LoT-NET and i-STUTE, the

Intro and the Outro

Context

• In 2011, RCUK initiated a call to fund up to six

interdisciplinary Centres in ‘End Use Energy

Demand’. Each Centre would be funded for five

years initially with a nominal budget of £5M.

• i-STUTE was awarded one of the centres and

funding commenced from April 2013 – its

distinctive feature is concentration on heating

and cooling.

• 47% of fossil fuels in the

UK are burnt for low

temperature heating

purposes (24% of CO2

emissions)

• 19% of electricity in the UK

used to provide cooling -

Worldwide it represents

10% of greenhouse gas

emissions

Why heating and cooling?

Work packages in:

• Cooling / refrigeration

• Low temperature heating

• Industrial heat

• Business models

• Consumer behaviour / acceptability

+

• Dissemination

i-STUTE – www.i-STUTE.org

SIRACH - (Sustainable Innovation in Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heat Pumps)www.sirach.org.uk

Identified savings through new technologies:

• Gas heat pump 1.5-3.0 tCO2 per year per house,

dependent on type.

• Electric heat pump + store 0.6 tCO2 per year per house

• Supermarkets 2 MtCO2 per year

• Data centres 1.1 MtCO2 per year

• Storage will aid electric heat pump savings – a further 20%

CO2 reduction

Retail refrigeration

Road map:1. Review of display cabinet refrigeration

technologies

2. Building fabric and construction

3. Review of hot food preparation

technologies

4. Review of HVAC technologies

5. Combined Heat and Power (CHP)

6. Lighting

7. Application of refrigeration system

technologies to a baseline store

8. Results from refrigeration system

modelling

• Published by IIR

Proof of concept prototype:

Chilled multi-deck (remote)

George Barker Leo cabinet (standard ASDA

cabinet)

Already has EC fans, LED lights, large

evaporator, optimised air flow design features

1. Baseline test (EN23953) completed

2. Doors (good fitting doors) sourced from

Epta

3. AirCell (low temperature range), new high

efficiency evaporator, optimised fans and

air flow- discussions ongoing with Adande

4. Occupancy sensors (lights)

5. Low emissivity packaging

Retail refrigeration

Average of 1.40

kg refrigerant

leaked per vehicle

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Truck DriveCompressor

CondensingUnit

Evaporator Miscellaneous_Unspecified

Perc

enta

ge o

f T

ota

l R

efr

igera

nt

Leaked p

er

Unit M

ake

Make X

Make Y

Make Z

30% annual leak

rate for HFC

refrigerants

Non-observable

faults leak rate

80 g yr-1 i.e. 5%

Refrigerated Transport - Leakage

Deliverables

• To investigate the interactions of underground railway tunnels and ground heat

exchangers

• To investigate the potential indirect use of waste heat from the tunnels to heat

buildings above ground.

Integrated Heating, Cooling and Storage

Recovering Heat from Vent Shafts

Summer Winter

Heat

pumpHeat

pump

Gas Heat Pump Technologies

Heat pumps

Electrically driven, mechanical

vapuor-compression heat pumps

Fuel driven heat pumps

Gas engine heat

pumps (mechanical)

Thermally driven

heat pumps

Absorption heat

pumps

Adsorption heat

pumpsOthers!

• Box-for-box exchange for conventional gas boiler Retrofit market (>

90% of annual sales)

• Air source

• 30 - 40% reduction in gas consumption

• 7kW (3 bedroom semi-detached house)

The vision:

The laboratory

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Pre

ssu

re [b

ar]

Time [s]

Pressure

P Bed A P Bed B P Cond P Evap

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Tem

per

atu

re [

C]

Time [s]

Bed Water Temperatures

Bed A In Bed A Out Bed B In Bed B Out

In receipt of BEIS Low Carbon Heating

Technology Innovation Award – Aim to

have three production-ready prototypes

in 2 years.

Watch this space….

• Compact Chemical Heat Storage

• Compact Latent Heat Storage

• Process Heat Storage

Thermal Energy Storage

Investigation of the Potential of MgSO4 for

Inter-Seasonal Thermochemical Energy

Storage

• Analysis of MgSO4 composite material dehydration heating

rate effects

• Nitrogen Vapour sorption testing of composite samples

• 200g scale hydration tests

• 3 successful preparation methods for new composites

developed

• Design, and construction of a new larger (adjustable) size all-

in-one de/hydration chamber at 40kg size complete

• Inorganic eutectics proved to have better stability than other compounds;o Nitrite mixture is the only non-hygroscopic compound;

• From DSC analysis; most promising compounds for medium temperature process heat applications are:

• :

o Organic compounds need encapsulation for thermal storage;

o Organics crystallization demonstrated high endothermic peak with large subcooling;

