Search Results (7)

The maritime industry needs sustainable, low-emission fuels to reduce the environmental impact. Ammonia is one of the most promising alternative fuels because it can be produced from renewable energy, such as wind and solar. Furthermore, ammonia combustion does not emit carbon. This review article covers the advantages and disadvantages of using ammonia as a sustainable marine fuel. We start by discussing the regulations and environmental concerns of the shipping sector, which is responsible for around 2% to 3% of global energy-related CO₂ emissions. These emissions may increase as the maritime industry grows at a compound annual growth rate of 4.33%. Next, we analyze the use of ammonia as a fuel in detail, which presents several challenges. These challenges include the high price of ammonia compared to other fossil fuels, the low reactivity and high toxicity of ammonia, NOx, and N₂O emissions resulting from incomplete combustion, an inefficient process, and NH₃ slipping. However, we emphasize how to overcome these challenges. We discuss techniques to reduce NOx and N₂O emissions, co-combustion to improve reactivity, waste heat recovery strategies, the regulatory framework, and safety conditions. Finally, we address the market trends and challenges of using ammonia as a sustainable marine fuel. Full article

The industry is currently responsible for around 21% of the total CO₂ emissions, mainly due to heat production with fossil fuel burners. There are already different technologies on the market that can potentially reduce CO₂ emissions. Nevertheless, the first step for their introduction is to analyze their potential on a global scale by detecting in which countries each of them is more attractive, given their energy prices and resources. The present work involves a techno-economic analysis of different alternatives to replace industrial gas boilers for low-pressure steam production at 120 °C and 150 °C. Solar Heat for Industrial Processes (SHIP) was compared with Electric Boilers (EBs), High-Temperature Heat Pumps (HTHPs), and Absorption Heat Transformers (AHTs). SHIP systems have the potential to reach payback periods in the range of 4 to 5 years in countries with Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) values above 1400 kWh/m²/year, which is reached in Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, and Romania. HTHPs and AHTs lead to the lowest payback periods, Levelized Cost of Heat (LCOH), and highest CO₂ emission savings. For both AHTs and HTHPs, payback periods of below 1.5 years can be reached, particularly in countries with electricity-to-gas price ratios below 2.0. Full article

This paper investigates the use of solar thermal energy systems in SPIRE (sustainable process industry through resource and energy efficiency) and non-SPIRE industries and evaluates the use a novel solar Fresnel collector for generating temperatures of up to 400 °C. The investigation showed that solar thermal energy systems were mostly integrated into the non-SPIRE industries like food and beverages, paper and pulp and the textile industries with temperature requirements of up to 150 °C while few of them were used in the SPIRE industries like the non-metallic minerals, chemicals, basic metals and water industries with temperature requirements of up to 1500 °C. The limitation of those solar energy systems was seen in their application in higher irradiance regions due to the limited operation temperature of certain types of solar collectors, which particularly affected the SPIRE industry sector. To increase their use in high and low irradiance regions, a novel solar thermal system developed by the EU-ASTEP project that could achieve a temperature of up to 400 °C was introduced. The calculations of the theoretical and technical potential application of the ASTEP system in EU industrial processes showed an increase of 43%, of which 802.6 TWh totalled the theoretical potential and 96.3 TWh the technical potential. This resulted in a reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 24 thousand kt CO₂ equivalent, which could help industries to achieve their 2050 targets for net-zero GHG emissions. Full article

This work assesses the use of different solar heating integration configurations and heating storage solutions for three different agri-food industries located in southern Europe. TRNSYS is employed to model different Solar Heat for Industrial Process (SHIP) integration options and to quantify the solar thermal share with respect to the overall thermal demand, as well as to estimate the avoided consumption of fuels and CO₂ emissions in the existing boiler units as a result of the solar system integration. The SHIP integration is complemented with the evaluation of selected phase-change materials (PCM) to promote latent heat storage under the specific conditions of the considered agri-food demo sites and solar irradiation characteristics. The arrangement of flat-plate solar collectors coupled with latent heat storage was found to enhance the yearly averaged solar share of the SHIP solutions, reaching 13% of the overall thermal demand for an average Spanish winery demo site. Furthermore, the estimation of the gross solar heat production for a mid-size Italian spirits distillery yielded 400 MWh/y, leading to annual fossil fuel savings of 32 tons and yearly avoided CO₂ emissions of up to 100 tons. Similarly, the SHIP integration model for an average French charcuterie predicted a 55% solar share of the thermal demand required for plant cleaning purposes, resulting in roughly 50 tons of CO₂ emissions avoided per year. The estimated payback period (PBP) for the Italian spirits demo case under the current economic scenario is below 9 years, whereas the PBP for the other demos does not exceed the expected lifetime of the solar plants (25 years). Full article

