Luca Cirillo

Geothermal energy application in Campi Flegrei Area: The case study of a swimming pool building

Swimming pool is an important direct use application of low and medium temperature geothermal fluids. Campi Flegrei area is a location particularly advantageous for a geothermal plant installation at either low or medium temperature. Below the depth where ground temperature is dependent on ambient one, temperature gradient is typically equal to 0.03 K/m, but at Campi Flegrei it is much larger. With the exception of hottest areas, characterized by steaming ground, thermal springs and fumarolic emissions, a good value is about 0.2 K/m. In this paper, the design of a geothermal energy plant for air conditioning and heating of water in swimming pool building will be discussed. The building occupies a surface of 2185 m of area and the swimming pool is 25.0 m long, 17.0 m wide and it has an average depth of 1.80 m. Building thermal loads are evaluated by means TRNSYS®. Energy requirement for water heating is evaluated taking into account heat losses from pool surface and for water evaporation. The geothermal system is designed taking into account the geological and hydrogeological characteristics of the site, the characteristics of the geothermal plant and energy conversion system. Finally, a cost analysis will be also presented.

Feasibility Study of Solar Cooling Thermally Driven System Configurations for an Office Building in Mediterranean Area

The high temperature values in the summer time in southern Europe involve a high demand of energy for air conditioning. The advantage of solar cooling is the simultaneity of strong sunlight and cooling requirement. In fact, when the demand of electricity reaches extreme peaks for the excessive use of air conditioners, heat energy from the sun it is available. In this paper, an analysis with NEGST (New Generation of Solar Thermal System) feasibility study for a solar cooling plant in southern part of Italy (Naples) is carried out. The building is an office of a chemical industry. It is 48 m long, 23 m wide and 3.5 m high, and 200 people work inside. Thermal loads by machines, people, PC etc. were evaluated by means the software Energy Plus. It is considered three different type of collectors (FPC, ETC and PTC) and two different chillers: single effect for collectors FPC and ETC and double effect (H2O-BrLi) for the collectors PTC. Results are given in terms of solar fraction and PE-Saving for three different configurations. Then, it calculated the payback time for the best plant configuration.

Experimental Investigation on Compact Heat Exchanger in Aluminum Foam

In this paper an experimental investigation on forced convection in a compact heat exchanger made up with an aluminum foam plate of 212.5mm × 212.5mm with a thickness of 40 mm and a single array with five circular tubes is presented. The foam has a porosity of 0.93 with 20 pores per inch and the tubes in aluminum have internal and external diameters equal to 9.5 mm and 12.5 mm. The test rig consists of an open air channel and a closed water cycle and the aluminum foam plate is placed inside the channel. The performances of the compact heat exchanger are evaluated for assigned hot water mass flow rate and different hot water inlet temperatures and air mass flow rate.Results are given in terms of heat transfer rates and pressure drops as a function of air velocity and Reynolds numbers. The evaluation of dimensionless, thermal resistance, Colburn factor and Nusselt number is performed for different air mass flow rates and hot water inlet temperatures. The performance evaluation criteria is considered in terms of ratio between the heat transfer rate inside the heat exchanger and the pumping power of the air fan.Copyright