Fossil fuel based building space heating and cooling contribute to more than 10% total final energy consumption in China. Consequent carbon dioxide and air pollutants emissions bring about atmospheric pressure and associated respiratory diseases. Seawater heat pumps as a candidate sustainable building space heating and cooling solution can alleviate such environmental pressure since China has a long coastline and many coastal cities have the possibility for seawater heat pump implementation. However, stakeholders are still suffering from insufficient understanding of seawater heat pumps feasibility in different coastal cities of China from techno-economic, environmental and geographical perspectives. This paper proposes a systematic method to evaluate seawater heat pump potential in different locations of China considering various local spatial parameters in the source and sink side of the energy system. A key performance indicator system is introduced to quantitatively analyze the relative advantages and disadvantages of applying seawater heat pumps compared with status-quo systems. Quantitative evaluation results show that seawater heat pumps have a higher potential in north Chinese coastal cities from techno-economic point of view when compared with existing heating and cooling systems. Environmentally, seawater heat pumps have to reach a critical seasonal coefficient of performance value to guarantee its potential in carbon emissions saving. In south Chinese coastal cities, seawater heat pumps have to reach a more satisfactory system efficiency and a more competitive system cost in order to exploit its full advantages over status-quo systems from techno-economic perspectives. Environmentally, seawater heat pumps are more attractive than competing technologies in south cities. Also, north Chinese cities are geographically more feasible for seawater heat pumps applications compared with south cities.

Latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) has been receiving increasing attention from researchers and engineers. A practical LHTES installation requires a deep understanding of phase change material’s (PCM’s) thermal behavior under thermal property testing and realistic operating conditions. To enrich this understanding, an experimental study on a commercial sodium acetate trihydrate-based PCM (Climsel C58) is presented in this article. C58 was characterized with two test methods: T-history tests and full-scale LHTES tests. The results are presented and discussed to exhibit the thermal behavior of C58 with these two test methods and the variations between them. With T-history tests, the thermal properties of C58 such as melting/solidification temperature range (57–61 °C/55–50 °C) and latent heat of fusion (216 kJ/kg) were determined. In full-scale LHTES tests, a parametric study was conducted to investigate the effects of heat transfer fluid flowrate and operating temperature range on the thermal performance of a 0.38 m3 storage prototype containing cylindrically macro-encapsulated C58. Moreover, longitudinal and radial PCM temperature distributions in full-scale tests were analyzed, suggesting the presence of phase separation. In general, C58 behaved differently between the two test methods regarding phase separation (negligible in T-history tests), supercooling effects (within 3 K in full-scale but up to 10 K in T-history tests), and thermal energy storage capacity (10% lower in full-scale tests). When using C58 or other salt hydrate-based PCMs for large-scale heat storage, these thermal behavior differences between the property-measurement and the application-oriented environments should be properly addressed in the design stage to ensure performance.

China nowadays faces comprehensive challenges on supplying modern clean space heating to a majority of its citizens. Various building space heating technologies are implemented throughout north and south China. However, investors and policy makers are suffering from a lack of a systematic assessment tool to evaluate which heating technology to choose based on unique local conditions from techno-economic and environmental perspectives. This paper fulfills such research gap by proposing a multi-criteria assessment infrastructure to assist relative stakeholders evaluate potentials of different space heating technologies. The proposed infrastructure is multi-disciplinary and requires to handle a large amount of data from various sources, which can well reflect the feasibility of building space heating technologies systematically.

Fast urbanization process and promotion of life standard in China requires a great amount of energy input in building heating sector. North China now faces challenges of upgrading existing fossil fuel based high emission district heating systems into more environmental friendly heating systems. South China is discussing to choose proper building heating solutions for new and existing buildings which lack proper heating facilities. Renewable heating technologies such as ground source heat pump and air source heat pump are candidates to upgrade traditional heating solutions such as fossil fuel boilers and electric heaters. In order to find the most feasible building heating solution for different geolocations of China, this paper proposes a spatial data based techno-economic and environmental analysis methodology to fulfill such research gap. Case studies are carried out in two selected cities by using proposed methodology. Evaluation model shows that, heat pumps is quite competitive in south China compared with electric heaters, whereas in north China heat pumps have to reach several preconditions to be competitive with coal boiler district heating system under current techno-economic and environmental situations. In north China, a heat pump should reach a minimum seasonal coefficient of performance of 2.5-3.7 (for ground source heat pump) or 2.7-3.0 (for air source heat pump) to become CO2 and PM2.5 emission neutral as well as economically competitive compared with coal boiler district heating system. The advantage of proposed methodology is its simplicity in execution and could be repeated to other areas as the data required are available.

