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Abstract In an effort to minimise electricity consumption and greenhouse gases emissions, the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning sector has focused its attention on developing alternative solutions to electrically-driven vapour-compression cooling. Liquid desiccant air-conditioning systems represent an energy-efficient and more environmentally friendly alternative technology for dehumidification and cooling, particularly in those cases with high latent loads to maintain indoor air quality and comfort conditions. This technology is considered particularly efficient in hot and humid climates. As a matter of fact, the choice of the desiccant solution influences the overall performance of the system. The current paper reviews the working principle of liquid desiccant systems, focusing on the thermodynamic properties of the desiccant solutions and describes an evaluation of the reference thermodynamic properties of different desiccant solutions to identify which thermodynamic, physical, transport property influences the liquid desiccant process and to what extent. The comparison of these thermodynamic properties for the commonly used desiccants is conducted to estimate which fluid could perform most favourably in the system. The economic factors and the effect of different applications and climatic conditions on the system performance are also described. The paper is intended to be the first step in the evaluation of alternative desiccant fluids able to overcome the problems related to the use of the common desiccant solutions, such as crystallization and corrosion to metals. Ionic liquids seem a promising alternative working fluid in liquid desiccant air-conditioning systems and their characteristics and cost are discussed.

Abstract Urban planners, local authorities, and energy policymakers often develop strategic sustainable energy plans for the urban building stock in order to minimize overall energy consumption and emissions. Planning at such scales could be informed by building stock modeling using existing building data and Geographic Information System-based mapping. However, implementing these processes involves several issues, namely, data availability, data inconsistency, data scalability, data integration, geocoding, and data privacy. This research addresses the aforementioned information challenges by proposing a generalized integrated methodology that implements bottom-up, data-driven, and spatial modeling approaches for multi-scale Geographic Information System mapping of building energy modeling. This study uses the Irish building stock to map building energy performance at multiple scales. The generalized data-driven methodology uses approximately 650,000 Irish Energy Performance Certificates buildings data to predict more than 2 million buildings’ energy performance. In this case, the approach delivers a prediction accuracy of 88% using deep learning algorithms. These prediction results are then used for spatial modeling at multiple scales from the individual building level to a national level. Furthermore, these maps are coupled with available spatial resources (social, economic, or environmental data) for energy planning, analysis, and support decision-making. The modeling results identify clusters of buildings that have a significant potential for energy savings within any specific region. Geographic Information System-based modeling aids stakeholders in identifying priority areas for implementing energy efficiency measures. Furthermore, the stakeholders could target local communities for retrofit campaigns, which would enhance the implementation of sustainable energy policy decisions.

Efficient integration of solar energy into the electricity mix depends on a reliable anticipation of its intermittency. A promising approach to forecast the temporal variability of solar irradiance resulting from the cloud cover dynamics is based on the analysis of sequences of ground-taken sky images or satellite observations. Despite encouraging results, a recurrent limitation of existing deep learning approaches lies in the ubiquitous tendency of reacting to past observations rather than actively anticipating future events. This leads to a frequent temporal lag and limited ability to predict sudden events. To address this challenge, we introduce ECLIPSE, a spatio-temporal neural network architecture that models cloud motion from sky images to not only predict future irradiance levels and associated uncertainties, but also segmented images, which provide richer information on the local irradiance map. We show that ECLIPSE anticipates critical events and reduces temporal delay while generating visually realistic futures. The model characteristics and properties are investigated with an ablation study and a comparative study on the benefits and different ways to integrate auxiliary data into the modelling. The model predictions are also interpreted through an analysis of the principal spatio-temporal components learned during network training. Manuscript accepted for publication in Applied Energy

Abstract The present work focuses on the numerical simulation of Moderate or Intense Low oxygen Dilution combustion condition, using the Partially-Stirred Reactor model for turbulence-chemistry interactions. The Partially-Stirred Reactor model assumes that reactions are confined in a specific region of the computational cell, whose mass fraction depends both on the mixing and the chemical time scales. Therefore, the appropriate choice of mixing and chemical time scales becomes crucial to ensure the accuracy of the numerical simulation prediction. Results show that the most appropriate choice for mixing time scale in Moderate or Intense Low oxygen Dilution combustion regime is to use a dynamic evaluation, in which the ratio between the variance of mixture fraction and its dissipation rate is adopted, rather than global estimations based on Kolmogorov or integral mixing scales. This is supported by the validation of the numerical results against experimental profiles of temperature and species mass fractions, available from measurements on the Adelaide Jet in Hot Co-flow burner. Different approaches for chemical time scale evaluation are also compared, using the species formation rates, the reaction rates and the eigenvalues of the formation rate Jacobian matrix. Different co-flow oxygen dilution levels and Reynolds numbers are considered in the validation work, to evaluate the applicability of Partially-Stirred Reactor approach over a wide range of operating conditions. Moreover, the influence of specifying uniform and non-uniform boundary conditions for the chemical scalars is assessed. The present work sheds light on the key mechanisms of turbulence-chemistry interactions in advanced combustion regimes. At the same time, it provides essential information to advance the predictive nature of computational tools used by scientists and engineers, to support the development of new technologies.

