Abstract
Future energy systems will comprise 100% renewable energy and involve high integration of energy systems. District heating (DH) and cooling systems will be an undeniable part of future energy systems, as they facilitate high-efficiency, low-cost, and clean production. Low-temperature district heating (LTDH) is one of the candidates for future district heating systems, where the supply temperature is 60°C or below. Reducing heat losses from the pipe network in DH systems is challenging. Improving the insulation standards in DH pipes can decrease heat and temperature losses in the pipe networks. This study employs computational fluid dynamics to evaluate the optimum insulation thickness based on the material and digging costs in South Korea. A micro hybrid DH system with natural gas run fuel cell, heat pump and solar thermal is proposed in this study. An evaluation of the system with a 500 m pipe network system supplying hot water at 60°C with polyethylene, ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber, and polyurethane as insulation materials using ANSYS Fluent 17.2 shows that the heat losses are minimal when using PU foams. A cost estimation analysis showed that 32 mm was the optimum insulation thickness for achieving heat losses below 20 W/m and minimum material and digging costs when burring the pipeline network in the ground.
Highlights
Decreasing fossil fuel sources and extreme weather changes due to global warming have accelerated the search for future sustainable energy systems, including 100% renewable systems (Alberg Østergaard et al, 2010; Mathiesen et al, 2014; Gatt et al, 2020)
The present study examines the feasibility of PEX, ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber (EPDM) rubber, and PU foam insulation materials for implementing Low-temperature district heating (LTDH) in a demonstration site that supplies heat load to buildings from a hybrid smart energy system
The ultimate goal of this project is to demonstrate that the LTDH in South Korea has network heat losses below 17%, as per the guidelines of the fourth generation district heating (4GDH)
Summary
Decreasing fossil fuel sources and extreme weather changes due to global warming have accelerated the search for future sustainable energy systems, including 100% renewable systems (Alberg Østergaard et al, 2010; Mathiesen et al, 2014; Gatt et al, 2020). A significant portion of building energy consumption is from space heating, which is approximately two times that of other consumption sources such as cooking, water heating, and refrigeration (Kaynakli, 2008). Centralized production facilities mainly provide space heating in buildings through a heat transfer network called district heating (DH). The thermal energy is distributed through a pipe network that connects the thermal generation facility with the different building consumption nodes integrated with the system (Werner, 2013). Reducing the supply temperature reduces the rate of heat losses from the system, which subsequently increases the supply and distribution efficiency and integrates lowtemperature renewable energy and waste heat sources (Alberg Østergaard et al, 2010; Brocklebank et al, 2018)
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