The integration of latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) units with heating systems in buildings is regarded as a promising technology for heating load management; however, so far a limited number of experimental studies have been reported that focus on space heating applications on a representative scale. In this study, we develop and test a 0.38 m³ LHTES unit containing cylindrically macro-encapsulated phase change materials (PCMs) with a melting temperature range of 44–53 °C and with gross mass of 154 kg. The unit has been tested with two tank orientations, horizontal and vertical. In the horizontal orientation tests, parametric studies show that increasing the difference between heat transfer fluid (HTF) supply temperatures and phase-change temperatures of PCMs, as well as increasing HTF flowrates, can both reduce the complete melting/solidification and complete charging/discharging time. Non-linear charging/discharging rates in PCMs are observed. The vertical orientation enables the forming of either a stratified or mixed flow regime in the tank. For charging, the stratified flow provides higher charging rates in PCMs compared to the mixed flow. When discharging the unit with a stratified HTF flow at 35 °C, lower HTF flowrates prolong the discharging time during which the released heat sustains an outlet temperature above 45 °C. Finally, comparisons between horizontal and vertical orientation tests reveal that although the vertical orientation can shorten the charging/discharging time by up to 20% for the entire unit to reach an energy density of 30 kWh/m³, it leads to decrease in PCM thermal capacity by at most 8.2%. The speculated cause of this loss is phase segregation suggested by observed fluid motions in PCM cylinders. This study comprehensively characterizes an LHTES unit providing insights to optimizing its operating strategies considering its coupling with space heating systems.

This study investigates the thermal performance of laminar single-phase flow in an additively manufactured minichannel heat exchanger both experimentally and numerically. Distilled water was employed as the working fluid, and the minichannel heat exchanger was made from aluminum alloy (AlSi 1 0Mg) through direct metal laser sintering (DMLS). The minichannel was designed with a hydraulic diameter of 2.86 mm. The Reynolds number ranged from 175 to 1360, and the heat exchanger was tested under two different heat fluxes of 1.5 kWm(-2) and 3 kWm(-2). A detailed experiment was conducted to obtain the thermal properties of AlSi10Mg. Furthermore, the heat transfer characteristics of the minichannel heat exchanger was analyzed numerically by solving a three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer using the COMSOL Multiphysics to verify the experimental results. The experimental results were also compared to widely accepted correlations in literature. It is found that 95% and 79% of the experimental data are within 10% range of both the simulation results and the values from the existing correlations, respectively. Hence, the good agreement found between the experimental and simulation results highlights the possibility of the DMLS technique as a promising method for manufacturing future multiport minichannel heat exchangers.

In the present work is presented the dynamic model of an evaporator of a Direct Expansion Solar Assisted Heat Pump (DX-SAHP), charged with CO2. This dynamic model was used to analyze the evaporator response to sudden variations in the solar radiation. Two strategies are used to make the system reach the steady state after the heat pump start-up. The first one is the usual balances of mass, energy and momentum. The second strategy consisted in impose an equal refrigerant mass flow rate at the evaporator inlet and outlet. Both strategies were able to conduct the system to a steady state, however, the second one required less computational effort. The mathematical model was validated using experimental data and employed to perform several simulations. The results obtained with the mathematical model revealed that a small variation of the solar radiation leads to a significant variation in the superheat, therefore requiring an immediate action of the expansion device. It was concluded that an Electronic Expansion Valve (EEV) would be better suited to meet the needs of rapid interventions on the mass flow rate at the evaporator inlet, and also because the DX-SAHP could operate in a continuous transient condition in some seasons.

