During the first year, the Consortium has achieved remarkable results in the identification of the most promising bio-based TCMs to be used in the novel thermopile. The novel thermopile will be applicable both in cooling using the CharCool technology and in heating to offer a clean solution for space air-conditioning.
The potential impacts the CharCool technology are wide.
When considering the integration in industrial processes to recover waste heat, for example, if we target 20% of the total industrial waste energy in EU through streams flowing at temperatures between 100°C and 200°C. This is 183 TWh of energy wasted every year. If only the 30% of this massive waste heat is recovered, stored, and used to meet the building cooling demand through the sorption chiller, a cooling energy of 35.7 TWh can be produced (COP=0.65 for the sorption chiller from SORP estimations). If the same cooling demand were produced with traditional reverse vapour compression systems (COP=3, primary energy factor for electricity 2.42 and CO2 emissions factor for electricity 229 gCO2/kWh), an electricity use of 11.9 TWh would have been needed. Furthermore, the system proposed could be used in the same way in the heating season (considering another 30%), without the sorption chiller, by replacing natural gas boilers (currently done by fossil fuels, e.g. methane with CO2 emission factor 66.7 ton/TJ; conversion efficiency 90%; primary energy factor 1.05). The GHG emissions reduction in the two cases will be:
GHG emission reduction for building cooling: 2.7 Mton CO2/year
GHG emission reduction for building heating: 35.6 Mton CO2/year
Another example is the application in multi-apartment buildings. Considering a 13-apartment building in Milan (Italy) with the building specifications of a common Italian building (see Tabula project, multi-family houses built after 2006) and with an occupied area of 100 m2 of solar thermal panels (compatible with the building footprint), it can produce enough thermal energy to supply the CharCool sorption chiller (on a typical summer day in Italy, about 160 kWh produced vs. 105 kWh input energy needed with a COP=0.65). The sorption chiller can save about 170 kWh of electric energy for a traditional air conditioning system (COP=3) in such a building during the summer season. Furthermore, the CharCool system has the advantage that the sorption material can be charged with waste heat recovery (not locally), thereby leaving the roof available for other RES installations, such as PV panels. Moreover, CharCool can also be used for storing and providing heating in winter. Knowing that the heating and cooling demand for multi-apartment and commercial buildings in Europe is about 1300 TWh, and comparing the GHG emissions with traditional technologies, i.e. a reversible heat pump with a SCOP=3, the GHG emission reduction for building cooling and heating can be around 99 Mtons CO2/year.
