome the limitations of the conventional analyses and to increase our knowledge about a plant, advanced exergy-based analyses are developed. These analyses provide additional information about component interactions and reveal the real potential for improvement of each component constituting a system, as well as of the overall system. In this paper, a real industrial plant is analyzed using both conventional and advanced exergy analyses, and exergoeconomic evaluation. Some of the exergy destruction in the plant components is unavoidable and constrained by technological, physical and economic limitations. Calculations related to the total avoidable exergy destruction caused by each component of the plant supplement the outcome of the conventional exergy analysis. Based on the all-reaching analysis, by improving the boiler operation (elimination of approximately 1 MW of avoidable exergy destruction in the steam boiler) the greatest improvement in the efficiency of the overall system can be achieved

EFFECTS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF CO-GENERATION IN THE DISTRICT HEATING SYSTEM OF THE FACULTY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING IN NIŠ

Implementation of co-generation of thermal and electrical energy in district heating systems often results with higher overall energy efficiency of the systems, primary energy savings and environmental benefits. Financial results depend on number of parameters, some of which are very difficult to predict. After introduction of feed-in tariffs for generation of electrical energy in Serbia, better conditions for implementation of co-generation are created, although in district heating systems barriers are still present. In this paper, possibilities and effects of implementation of natural gas fired co-generation engines are examined and presented for the boiler house that is a part of the district heating system owned and operated by the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Niš. At the moment, in this boiler house only thermal energy is produced. The boilers are natural gas fired and often operate in low part load regimes. The plant is working only during the heating season. For estimation of effects of implementation of co-generation, referent values are taken from literature or are based on the results of measurements performed on site. Results are presented in the form of primary energy savings and greenhouse gasses emission reduction potentials. Financial aspects are also considered and triangle of costs is shown

Comparative exergetic performance analysis for certain thermal power plants in Serbia

Traditional methods of analysis and calculation of complex thermal systems are based on the first law of thermodynamics. These methods use energy balance for a system. In general, energy balances do not provide any information about internal losses. In contrast, the second law of thermodynamics introduces the concept of exergy, which is useful in the analysis of thermal systems. Exergy is a measure for assessing the quality of energy, and allows one to determine the location, cause, and real size of losses incurred as well as residues in a thermal process. The purpose of this study is to comparatively analyze the performance of four thermal power plants from the energetic and exergetic viewpoint. Thermodynamic models of the plants are developed based on the first and second law of thermodynamics. The primary objectives of this paper are to analyze the system components separately and to identify and quantify the sites having largest energy and exergy losses. Finally, by means of these analyses, the main sources of thermodynamic inefficiencies as well as a reasonable comparison of each plant to others are identified and discussed. As a result, the outcomes of this study can provide a basis for the improvement of plant performance for the considered thermal power plants

Sensitivity analysis for daily building operation from the energy and thermal comfort standpoint

Improving energy performance of buildings is one of the most important tasks for reaching sustainability. Assessing building energy consumption is performed more often with specialized simulation tools. Sensitivity analysis proved to be a valuable tool for creating more reliable and realistic building energy models and better buildings. This paper briefly describes the methodology for running global sensitivity analysis and tools that can be used, and presents the results of such an analysis conducted for winter period, daily, on input variables covering a real building's operation, control and occupant related parameters that affect both thermal comfort and heating energy consumption. Two sets of inputs were created. The only difference between these sets is an addition of clothing insulation and occupant heat gain as input variables. The reference building was simulated for three distinctive winter weeks. Two additional input variables have an effect especially on thermal comfort, but they do not disturb the relative order of other influential input variables. The common influential variables for both energy consumption and thermal comfort were identified and are: air handling unit sup-ply temperature and airflow rate and control system related parameters. This can help in future research into implementing the simulation-assisted optimized operation in real buildings. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. TR-33051: The concept of sustainable energy supply of settlements with energy efficient buildings

Energy performance of air conditioned buildings based on short-term weather forecast

One of the possible ways to improve balance between building energy consumption and occupant thermal comfort in existing buildings is to use simulation-assisted operation of HVAC systems. Simulation-assisted operation can be formulated as a type of operation that implements knowledge of future disturbance acting on the building and that enables operating the systems in such a way to fulfill given goals, which in nature can often be contradictory. The most important future conditions on building energy consumption are weather parameters and occupant behavior and expectations of thermal environment. In order to achieve this type of operation, optimization methods must be applied. Methodology to create HVAC system operation strategies on a daily basis is presented. Methodology is based on using building energy performance simulation software EnergyPlus, available weather data, global sensitivity analysis, and custom developed software with particle swarm optimization method applied over the moving horizon. Global sensitivity analysis is used in order to reduce number of independent variables for the optimization process. The methodology is applied to office part of real combined-type building located in Niš, Serbia. Use of sensitivity analysis shows that the reduced number of independent variables for the optimization would lead to similar thermal comfort and energy consumption, with significant computer runtime reduction