Phase Change Materials for Thermal

Energy StorageHeat storage media

Organics Tmelt ΔHfusion Edensity

°C kJ/kg kWh/m3

Adipic acid 153 219 90

2-Chlorobenzoic acid 142 127 53

d-Mannitol 165 269 120

Inorganic

EutecticsMass

Ratio

Tmelt ΔHfusion Edensity

°C kJ/kg kWh/m3

LiNO3-KNO3 33-67 128 135 82

LiNO3-NaNO3-KNO3 30-18-52 127 167 90

KNO3-NaNO2 56-44 142 45 33

+ 7% NaNO3 58-7-35 141 76 46

LiNO3-KCl 44-56 169 141 76

+5% NaNO3 53-5-42 167 152 82

LiNO3-NaNO3 48-52 195 142 85

+3% LiCl 48-1-51 193 118 73

Phase Change Materials for

Thermal Energy Storage

Vertical array Horizontal Array

Shell and tubes

Coil in tank

• Compact Storage:

• Higher PCM volumetric Ratios;

• Larger isothermal power output

possible;

• Higher sensitivity to PCM’s

thermal conductivity;

• Encapsulated storage:

• Lower PCM volumetric Ratios;

• More sensible heat behaviour;

• Higher power outputs;

• Lower sensitivity to PCM’s

thermal conductivity;

Electric Heat Pumps

Previously

• Aim

• High performance heat pumps for

domestic and industrial

applications

• Domestic Heat Pump

• Working with air-source heat

pump and thermal storage tank

(water)

• High Temperature Heat Pump

• R245fa providing heat in a

hospital

• Operating with Seasonal Thermal

Energy Storage

Heat Pump + Thermal Store

Ulster’s Terrace Street

RED UHE Test Lab Data

A16-UHE Capacity kW COP

A7/W35 13.3 4.66

A7/W45 13.4 3.76

A7/W55 13.9 3.25

A7/W65 14.1 2.77

A2/W35 11.7 3.25

A16-UHE Capacity kW COP

A-7/W34 12.0 2.80

A2/W30 7.76 3.66

A7/W27 5.88 6.05

A12/W24 4.06 8.17

A-10/W35 14.0 2.58

Performance testing to EN14511 by BRE 2017

Performance testing to EN 14825 by BRE 2017 SCOP 4.06

16kW and 10kW nominal capacity monobloc air

source heat pump. Capacity from 3.5 -16kW and

1.5-10kW.

“Combination” Air Source Heat Pump

65°C

10°C

61°C

Bypass for Rapid Heating

Behavioural influences in considering a

significant investment in “green heating”

For the type of significant investments we consider…

• Alignment effects

– Be careful that people “write across” information

– Priming can engage higher order thinking

• Discounting effects

– People are more patient in our context than previous research

would suggest

• Norms & feedback effects

– Normative information can help but can be overwhelmed by other

influences (e.g. savings)

• Messenger effects

– Not significant for a decision the scale of an energy system but

effect seen for smaller investments

Where are we going?

• Refrigeration and Data Centre Roadmaps

Where are we going?

• Refrigeration and Data Centre Roadmaps

• Domestic/Residential SOLUTIONS

Where are we going?

• Refrigeration and Data Centre Roadmaps

• Domestic/Residential SOLUTIONS

• Specific challenges

• Gas HP

• HT Heat Pump

• Thermal Stores

Where are we going?

• Refrigeration and Data Centre Roadmaps

• Domestic/Residential SOLUTIONS

• Specific challenges

• Gas HP

• HT Heat Pump

• Thermal Stores

• Low Temperature Distribution Networks –

LoT-NET

• BEIS estimate that heat networks could supply 20% or more of building heat demand by 2050.

• Heat networks have previously used high temperature hot water to serve buildings and processes but now 4th generation networks seek to use much lower temperatures to make more sources available and reduce losses

• Lot-NET will research integration of low temperature (LT) networks with heat pump and thermal storage technologies to maximise waste and ambient heat utilisation in low or zero-carbon solutions

Variable seasonal flow & temperature

WP 3.6

Sorption HP

Data centresSupermarkets

GEHP

FuelHeat from the environment

(rivers, ground, air)

HP

WP 3.7

TT

WP 3.5

Sorption chiller

HP/ORC

WP 3.4WP 3.3

HP

WP 3.2

HP

LOW TEMPERATURE NETWORK

HP

WP 3.1

Research challenge 1:- Develop a spatial and temporal dynamic simulation tool that can be

used to simulate a smart thermal network interacting with storage and thermal transformation

technologies [LU, UU, LSBU]

Research challenge 2:- Advance performance of novel thermal storage, distribution and

capture systems [UW, LU]

Research challenge 3:-Advance performance of energy transformation technologies [UW,

UU]

Research challenge 4:-Determine key end use and business requirements for timely adoption

[LDS, WBS]

Research challenge 5:- To demonstrate/validate integrated technologies [All]