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To avoid the geographical and topographical prerequisites of the conventional pumped hydro energy storage, the use of underground cavities as water reservoirs allows countries without steep topography, such as Belgium, to increase the potential of the energy storage capacity. Belgium abounds in disused mines and quarries convertible into water basins. In this article, two Belgian case studies are presented and discussed for their singularity. A slate quarry in Martelange is discussed in technical aspects proposing three operating scenarios. Moreover, a preliminary economic analysis of the underground pumped storage system and a greenhouse gas emission evaluation for the storage system's lifetime are presented. The analysis for a 100 MW power plant estimates a total initial investment of over 12 million euros and two million of CO2 avoided over its lifetime. This article also proposes the use of the coal mine 500 m deep of Pérronnes-lez-Binche. The mine representation discussed here offers a high energy capacity, but the substantial head drop (from about 500 to 200 m) challenges the selection of the hydraulic turbomachinery. A 1D simulation computed in SIMSEN draws out the behaviour of the unusual hydraulic configuration of turbines in series., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

A large part of the thermal energy in buildings is lost through the drain and ends up as warm wastewater in the sewer system. The installation of heat exchangers in the sewer system enables a rise of the source temperature of heat pumps, increasing their coefficient of performance. To investigate the potential of such a technique in the Brussels Capital Region, a test facility named MYRTES has been installed in the sewer network, the starting point of this facility being to have one heat recovery system per residence. To estimate the heat recovery rate, potentially available in the Brussels Capital Region, the data from this test facility have been used as inputs and validation for a predictive model, considering both the heat recovery and its financial and environmental implications. Simulations show a minimum heating power of the heat pump of 6.3 kW, at a hot water temperature of 45 °C. A maximum of 35% of the buildings in the Brussels Capital Region are eligible for the use of such a system. At current tariffs, the levelized cost of energy for these systems, is lower than for traditional air heat pumps, but is higher than for gas boiler systems. The total equivalent warming impact, however, is estimated to be around 49% lower than for gas boiler systems and around 13% lower than for air heat pumps. In conclusion, heating through these types of systems is more expensive than gas boiler systems, but with increased consumption the competitiveness of these systems improves., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Contains research objectives and summary of research on fourteen research projects and reports on four research projects., Joint Services Electronics Program (Contract DAAB07-75-C-1346), National Science Foundation (Grant EPP74-12653), National Science Foundation (Grant ENG74-24344), National Institutes of Health (Grant 2 PO1 GM19428-04), Swiss National Funds for Scientific Research, M.I.T. Health Sciences Fund (Grant 76-11), National Institutes of Health (Grant F03 GM58698), National Institutes of Health (Biomedical Sciences Support Grant), Associated Press (Grant)

peer-reviewed, The full text of this article will not be available in ULIR until the embargo expires on the 26/06/2022, Although the food service sector is a major user of water, the potential for heat recovery from commercial kitchens’ drain water remains largely unexplored. For the first time, we compare the life cycle environmental burdens of producing and installing a heat recovery system with the environmental credits arising from energy savings for a restaurant case study, and for the entire UK food service sector. Life Cycle Assessment was applied to determine the impacts of heat recovery systems made from different materials and comprising a heat exchanger in the shape of a concentric double-walled pipe, pipework and fittings. The design option with the smallest environmental footprint combined a heat exchanger made out of polypropylene-graphite (PP-GR) with polyethylene pipework, exhibiting 80–99% less environmental impact compared with components made out of (35% recycled) copper. Contrasting the environmental impacts of two heat recovery set-ups with energy savings shows that a PP-GR based system pays back all burdens of the seven assessed environmental impact categories, within two years, while payback times for the copper-based system vary depending on the replaced energy source, and can exceed the 10 year operational lifetime of the system. When looking at typical flow-rates in UK food outlets, net environmental savings can be realised across all analysed impact categories above a threshold water consumption of 555 L/day, using current technology. Extrapolation to the UK food service sector indicates annual greenhouse gas emission mitigation potential of about 500 Gg CO2 equivalent.