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Many traditional heating systems which are based on fossils face challenges such as lack of investment or unfavorable price regulations, low technical performance, environmental impacts and negative consumer perceptions. The CoolHeating project which is, funded by the EU's Horizon 2020 programme and presented in this paper promotes the implementation of small modular renewable heating and cooling grids for communities in South-Eastern Europe. Core project activities bincluded measures to stimulate the interest of communities and citizens to set-up renewable district heating systems in five target communities in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and North Macedonia up to the investment stage. Single criteria and multi-criteria assessment approaches, considering economic, environmental and social indicators of the targeted projects, have been applied in this work in order to investigate opportunities for the sustainable transition of the heating and cooling sectors of the target communities of Southeast Europe. Both approaches confirm the feasibilities of the transition from traditional to renewable energy-based heating systems for each target community in the countries of South-Eastern Europe. After simulation and replication of the results, the sustainability analysis indicatively shows that the transitions from traditional fossil-based, poor-maintained, and difficult-to-manage heating systems towards renewable district heating and cooling systems in Southeast Europe are sustainable solutions. Having in mind the modularity of such systems, those solutions can be replicated in other Southeast European cities and other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ash fusion characteristics of biomass have significant effect on slagging. In this work, the effects of ash fusion characteristics on slagging have been studied by ash fusion experiments and CFD modelling. Based on the basic ash composition of biomass, the mixture of silicon dioxide, calcium oxide, potassium oxide, and aluminum oxide have been selected as simulated ashes for ash fusion characteristics investigation. The results indicate that deformation temperature decreases with increased potassium oxide. High content of calcium oxide and silicon dioxide increase deformation temperature for the skeleton effect, respectively. The reactions of potassium oxide, calcium oxide and silicon dioxide lead to low melting products and decrease deformation temperature. Aluminum oxide increases deformation temperature by forming Si-Al-K compounds while K content is high and decreases deformation temperature while Ca or Si content is high due to the Si-Al-Ca compounds. On basis of the experimental results, an ash particle adhesion model has been developed using the corresponding characteristic temperatures of adhesion. Combined with the deposition model of inertial impaction, a CFD modelling study of ash deposition on heating surface has been performed. For a kind of cotton straw ash with low melting temperature, the modelling results indicate that adhesion of molten ash plays a major role during slagging. The accretion rate of molten ash adhesion accounts for 85% of the total accretion rate. For a kind of corn straw ash with high melting temperature, the proportion is only 37%. Compared with the actual slagging during biomass combustion, the modelling results can reflect a similar slagging situation on the surface of tube. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates current and planned investments in new power plants in Bosnia and Herzegovina and impact of these investments on the energy sector, CO2 emission, and internationally committed targets for electricity from renewable sources up to year 2020. Bosnia and Herzegovina possesses strong renewable energy potential, in particular hydro and biomass. However, the majority of energy production is conducted in outdated power plants and based on fossil fuels, resulting in environment pollution. The new major investments - Stanari Thermal plant (300 MW) and Block 7 (450 MW) at the Thermal Plant Tuzla are again focused on fossil fuels. The power sector is also highly dependent on the hydrology as 54% of current capacities are based on large hydro power. In order to investigate how the energy system of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be affected by these investments and hydrology, the EnergyPLAN model was used. Based on the foreseen demand for the year 2020, several power plants construction and hydrology scenarios have been modelled to cover a range of possibilities that may occur. This includes export orientation of Stanari plant, impact of wet, dry and average year, delayed construction of Tuzla Block 7, constrained construction of hydro power plants, and retirement of thermal units. It can be concluded that energy system can be significantly affected by delayed investments but in order to comply with renewables targets Bosnia and Herzegovina will need to explore the power production from other renewable energy sources as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]