TY - JOUR

T1 - Economic evaluation and simulation for the Hasselt case study

T2 - Thermochemical district network technology vs. Alternative technologies for heating

AU - Delwati, Muhannad

AU - Ammar, Ahmed

AU - Geyer, Philipp Florian

N1 - Funding Information: Funding: The presented results originate from the project H-DisNet funded by the European Commission in the Horizon 2020 program under Grant No. 695780.

PY - 2019/4/2

Y1 - 2019/4/2

N2 - Thermochemical-technology has high potential for utilizing surplus heat from industrial processes and renewables. This paper examines the economic potential and thermochemical-technology behavior at a network level. The city of Hasselt (Belgium), was chosen as a case study for technology application due to its typical mid-European urban structure. An integrated heating system was proposed which transports energy potential from available surplus-heat sources to the demand side over long distances by a thermochemical-district-heating network, which serves for building heating with heat-pump assistance. A dynamic simulation model of the thermochemical-technology was developed using the experiments and Hasselt data to determine the technology’s energy performance. To examine the technology’s feasibility in the context of a large district energy network, an economic and environmental evaluation of the thermochemical-technology was performed. To compare key economic parameters between our integrated technology and other heating systems a sensitivity analysis to identify favorable market-conditions for wider deployment of the proposed technology was performed. The simulations indicated a 72% reduction of heat-pump heating energy usage as a benefit of the thermochemical system. Network pumping-energy and thermochemical-fluid mass were found via simulation to be 80 kWh and 300 tons, respectively. In comparison to domestic-gas-boilers, the proposed technology shows 95% lower carbon emissions, however at 37% higher annualized cost.

AB - Thermochemical-technology has high potential for utilizing surplus heat from industrial processes and renewables. This paper examines the economic potential and thermochemical-technology behavior at a network level. The city of Hasselt (Belgium), was chosen as a case study for technology application due to its typical mid-European urban structure. An integrated heating system was proposed which transports energy potential from available surplus-heat sources to the demand side over long distances by a thermochemical-district-heating network, which serves for building heating with heat-pump assistance. A dynamic simulation model of the thermochemical-technology was developed using the experiments and Hasselt data to determine the technology’s energy performance. To examine the technology’s feasibility in the context of a large district energy network, an economic and environmental evaluation of the thermochemical-technology was performed. To compare key economic parameters between our integrated technology and other heating systems a sensitivity analysis to identify favorable market-conditions for wider deployment of the proposed technology was performed. The simulations indicated a 72% reduction of heat-pump heating energy usage as a benefit of the thermochemical system. Network pumping-energy and thermochemical-fluid mass were found via simulation to be 80 kWh and 300 tons, respectively. In comparison to domestic-gas-boilers, the proposed technology shows 95% lower carbon emissions, however at 37% higher annualized cost.

KW - Case study

KW - Economic evaluation

KW - Heat energy

KW - Simulation of thermochemical absorption processes

KW - Space heating

KW - Thermochemical district heating network

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85065540188&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/en12071260

DO - 10.3390/en12071260

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85065540188

VL - 12

JO - ENERGIES

JF - ENERGIES

SN - 1996-1073

IS - 7

M1 - 1260

ER -