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

提出了一个为期4年的多学科项目，旨在最大限度地减少英国工业的一次能源使用，关注下一代技术解决方案，确定挑战，并评估其优化实施带来的机会和好处(对不同的利益相关者)。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一项目。在这种工业支持下，该团队拥有必要的途径并处于有利地位，能够提供真正的影响，最终实现这些解决方案的实际演示。拟议的项目涉及两种选定的具有集成储能能力的能源转换技术的具体改进：1)采用有机朗肯循环(ORC)设备的热电转换；以及2)采用吸收制冷(AR)设备的热电转换。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)机组、传统或可再生能源(太阳能、地热、生物质/天然气)，也可以从工业过程中浪费。至于后者，据估计，英国所有工业能源的至少17%被浪费为热量，其中只有17%被认为是经济上可以回收的，根据目前可用的技术。这些技术的成功实施将使余热利用的潜力增加3.5倍，从目前技术的17%增加到接近60%。根据设计，内置的低成本储热容量可以缓冲大多数实际热源固有的能量或温度波动，允许更小的转换设备(对于相同的平均输入)和更有效的运行，这些设备更接近其设计点更长的时间。这将通过同时降低资本和维护成本并提高性能，极大地改善实施这些转换解决方案的经济命题。相关技术前景看好，但目前在大多数应用程序中并不经济可行，充其量为&gt；5-20年的投资回报。该项目涉及目标和解决每项技术预先确定的“瓶颈”方面，这些方面可以在最大化单位资本成本的性能方面实现逐步改进。其目标是能够广泛采用这些技术，并将其与现有能源系统和能效战略进行最佳整合，从而大幅提高性能，同时降低成本，从而将投资回收期减少到3-5年。旨在通过释放优化的、为应用量身定做的流体的高效率和高功率的协同潜力，以及包括先进的热交换器配置和体系结构在内的创新组件的协同潜力，实现技术上的阶段性变化，以便在减少组件尺寸和成本的同时增加热传输。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，检查技术经济可行性，并确定与最佳集成、控制和运行相关的机会，以最大限度地提高使用性能。只有两个国际研究团队能够开发必要的工具，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模型结合在一起，并将这些工具整合到整个能源系统优化平台中。这是一个真正的世界领先的发展。

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.