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The Faculty of Mechanical and Power Engineering is working on the COOLSPACES 4 LIFE project under a prestigious grant programme funded by the European Commission. In collaboration with partners from Poland and Spain, our researchers will design and develop an alternative cooling system based on novel refrigerants and an innovative energy storage system.
Over the past 25 years, the amount of energy we use worldwide to cool houses, flats, and commercial buildings has more than tripled, and it is set to become worse because as temperatures rise due to the warming of the climate, the demand for air conditioning equipment increases.
The International Energy Agency forecasts that by 2050, energy consumption for cooling buildings will account for 16 per cent of all electricity demand, making it the prevailing segment.
And this will increase the risk of energy shortages at times of peak load, such as heatwaves. There is therefore an acute need to implement solutions to avoid such problems.
The next step towards becoming a green university
Work has begun on an alternative cooling system at our university, undertaken as part of the prestigious LIFE programme and financed by the European Commission, with co-financing from the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management*.
The research is being conducted jointly by scientists from our Faculty of Mechanical and Power Engineering, the Spanish University of Almeria, Solar Energy Research Center, employees of the PROZON Foundation for Climate Protection, as well as the Spanish industrial partner Hedera Helix Ingenieria y Biotecnologia.
The work is jointly headed by University Professor Sabina Rosiek-Pawłowska, PhD, Dsc, Eng, winner of the NAWA Polish Returns programme** and Bartosz Gil, PhD, Eng, member of Academia Iuvenum. Both are researchers from the Department of Thermodynamics and Renewable Energy. The scientists received almost 9 million PLN for their research.
Project COOLSPACES 4 LIFE will last for five years. During this time, its participants want to design, construct, and test a pilot alternative cooling system consisting of a 70 kW renewable energy-powered refrigeration unit combined with an innovative energy storage solution and a smart control system.
Utilising environmentally friendly technologies, the system will be used to cool one floor of the Geocentrum building, located at the university's campus.
– It will therefore become an example of a living laboratory for the development of innovative technologies in the fields of renewable energy, refrigeration, as well as new communication technologies that allow for a high degree of flexibility in energy management – says Prof. Rosiek-Pawłowska.
The consortium members are also planning to put the solutions and devices developed to business use, so that after completion of the project they can be used in other public buildings in Europe.
Cool and warm in one
How will the system work? It will be powered by 75 photovoltaic panels installed on the Geocentrum roof. From there, electricity will be fed into the installation, which will consist of a refrigeration unit based on so-called green refrigerants and a special cold store, also to be designed as part of the project.
Cool water will flow from the system to provide air conditioning on the third floor of the building, and in the cold months, the unit will heat the rooms, as hot water can also flow from the system. Some of the heat will also help to heat the tap water in the Geocentrum building.
– Using thermal and electrical energy storage technologies, we will employ relevant control systems to switch from one source to another – the researcher explains. – As a result of all this, knowing the cost of energy from different sources and using information about the price of electricity in the grid, we will be able to decide at any time when to take energy from which source to choose the more cost-effective one.The air conditioning unit itself will use environmentally friendly refrigerants. – Thus minimising the direct impact of the system on the greenhouse effect – explains Dr Gil.
The device designed under the COOLSPACES 4 LIFE project will meet all applicable environmental requirements.
– We will use a mixture of natural and synthetic agents, achieving maximum environmental and economic benefits while ensuring high performance and efficiency of the system – adds Dr Gil. – It will be a very innovative solution.
Importantly, the device to be developed by the researchers will use waste refrigerants recovered from recycled refrigeration and air conditioning equipment, which is possible thanks to their cooperation with the Warsaw-based PROZON Foundation, involved in another LIFE project, consisting in the development of a waste separation facility for mixed refrigerants.
– The mixtures used in such devices are separated into base agents. In our device, we will use those with a low GWP parameter, which determines the potential to contribute to the greenhouse effect – explains Prof. Rosiek-Pawłowska. – For the time being, their number on the secondary market is small, but it will increase every year. Legislation is gradually obliging manufacturers of refrigeration devices to use refrigerants with an increasingly lower GWP.
A versatile solution
As emphasised by the professor, the project will include both fundamental and implementation research.
– We will demonstrate that it is possible to use buildings as an environmental resource to generate, store, and save energy – stresses the researcher. – We will develop a ready-to-use solution that will be tested not only at the campus of Wrocław University of Science and Technology but also in Spain, at our partners’. We will test the efficiency of the installation in other climatic conditions, i.e. the south of Spain, where the need for cooling is dire from May to October. As our device can also provide heat, we aim to make it universal so that it can be installed and used at any latitude in Europe.
The project involves the development of many scientific and technical aspects, such as optimisation, control algorithms, or modelling of devices and energy storage. The researchers also envisage that it will result in implementation doctorates and international training and research trips.
For more information on the LIFE programme, visit the project website.
*
This article was written and published under the LIFE20 project CCM/PL/001607 entitled “Innovative solar-powered refrigeration device based on climate-friendly refrigerants and thermal energy storage”, co-financed by the European Commission under the LIFE Programme and the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. Wrocław University of Science and Technology is the leader of the COOLSPACES 4 LIFE project with a budget of almost 2.9 million EUR.
** Prof. Rosiek-Pawłowska is the head (grantee) of a project funded by the National Agency for Academic Exchange as part of the Polish Returns 2018 Programme. For more information on her research, see our article.