Heat exchangers with mini- and micro-channel components are capable of high energy exchange due to their incumbent large surface area to volume ratio. Concurrently, recent advances in additive manufacturing simplify the creation of metallic minichannels that incorporate turbulators for heat transfer enhancement. As part of the development of a minichannel heat exchanger with turbulators, this study analyzes the three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer and laminar flow in a minichannel heat exchanger equipped with rectangular winglet vortex generators (VGs) through numerical simulation. The minichannels have a hydraulic diameter of 2.86 mm and are assumed to be made from aluminum alloy AlSi10Mg. This material is one of the popular alloys in the additive manufacturing industry (three-dimensional (3D) printing) because of its light weight and beneficial mechanical and thermal properties. The working fluid is distilled water with temperature-dependent thermal properties. The minichannel is heated by a constant heat flux of 5 W cm(-2) and the Reynolds number is varied from 230 to 950. The simulations are performed using the COMSOL platform, which solves the governing mass, momentum, and energy equations based on the finite element method. The effect of the VG design parameters, which include VG angle of attack, height, length, thickness, longitudinal pitch, and distance from the sidewalls, is investigated. It is found that the generation of three-dimensional vortices caused by the presence of the vortex generators can notably boost the convective heat transfer, at the cost of increased pressure drop, potentially reducing the heat exchanger size for a given heat duty. A sensitivity analysis indicates that the angle of attack, VG height, VG length, and longitudinal pitch have the most significant effects on the heat transfer and flow friction characteristics. In contrast, the VG thickness and distance from the sidewalls only had minor influences on the heat exchanger performance over the studied range of design parameters.

Underground Thermal Energy Storage (UTES) systems, such as Aquifer thermal energy storage(ATES) are used in several countries. The regulation and research on the potential impacts of ATESon groundwater resources and the subsurface environment often lag behind the technologicaldevelopment of an ever-growing demand for this renewable energy source. The lack of a clear andscientifically supported risk management strategy implies that potentially unwanted risks might betaken at vulnerable locations such as near well fields used for drinking water production. At othersites, on the other side, the application of ATES systems is avoided without proper reasons. Thisresults in limiting the utilization of the ATES technology in many occasions, affecting the possibilityto increase the share of renewable energy use. Therefore, further studies to characterizegroundwater resources, performance monitoring and identification of environmental impacts areneeded to understand the advantages and limitations of ATES systems.

The environmental impact and technical performance of a Low Temperature ATES (LT-ATES)system in operation since 2016 is presented. The system is called Rosenborg and is owned byVasakronan. It is located in the northern part of Stockholm, on a glaciofluvial deposit called theStockholm esker. The ATES system is used to heat and cool two commercial buildings with a totalarea of around 30,000 m2. The ATES consists of 3 warm and 2 cold pumping wells that are able topump up to 50 liters per second.

Analysis of groundwater sampling included a period of 9 months prior to ATES operation as well asthe first full season of heating and cooling operation. The sampling was conducted in a group ofwells in the vicinity of the installation and within the system. Means of evaluation constituted astatistical approach that included Kruskal-Wallis test by ranks, to compare the wells before and afterthe ATES was used. Then principal component analysis (PCA) and clustering analysis were used tostudy the ground water conditions change before and after the ATES. Aquifer Variation Ratio(AVR) was suggested as mean to evaluate the overall conditions of the aquifer pre- and post- ATES.

The results showed some variations in redox potential, particularly at the cold wells which likely wasdue to the mixing of groundwater considering the different depths of groundwater beingabstracted/injected from different redox zones. Arsenic, which has shown to be sensitive to hightemperatures in other research showed a decrease in concentration. A lower specific conductivityand total hardness at the ATES well compared to their vicinity was found. That indicates that theyare less subject to salinization and that no accumulation has occurred to date. It is evident that theenvironmental impact from ATES is governed by the pre-conditions in soil- and groundwater. ThePCA and clustering analysis showed very little change in the overall conditions in the aquifer whencomparing the ATES before and after operation. Temperature change showed negligible impact.This can be mainly attributed to the relatively small temperature change (+6 and – 5 degrees) fromthe undisturbed Aquifer temperature which is 10.5°C.

Performance of Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) systems for seasonal thermal storagedepends on the temperature of the extracted/injected groundwater, water pumping rates and thehydrogeological conditions of the aquifer. ATES systems are therefore often designed to work witha temperature difference between the warm side and cold side of the aquifer without riskinghydraulic and thermal intrusion between them, and avoiding thermal leakage to surrounding area, i.e. optimize hydraulic and thermal recovery. The hydraulic and thermal recovery values of the first yearof operation in Rosenorg weres 1.37 and 0.33, respectively, indicating that more storage volume(50500m3) was recovered during the cooling season than injected (36900m3) in the previous heatingseason.