Abstract Temperature is one of the factors which affect the power availability, driveability and durability of the battery pack. Folded fin and serpentine channel are commonly used to provide cooling for the battery pack. During the cooling process, fluid absorbed the heat generated along the flow direction and caused the reduction of the cooling capacity. Hence, downstream temperature is always higher than the upstream temperature. Inconsistent cooling effect will lead to high variation of temperature distribution and shorten the life expectancy of the battery pack. In this study, a battery module consists of three pieces of LiFePO4 pouch cell arranged side by side, and aluminium foam is sandwiched between two heat spreaders to form a cooling plate. Aluminium foams with different porosity and pores density were modelled to investigate the thermal performance and flow field numerically. Correlation of Nusselt number, permeability and resistance loss coefficient from the literature was extracted and used in the CFD simulation. From the simulation results, it is shown that 10 PPI aluminium foam with 0.918 porosity offered the highest thermal performance and lowest flow resistance. Hence, the optimized aluminium foam cooling plate can be used as a new type of cooling system for the battery pack.

In-situ biomethanisation reduces the CO2 in biogas to CH4 via direct H2 injection into an anaerobic digester, but volumetric methane production (VMP) is limited by organic loading. Ex-situ biomethanisation, where gaseous substrates are fed to pure or mixed cultures of hydrogenotrophic methanogens, offers higher VMP but requires an additional reactor and supply of essential nutrients. This work combined the two approaches in a novel hybrid application achieving simultaneous in-situ and ex-situ biomethanisation within an organically-loaded anaerobic digester receiving supplementary biogas. Conventional stirred-tank digesters were first acclimated to H2 addition, increasing biogas methane content from 50% to 95% and VMP from 0.86 to 1.51 L L-1 day-1 at a moderate loading rate of 3 g organic chemical oxygen demand per L per day (g CODorg L-1 day-1). Externally-produced biogas was then added to demonstrate simultaneous biomethanisation of endogenous and imported CO2. This further increased VMP to 2.76 L L-1 day-1 without affecting organic substrate degradation. In-situ CO2 reduction can alter digester pH by reducing bicarbonate buffering: the combined process operated stably at around pH 8.0 with 3-5% CO2 in the headspace. Microbial community analysis indicated the process was mediated by bacterial syntrophic acetate oxidation and highly enriched hydrogenotrophic methanogenic archaea (up to 97% of the archaeal population). This approach presents the opportunity to retrofit a single digester for H2 injection to convert and upgrade biogas from several others, minimising capital and operating costs by utilising both existing infrastructure and waste-derived feedstock nutrients for simultaneous biogas upgrading and power-to-methane.

Abstract Integrating low-carbon technologies (e.g. heat pumps, photovoltaic systems) in buildings influences the stability of the low-voltage grid, which therefore often requires to be reinforced. This article proposes a techno-economic methodology to identify the reinforcements needed to maintain grid stability at the lowest life-cycle cost. Novel contributions include the consideration of three-phase connection of low-carbon technologies as a reinforcement option and the fact that we study to what extent grid reinforcements can mitigate voltage unbalance issues. Additionally, to reduce computing time, a dummy island approach is used, whereby one feeder is modelled in detail and the remainder of the distribution island is represented by an aggregated load. Finally, random repetitions are proposed, to consider uncertainties related to building properties, occupants and the location of low-carbon technologies in the feeders. The methodology is applied to investigate the integration of heat pumps and photovoltaic systems in typical Belgian rural and urban grids. For the rural grid, heat pumps may lead to significant reinforcement costs (up to 1230 €/dwelling), mainly due to voltage stability problems. For the urban grid, heat pump and photovoltaic integration causes low reinforcement cost (