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Newsletter October 2018
Division of Applied Thermodynamics and Refrigeration
Department of Energy Technology
SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT
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Dear reader, we haven't communicated with you for quite a while and finally we are ready to share with you the recent news that has accumulated over the few past months.
Enjoy the reading!
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Efficient and environmentally friendly systems are in focus of ongoing research
Several new projects have been started during the past months. For instance, 4 projects have been financed by the Swedish Energy Agency within the "Termo" program. Namely:
New refrigerants for environmentally friendly heat pump systems
The F-gas Regulation has set a clear goal for the entire refrigeration industry to reduce the direct emissions from refrigeration and heat pump systems by replacing high GWP HFC refrigerants with alternative refrigerants. As the search for new refrigerants with low GWP values continues, this project will investigate alternative refrigerants considering their performance, suitability to new and existing systems, and potential environmental effects.
Project manager: Prof. Rahmatollah Khodabandeh
Future secondary fluids for indirect refrigeration systems
It is important to find environmentally friendly and energy efficient secondary fluids for indirect systems with low pumping power and good heat transfer properties. The objective of the project is thus to validate properties of alternative formate and acetate salts and their mixtures by measuring their basic thermophysical properties.
Project manager: Prof. Björn Palm
Building state-of-the-art supermarket: Putting theory into practice
Supermarkets are energy intensive buildings where our documented studies show that CO2 integrated refrigeration system offers at least 15% annual energy savings compared to standard CO2 system and at least 25% compared to conventional systems with HFCs. This project will apply the knowledge accumulated through the research in supermarket energy systems by building a unique demonstration case study where today’s most efficient, environmentally friendly and cost effective supermarket will be designed, installed, monitored, thoroughly evaluated, and well documented.
Project manager: Prof. Samer Sawalha
IEA Annex 52: Long term monitoring of GSHP systems
The system performance for cooling and heating will be monitored at three different sites in Stockholm. The measurement is done at different system levels in agreement with the SEPEMO guidelines and in collaboration with building owners VASAKRONAN, Akademiska Hus and Einar Mattson. High quality long term performance data is today missing both in the academy and the industry and this work aims at decreasing this gap together with many other institutes in Sweden and the rest of the world.
Read more about the project here
Groundwater flow in high temperature borehole storage for DH systems
A model to calculate borehole thermal energy storages will be developed for high temperature applications connected to district heating systems. The project is carried out in cooperation with Energiforsk and several energy companies through the program Termiska Energilager.
More info here
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Growing demand for cooling can lead to a warmer climate
The current EU regulations already address the environmental impact of refrigeration systems by replacing high GWP refrigerants with low-to-zero GWP refrigerants. Recent studies, however, show that these will not entirely mitigate climate change. In addition, even improvements in energy efficiency will not suffice, due to the increasing cooling needs. If this is the case, how can we meet the future cooling needs in an environmentally friendly manner? Read more about this in the short article titled "Environmentally friendly refrigeration systems are needed to mitigate the climate change" (in Swedish).
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MSc students travel to Tokyo to present their results for government officials
In June, the Gadelius corporation selected 12 masters students from the Energy Management course to travel to Tokyo and present their studies to the Tokyo government officials. In September, the students along with ETT Professor Per Lundqvist, Assistant Professor Hatef Madani, and PhD Candidate Nelson Sommerfeldt made the trip, which also included a seminar at the University of Tokyo and a visit to a renewable energy park in the Fukushima prefecture. The students presented their recommendations for a sustainable energy system to the people who can actually enact change, a rare opportunity! Thank you to Gadelius for sponsoring a wonderful project!
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Solar heat pumps can dramatically reduce the land needed for ground source heat pumps
A recently concluded Effsys Expand project on combining hybrid solar PV-thermal collectors with ground source heat pumps has found that multi-family houses (MFH) may have a new opportunity to install ground source heat pumps. MFH are often built in dense areas that lack the necessary land for a borehole field, but Phd Candidate Nelson Sommerfeldt has found that when solar collectors are added to the borehole circuit, the length and/or spacing can reduce the land needs by 75%. As a niche technology, the investment cost for PVT is still relatively high, so only buildings with limited space should consider it. However, MFH using district heating may now have an alternative that can reduce costs and carbon emissions. Results were recently presented at the ISES Eurosun 2018 conference in Rapperswil, Switzerland, and a final report can be found on the Effsys Expand project page.
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2nd IGHSPA (International Ground Source Heat Pump Association) Research Track took place at KTH
KTH hosted the 2nd IGSHPA Research Track as part of a week full of ground source related events. The research conference took place on Sept 18-19. Two parallel sessions, during which researchers from the whole world presented their latest results, were accompanied by keynote speeches about the history of ground source heat pump research by Palne Mogensen, Johan Claesson and Björn Palm. Also, presentations by the conference gold and silver sponsors (SENS, AVANTI, NIBE) were held during the lunches and a cocktail served in KTHs reactor hall 25 meters under the ground surface. The event was also sponsored by Muovitech, Thermia and Bengt Dahlgren.
The research presentations covered subjects such as groundwater heat pump systems, modeling of borehole heat exchangers, thermal response tests, energy piles, laboratory set-ups, borehole measurements, ground thermal properties, among others.
Sixteen countries were represented with over 90 participants. A total of 48 scientific articles were written and are now available in a nice conference proceedings book. The proceedings are available here.
In September 20th, a workshop with 96 participants coming from the academy and industry was also held at KTH in cooperation with Energiforsk and Christian Michelsen Research. The theme of the workshop was "The future district heating system with ground thermal energy storage". The day was closed with technical tours to three ground source heat pump installations where KTHs Geoenergy group carries out research projects and the drillers dinner in cooperation with the Swedish Avanti-Drillers Association.
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The KTH Live-In Lab is now open
The KTH Live-In Lab - a multi-test platform for testing, verification, validation and optimization of new technologies and new construction methods - has just been opened. Following the inauguration by KTH Live-In Lab's manager Jonas Anund Vogel, KTH’ president Sigbritt Karlsson and the CEO of The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, Tuula Teeri, participants could look at the KTH test bed's apartments where students have just moved in and walk down in the basement where new technologies for heat, electricity and water are installed. Read more about the Live-In Lab and its inauguration here.
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Apply for a PhD student position at our division!
There is an opportunity to join us in creating environmentally friendly refrigeration and heat pump systems which is an idea behind the project "New refrigerants for environmentally friendly heat pump systems". We are currently hiring a person for a position as doctoral student at our division. Read more about the position and the application here and please share within your networks. One can apply directly at the KTH website up to 10th of October.
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