Monitoring the operation of pumping and observation wells is crucial for the validation of ATESgroundwater models utilized for their design, and measured data provides valuable information forresearchers and practitioners working in the field. After months of planning and installation work,selected measurements recorded in an ATES monitoring project in Sweden during the first threeseasons of operation are reported in this report.

The monitoring system consists of temperature sensors and flow meters placed at the pumpingwells, a distributed temperature-sensing rig employing fiber optic cables as linear sensor andmeasuring temperature every 0.25 m along the depth of all pumping and several observation wells,yielding temporal and spatial variation data of the temperature in the aquifer. The heat injection andextraction to and from the ground is measured using power meters at the main line connecting thepumping wells to the system. The total heat and cold extracted from the aquifer during the firstheating and cooling season is 190MWh and 237MWh, respectively. A total of 143 MWh of heatwere extracted during the second heating season. The hydraulic and thermal recovery values of thefirst year of operation was 1.37 and 0.33, respectively, indicating that more storage volume(50500m3) was recovered during the cooling season than injected (36900m3) in the previous heatingseason. The DTS data showed traces of the thermal front from the warm storage reaching the coldone. Only 33% of the thermal energy was recovered. These losses are likely due to ambientgroundwater flow as well as conduction losses at the boundaries of the storage volume. Additionally,the net energy balance over the first year corresponds to 0.12 which indicates a total net heating ofthe ATES over the first year. It is recommended to increase the storage volume and achieve morehydraulic and thermal balance in the ATES system. This can enhance the thermal recovery andoverall performance. Continuous monitoring of the ATES is and will be ongoing for at least 3 moreyears. The work presented in this report is an initial evaluation of the system aiming to optimize theATES performance.

Furthermore, data management and processing tool has been established for the ATES system in Rosenborg. Additionally, a conceptual model of the ATES area has been established. Current andfuture work is focussed on completing a full scale numerical model in FEFLOW and validated themodel (both hydraulically and thermally) with the available monitoring data. Furthermore,establishing recommendations for optimum design and operation of ATES system.

Att lagra värme och kyla under markytan, exempelvis i grundvattnet i en akvifer, används världenrunt. Oftast arbetar dessa system med två brunnsgrupper, en kall och en varmgrupp, som viavärmeväxlare och eller värmepumpar till ett energisystem i en fastighet.

Syftet med ett säsongslager i en akvifer är oftast att arbeta inom rimliga temperaturer och vattenuttagoch garantera att det kalla och det varma lagret inte påverkar varandra, samt att systemet i sin helhetinte påverkar förhållanden i det omgivande grundvattnet.

Regelverk och forskning inom akviferlager ligger tyvärr några år bakom marknaden och dentekologiska utvecklingen, trots stort intresse för förnyelsebara energikällor. Bristen av vetenskapligtframtagen kunskap inom området medför därmed en ökad risk för fel i konstruktion, fel inom 

framtagning av underlag för bedömning av tillståndsansökningar samt för förorening avgrundvattnet. Det kan även hända att akviferlager förbjuds baserad på fel grunder. Eftersom dettakan resultera i en begränsad användning av denna förnyelsebara energikälla är det viktigt att utökakunskapsnivån inom karakterisering av grundvattenresurser, miljöpåverkan av akviferlager samtmätning och uppföljning av dessa system.

Miljöpåverkan och prestandauppföljning har under detta projekt utförts i ett lågt tempereratakviferlager, Rosenborg, som äggs av Vasakronan och som är i drift sedan 2016. Anläggningen ärplacerat i en del av Solnastad som passerar Stockhoms åsen.

