• Energy Research
• 7. Clean energy close
• Tsinghua University close

Abstract A great deal of heat is wasted in intensive public shower facilities, such as those in schools, barracks and natatoriums, which open up at specified time. It will contribute a lot to energy saving and environmental protection with significant economic benefits to recycle the exhaust heat. In this paper, we propose two different kinds of heat pumps (an electric heat pump and an absorption heat pump) in the heat recovery systems. In both system, the used shower water is drained through a pipe and collected in a gray water pool. When the wastewater reaches certain volume, the heat pump system will begin working and recycling heat. The wastewater is filtered and piped to the heat exchanger to exchange heat with the tap water whose temperature will increase from 12 °C to 25 °C with the wastewater temperature dropping from 30 °C to 17 °C. Then the wastewater is piped to the heat pump evaporator and the tap water is piped to the condenser for farther heating. According to the different characteristics of the electric heat pump and absorption heat pump, we also introduce the processes and control methods of different heat recovery systems in details in this paper. Based on a practical example, this paper analyzes and compares the economic and environmental benefits of three retrofitting schemes, including “exhaust heat recovery using electric heat pump”, “exhaust heat recovery using electric heat pump + gas boiler” and “exhaust heat recovery using direct-fired heat pump”. Then we find out that the heat recovery system using direct-fired absorption heat pump has lower energy consumption, less pollution, lower operating cost, and shorter payback period. And it has a promising practical application.

Abstract The central role of occupants for achieving energy savings in residential buildings is increasingly recognised. Simulation programmes able to take into account occupant behaviour are considered to be powerful tools for bridging the gap between the predicted and the actual energy consumption for new buildings. Nevertheless, the majority of residential buildings that will constitute the housing stock in 2050 have already been built today, therefore occupant behaviour and building simulation tools need to be fully exploited for supporting the renovation of existing housing stock. The aim of this paper is to explore the role of occupant behaviour modelling in supporting decision-makers dealing with the design of renovation strategies for residential buildings. An Italian multi-family public housing building is assumed as case study to estimate the influence of three dimensions linked with occupant behaviour – management of the thermostat, management of the heating system, variation of building characteristics – on energy heating consumption. The results show that, while the occupant behaviour influences the heating loads up to 1/3 in case of high level of building retrofit, the less the building is renovated, the higher is the behavioural impact in absolute terms of energy reduction. Therefore, in order to be effective, renovation strategies are required to design appropriate informative instruments at an early stage to support behaviour changes towards responsible energy consumption.

In order to enhance the efficiency and benefits of the sludge anaerobic digestion process, K2FeO4 was added to a sludge anaerobic digestion system, and its effects on the system were comprehensively investigated. Results showed that sludge anaerobic digestion was greatly improved by adding 500 mg/L K2FeO4. Biogas and methane productions were increased by 26.6 and 28.4%, respectively. Sludge reduction, protein removal, and the conversion efficiency of dissolved organics were all improved. The mechanism revealed that the disintegration of sludge flocs, enhancement of protease activity, and decrease of soluble sulfide toxicity on microorganisms contributed to biogas production and sludge reduction. Biogas quality was improved, benefitting from the decreasing H2S content in biogas; as additionally, the cost of biogas desulfuration was reduced. In the biogas slurry treatment, the PO43--P concentrations were decreased by 39%, which also reduced the cost of the dephosphorization processes at certain extent.

Massive adoptions of combined heat and power (CHP) units necessitate the coordinated operation of power system and district heating system (DHS). Exploiting the reconfigurable property of district heating networks (DHNs) provides a cost-effective solution to enhance the flexibility of the power system by redistributing heat loads in DHS. In this paper, a unit commitment considering combined electricity and reconfigurable heating network (UC-CERHN) is proposed to coordinate the day-ahead scheduling of power system and DHS. The DHS is formulated as a nonlinear and mixed-integer model with considering the reconfigurable DHN. Also, an auxiliary energy flow variable is introduced in the formed DHS model to make the commitment problem tractable, where the computational burdens are significantly reduced. Extensive case studies are presented to validate the effectiveness of the approximated model and illustrate the potential benefits of the proposed method with respect to congestion management and wind power accommodation. (Corresponding author:Hongbin Sun)

Abstract Natural gas vehicles offer the benefits of reducing oil use, CO2 emissions and air pollutants. Promoting the use of natural gas vehicles is considered as one of the most important strategies towards sustainable transportation. China made remarkable progress in promoting natural gas vehicles over recent years, and its 4.6 million natural gas vehicles in 2014 represented the world׳s largest natural gas vehicle fleet. In this paper, the development of natural gas vehicles in China is reviewed based on a triple-perspective (Fuel-Vehicle-Infrastructure) technical–economical framework. The review indicates that (a) pricing of vehicle-use Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is essential in determining natural gas vehicle development. A pricing principle similar to the fixed CNG/gasoline price ratio (0.75:1) should be applied to LNG/diesel price ratio; (b) for CNG passenger vehicles, the modified CNG vehicles, with ¥3000–5000 additional cost, is more attractive to consumers than originally manufactured CNG vehicles, with about ¥10,000 additional cost. Vehicle retrofit should be permitted by the government with the precondition that retrofit standards are strictly enforced; (c) for CNG/LNG transit buses, the deployment is strongly affected by local government׳s preference. In regions with sufficient natural gas supply, the government should prioritize the deployment of CNG/LNG transit buses rather than other technologies; (d) for LNG commercial vehicles, with ¥60,000–80,000 higher cost than their counterpart diesel vehicles, financial incentive is critical for their development. China׳s current vehicle subsidy scheme should be extended to cover LNG commercial vehicles; (e) regarding refueling infrastructures, interference with urban land-use planning and long-time administrative approval are the major barriers. Local governments should launch dedicated plans and strategies to support the further deployment of CNG/LNG refueling infrastructures.

Abstract The dynamics of isolated-photon plus two-jet production in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV are studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb−1. Cross sections are measured as functions of a variety of observables, including angular correlations and invariant masses of the objects in the final state, γ + jet + jet. Measurements are also performed in phase-space regions enriched in each of the two underlying physical mechanisms, namely direct and fragmentation processes. The measurements cover the range of photon (jet) transverse momenta from 150 GeV (100 GeV) to 2 TeV. The tree-level plus parton-shower predictions from Sherpa and Pythia as well as the next-to-leading-order QCD predictions from Sherpa are compared with the measurements. The next-to-leading-order QCD predictions describe the data adequately in shape and normalisation except for regions of phase space such as those with high values of the invariant mass or rapidity separation of the two jets, where the predictions overestimate the data.