Energy-Use Minimisation via High Performance Heat-Power-Cooling Conversion and Integration: A Holistic Molecules to Technologies to Systems Approach

提出了一项为期4年的多学科项目，旨在最大限度地减少英国工业中的一次能源使用，涉及下一代技术解决方案，确定挑战，并评估其最佳实施所带来的机会和利益（对不同利益相关者）。从零部件制造商到工业终端用户，大约有20家公司表示有兴趣支持这个项目。有了这种工业支持，团队就有了必要的途径，并处于一个重要的位置，可以提供真正的影响，最终实现这些解决方案的实际演示。拟议的项目涉及两种具有集成储能能力的选定能量转换技术的具体进展，每种技术一种：1)使用有机朗肯循环（ORC）装置的热电转换技术；2)带吸收式制冷（AR）装置的热-冷。这些技术解决方案能够在工业应用中从各种来源回收和利用热能。热输入可以来自高效的分布式热电联产（CHP）装置，传统或可再生能源（太阳能，地热，生物质/天然气），或者来自工业过程的浪费。就后者而言，据估计至少有17%的英国工业能源被浪费为热能，其中只有17%被认为是经济地利用现有技术进行回收的。这些技术的成功实施将使废热利用的潜力提高3.5倍，从目前技术的17%提高到接近60%。通过设计，内置的低成本储热能力可以缓冲大多数实际热源固有的能量或温度波动，从而允许更小的转换设备（对于相同的平均输入）和更有效的操作，这些设备更接近其设计点，运行时间更长。这将大大提高实施这些转换解决方案的经济主张，同时降低资本和维护成本，并提高性能。我们感兴趣的技术很有前途，但目前绝大多数应用在经济上都不可行，最多需要5-20年的投资回报。该项目涉及针对和解决每种技术预先确定的“瓶颈”方面，这些方面可以实现单位资本成本性能最大化的逐步改进。目标是使这些技术得到广泛应用，并与现有能源系统和能源效率战略进行最佳整合，从而在降低成本的同时大幅提高性能，从而将投资回报缩短至3-5年。其目的是通过释放优化的、为实现高效率和功率而量身定制的流体以及创新组件（包括先进的热交换器配置和架构）的协同潜力来实现技术上的逐步变革，以增加热传输，同时减少组件尺寸和成本。该项目包括重要的系统级组件，其目标是评估将这些系统纳入目标工业环境的影响，审查技术经济可行性，并确定与最佳集成、控制和操作有关的机会，以最大限度地提高使用性能。将建立一个动态、互动的全能源一体化设计和评估平台，以加快技术进步的实施，为具体案例研究提供依据，并为行业提供直接建议。只有两个国际研究团队能够开发出必要的工具，将多尺度最先进的流体分子热力学理论、详细的能量转换ORC和AR模型结合起来，并将其纳入整个能源系统优化平台。这确实是世界领先的发展。

A 4-year multidisciplinary project aimed at minimising primary-energy use in UK industry is proposed, concerned with next-generation technological solutions, identifying the challenges, and assessing the opportunities and benefits (to different stakeholders) resulting from their optimal implementation. Around 20 companies from component manufacturers to industrial end-users have expressed an interest in supporting this project. With this industrial support, the team has the necessary access and is in a prime position to deliver real impact, culminating in the practical demonstration of these solutions.The proposed project is concerned with specific advancements to two selected energy-conversion technologies with integrated energy-storage capabilities, one for each of: 1) heat-to-power with organic Rankine cycle (ORC) devices; and 2) heat-to-cooling with absorption refrigeration (AR) devices. These technological solutions are capable of recovering and utilising thermal energy from a diverse range of sources in industrial applications. The heat input can come from highly efficient distributed combined heat & power (CHP) units, conventional or renewable sources (solar, geothermal, biomass/gas), or be wasted from industrial processes. With regards to the latter, at least 17% of all UK industrial energy-use is estimated as being wasted as heat, of which only 17% is considered economically recoverable with currently available technology. The successful implementation of these technologies would increase the potential for waste-heat utilisation by a factor of 3.5, from 17% with current technologies to close to 60%.The in-built, by design, capacity for low-cost thermal storage acts to buffer energy or temperature fluctuations inherent to most real heat sources, allowing smaller conversion devices (for the same average input) and more efficient operation of those devices closer to their design points for longer periods. This will greatly improve the economic proposition of implementing these conversion solutions by simultaneously reducing capital and maintenance costs, and improving performance.The technologies of interest are promising but are not economically viable currently in the vast majority of applications with >5-20 year paybacks at best. The project involves targeting and resolving pre-identified 'bottleneck' aspects of each technology that can enable step-improvements in maximising performance per unit capital cost. The goal is to enable the widespread uptake of these technologies and their optimal integration with existing energy systems and energy-efficiency strategies, leading to drastic increases performance while lowering costs, thus reducing payback to 3-5 years. It is intended that technological step-changes will be attained by unlocking the synergistic potential of optimised, application-tailored fluids for high efficiency and power, and of innovative components including advanced heat-exchanger configurations and architectures in order to increase thermal transport while simultaneously reducing component size and cost. Important system-level components are included in the project, whose objective is to assess the impact of incorporating these systems in targeted industrial settings, examine technoeconomic feasibility, and identify opportunities relating to optimal integration, control and operation to maximise in-use performance. A dynamic, interactive whole-energy-integration design and assessment platform will be developed to accelerate the implementation of the technological advances, feeding into specific case-studies and facilitating direct recommendations to industry.Only two international research teams are capable of developing the necessary tools that combine multiscale state-of-the-art molecular thermodynamic theories for fluids, detailed energy-conversion ORC and AR models, and incorporating these into whole-energy-system optimisation platforms. This is truly a world-leading development.