Grundvattenkemi kan studeras med hjälp av regelbundna provtagningar och statistiska analyser.Provtagningar utfördes i observationsbrunnar placerade innanför och utanför lagret, och pågick frånoch med 9 månader innan anläggningen satts i drift till och med slutat av effsysprojektet, dvsprovtagningskampanjen inkluderade en helt kyl och värmelagringssäsong. Utvärderingen inkluderadeStatistiska metoder så som Kruskal-Wallis rangordningstester samt en data-driven metod så kalladPCA (från engelskan Principal Component Analysis) har använts, även klusteranalyser användes föratt studera och jämföra variationer i specifika kemiska komponenter i brunnarna före och efterdriftsättningen av akviferlagret. Varibeln AVR (Akvifer Variation Ratio) föreslogs som ett sätt attutvärdera kemisk påverkan i akviferen före och efter driftsättning på ett mer övergripande sätt.

Den kemiska analysen visade Redox variationer i de kalla brunnarna, som sannolikt berodde påblandning av grundvatten från olika djup (olika Redox potential). Arsenik, som är kännslig till högretemperaturer enligt tidigare utfört arbete, visade en minskning i koncentration. Akviferlagret visadeen lägre hårdhet (proportionell mängd kalcium och magnesium) och lägre konduktivitet än detomgivande grundvattnet, som betyder att lagret har varit mindre känslig till intrång av saltvatten frånomgivningen. PCA och klusteranalysen visade små ändringar före och efter driften. Detkonstaterades att temperaturändringarna (+6 K sommartid och -5 K vintertid) hade en försumbarpåverkan i relation till akviferens ostörda temperatur (10,5°C).

Eftersom energiprestanda i ett akviferlager är beroende av hydrauliska och termiska aspekter hardessa studerats i projektet genom att jämföra volymmängder grundvatten som pumpades ut och insamt utifrån temperaturbalansen över året, båda med hänsyn till akviferens hydrogeologiskaförhållanden. Begreppen hydraulisk och termisk återhämtning har använts för kvantifiering avakviferens prestanda. Resultatet för det första året blev en hydraulisk återhämtning lika med 1,37 ochden termiska återhämtningen 0,33. Den hydrauliska återhämtningen av 1,37 betyder att en störreandel (37%) av lagrets vattenvolym återanvändes under kyluttaget jämfört med värmeuttagsperioden.Den termiska återhämtningen, som är relaterad till den önskade temperaturnivån (10,5°C) ellerbörvärde har det första året visar att 67% mindre kyla har plockat upp i relation till värmeuttaget.Det är viktigt att hålla i åtanke att denna indikatör är starkt beroende på börvärdet somdriftpersonalen bestämmer. Mer förståelse kring hur det hydrauliska och termiska prestanda kan tasfram i fortsättningsprojektet med hjälp av uppföljning av vattenflöden, nivåer ochgrundvattentemperaturer i systemet som utförs via en state of the art mätsystem som har applicerasunder projektet. Av speciell relevans är det fiberoptiska systemet som har installerats i samtligapumpbrunnar samt i ett antal observationsbrunnar i akviferlagret. Systemet mäter var 25 centimeteroch täcker det mesta av lagrets volym. Mätningarna kan i fortsättningen användas för att validera ennumerisk modell som har tagits fram inom projektet med programmet FEFLOW.

This paper presents the design process of a 4x4 Laboratory Borehole Storage (LABS) model through analytical and numerical analyses. This LABS isintended to generate reference Thermal Response Functions (TRFs) as well as to be a validation tool for borehole heat transfer models. The objective of thisdesign process is to determine suitable geometrical and physical parameters for the LABS. An analytical scaling analysis is first performed and importantscaling constraints are derived. In particular, it is shown that the downscaling process leads to significantly higher values for Neumann and convectiveboundary conditions whereas the Fourier number is invariant. A numerical model is then used to verify the scaling laws, determine the size of the LABS,as well as to evaluate the influence of top surface convection and borehole radius on generated TRFs. An adequate shape for the LABS is found to be aquarter cylinder of radius and height 1.0 m, weighing around 1.2 tonnes. Natural convection on the top boundary proves to have a significant effect on thegenerated TRF with deviations of at least 15%. This convection effect is proposed as an explanation for the difference observed between experimental andanalytical results in Cimmino and Bernier (2015). A numerical reproduction of their test leads to a relative difference of 1.1% at the last reported time.As small borehole radii are challenging to reproduce in a LABS, the effect of the borehole radius on TRFs is investigated. It is found that Eskilson’sradius correction (1987) is not fully satisfactory and a new correction method must be undertaken.