The role of an exergy-based building stock model for exploration of future decarbonisation scenarios and policy making

Kerdan, Iván García; Raslan, Rokia; Ruyssevelt, Paul; Gálvez, David Morillón

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2017.03.020

Cited by 10 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The majority of exergy related research that was dedicated to improving energy performance in an urban context has been applied to large scale systems, especially for district heating and neighbourhood-scale networks [45][46][47]. Nevertheless, exergy as a concept is becoming more popular among building energy researchers, and most importantly, among policy makers and practitioners [48,49]. The studies from Shukuya [50] and Nieuwlaar and Dijk [51] describing the exergy-entropy process of building energy systems can be regarded as pioneers in the building energy research area.…”

Section: Building Thermodynamic Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermodynamic and thermal comfort optimisation of a coastal social house considering the influence of the thermal breeze

Kerdan

Gálvez

Sousa

et al. 2019

Building and Environment

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Tropical coastal areas are characterised by high levels of wind and solar resources with large potentials to be utilised for low-energy building design. This paper presents a multi-objective optimisation framework capable of evaluating cost-efficient and low-exergy coastal building designs considering the influence of the thermal breeze. An integrated dynamic simulation tool has been enhanced to consider the impacts of the sea-land breeze effect, aiming at potentiating natural cross-ventilation to improve occupant's thermal comfort and reduce cooling energy demand. Furthermore, the technological database considers a wide range of active and passive energy conservation measures. As a case study, a two-storey/two-flat detached social house located in the North-Pacific coast of Mexico has been investigated. The optimisation problem has considered the minimisation of: i. annual exergy consumption, ii. life cycle cost, and iii. thermal discomfort. Optimisation results have shown that adequate building orientation and window opening control to optimise the effects of the thermal breeze, combined with other passive and active strategies such as solar shading devices, an improved envelope's physical characteristics, and solar assisted air source heat pumps have provided the best performance under a limited budget. Compared to the baseline design, the closest to utopia design has increased thermal comfort by 93.8% and reduced exergy consumption by 10.3% whilst increasing the life cycle cost over the next 50 years by 18.5% (from US$39,864 to US$47,246). The importance of renewable generation incentives is further discussed as a counter effect measure for capital cost increase as well as unlocking currently high-cost low-exergy technologies.

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Section: Building Thermodynamic Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermodynamic and thermal comfort optimisation of a coastal social house considering the influence of the thermal breeze

Kerdan

Gálvez

Sousa

et al. 2019

Building and Environment

Self Cite

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“…In this direction, Garcia Kerdan et al explored seven different large-scale, future retrofit scenarios for the non-domestic building sector in the UK, including typical, low-carbon, and low-exergy approaches [53]. The outcomes show that current regulations can potentially reduce carbon emissions by up to 49.0 ± 2.9% by 2050, while also increasing the thermodynamic efficiency of the whole sector from 10.7% to 13.7%.…”

Section: Exergy Analysis At District or City Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

Exergy Analysis of Energy Systems in Buildings

2018

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The performance of space heating and cooling systems in buildings is usually measured by applying the first law of thermodynamics, which makes it possible to quantify the energy losses of the single components and to measure their energy conversion efficiency. However, this common approach does not properly consider that different forms of energy have different potentials to produce useful work, the latter being a function of the temperature at which energy is made available. As a result, it is not possible to properly address how the “quality” of energy is exploited or conserved in the different processes. On the contrary, the second law of thermodynamics is able to do that by introducing the concept of exergy: This is the maximum amount of work that can be produced through an ideal reversible process evolving until a full condition of equilibrium with the environment is attained. Exergy is; thus, a possible way to measure the “quality” of an energy flow or an energy source. This perspective is particularly relevant when dealing with buildings and their energy conversion systems, which usually deliver thermal energy at a temperature level that is close to the environmental temperature. This means that the users require “low-quality” energy; notwithstanding, this energy comes from the depletion of “high-quality” energy sources, such as fossil fuels and electricity. The exergy analysis helps with identifying such irrational use of the energy sources, which cannot come to light from the energy analysis. In this paper, a literature review identifies methods and metrics commonly used to carry out the exergy analysis of buildings and their energy technologies, while also underlining discrepancies and open methodological issues. Then, the review discusses the main lessons learned from selected works, providing significant advice about the rational use of energy in buildings as well as the most effective technological solutions.

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“…Science Europe Scientists have also issued a brochure on the critical contribution potential of exergy analysis [8]. Modeling results [17] predict that current regulations based on the 1 st Law only may reduce CO 2 emissions up to 49.0 ±2.9% and increase the efficiency from 10.7% to 13.7%. According to the same study, however, low-exergy solutions with renewable electricity and heat pumps can reduce carbon emissions by 88.2 ±2.4%, achieving a sectoral exergy efficiency of 19.8%.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is exergy destruction minimization the same thing as energy efficiency maximization?

Kılkış

2021

Journal of Energy Systems

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This paper discusses whether the exergy destruction minimization or energy efficiency maximization comes first in resolving the climate emergency problem and provides sustainable solution options regarding the 2 nd Law of thermodynamics. It has been shown that low-temperature district energy systems with renewable energy sources and waste heat are effective in minimizing exergy destructions, while energy efficiency has a secondary impact. The research has been based on the Rational Exergy Management Model. The corresponding rational exergy management efficiency was directly related to nearly-avoidable CO2 emissions responsibility with a global magnitude of around 80% of direct emissions in the built environment. One conclusion deduced from such an unrecognized magnitude so far is that nearly-avoidable CO2 emissions may not be ignored anymore to develop new strategies for sustainable decarbonization, while the 1 st Law measures have limited remaining capabilities. New equations were developed to show the impact of exergy destructions on total CO2 emissions. Sample results show that a 30 percent-point decrease of exergy destructions comparing to the supplied exergy in thermo-mechanical systems has the potential of reducing total CO2 emissions by 35%. The paper argues that current exergy destruction is around 0.8 of the supply exergy, as an industry average, which gives ample room for improvement using the 2 nd Law, while the 1 st Law efficiency is already higher, and there is less room available for improvements concerning CO2 emissions. The paper shows that the 1 st Law efficiency may be increased by about 0.15 points, which gives a window of opportunity about a 25 percent-point decrease in emissions. The second main conclusion is that nowadays, new decarbonization strategies are needed based on the 2 nd Law, which will positively impact when coupled with the current 1 st Law measures towards meeting the Paris agreement.

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The role of an exergy-based building stock model for exploration of future decarbonisation scenarios and policy making

Cited by 10 publications

References 47 publications

Thermodynamic and thermal comfort optimisation of a coastal social house considering the influence of the thermal breeze

Thermodynamic and thermal comfort optimisation of a coastal social house considering the influence of the thermal breeze

Exergy Analysis of Energy Systems in Buildings

Is exergy destruction minimization the same thing as energy efficiency maximization?

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