Industrial energy accounts for a large percentage of global consumption and, thus, it is a target for decarbonization by renewable and in particular solar energy adoption. Low uncertainty simulation tools can reduce the financial risk of solar projects, fostering the transition to a sustainable energy system. Several simulation tools are readily available to developers; differences exist in the format of input data and complexity of physical and numerical models. These tools can provide a variety of results from technical to financial and sensitivity analysis, often producing significant differences in yield assessment and uncertainty levels. IEA SHC Task 64/SolarPACES Task IV—Subtask C aims to address the lack of standard simulation tools for Solar Heating of Industrial Processes (SHIP) plants. This article describes the collaborative work developed by the researchers participating in the task. The identification and classification of several currently available simulation tools are performed on the basis of their capabilities and simulation approaches. A case study of solar heat supply to a copper mining operation is defined, allowing a comparison of the results produced by equivalent simulation tools. The proposed methodology identifies the main sources of differences among the simulation tools, the assessment of the deviation considering a series of statistical metrics for different time scales, and identifies their limitations and bias. The effects of physical characteristics of SHIP plants and different simulation approaches are discussed and quantified. The obtained results allow us to develop a basic guideline for a standardized yield assessment procedure with known uncertainties. Creating this common framework could partially reduce the risk perceived by the finance industry regarding SHIP systems. Full article

Industrial manufacturing approaches are associated with processing materials that consume a significant amount of thermal energy, termed as industrial process heat. Industrial sectors consume a substantial amount of energy for process heating over a wide range of temperatures (up to 400 °C) from agriculture, HVAC to power plants. However, the intensive industrial application of fossil fuels causes unfavorable environmental effects that cannot be ignored. To address this issue, green energy sources have manifested their potential as economical and pollution-free energy sources. Nevertheless, the adoption of solar industrial process heating systems is still limited due to a lack of knowledge in the design/installation aspects, reluctance to experience the technical/infrastructural changes, low price of fossil fuels, and lack of relative incentives. For successful solar process heat integration in industries, a proper understanding of the associated design factors is essential. This paper comprehensively reviews the integration strategies of solar industrial process heating systems, appraisal of the integration points, different aspects of solar collectors, installed thermal power, and thermal storage volume covering case studies, reports and reviews. The integration aspects of solar process heat, findings, and obstacles of several projects from the literature are also highlighted. Finally, the integration locations of SHIP systems are compared for different industrial sectors to find out the most used integration point for a certain sector and operation. It was found that for the food, beverage, and agriculture sector, 51% of solar process heat integration occurs at the supply level and 27.3% at the process-level. Full article

The analysis of solar thermal systems through numerical simulation is of great importance, since it allows predicting the performance of many configurations in any location and under different climatic conditions. Most of the simulation tools are commercial and require different degrees of training; therefore, it is important to develop simple and reliable methodologies to obtain similar results. This study presents a parametric methodology to size stationary solar collector fields, with operating temperatures up to 150 °C. The costs of the collector loop piping and the pumping power of different series–parallel arrays is considered. The proposed tool was validated with experimental data and through simulations using commercial software. The tool allows establishing series–parallel arrays and calculates the volume of the storage tank according to the thermal load. The calculation is based on the system energy balance, where the mass flow and the heat losses in the interconnections of the collectors are taken into account. The number of collectors and the optimal series–parallel array were determined. The results show deviations lower than 7% in the relative error of the temperature profiles and in the solar fraction, with respect to the results obtained by dynamic simulations. Full article