Due to the problems associated with fossil fuels, scientists and governments are investigating alternative energy sources. In recent decades, there has been an increase in interest in initiatives involving the collection of clean, limitless energy. This paper focuses on two renewable energy harvesting combination technologies: mechanical vibration utilizing piezoelectric technology and thermal sources utilizing thermoelectric technology. Existing scientific literature proposes various techniques for producing and modeling each system individually. This study proposes a novel piezo-thermoelectric pavement model with piezo-thermoelectric coupling. Due to the lack of typical experimentation in the scientific literature, a new laboratory experimental prototype proposes to reproduce artificially and simultaneously heat harvesting on the artificial road surface and mechanical vibration caused by passing vehicles. Testing the laboratory-developed prototype has determined the efficacy of the piezo-thermoelectric coupling electronic model. This study demonstrated that a hybrid piezo-thermoelectric system is more suitable for road pavement applications than a piezo-thermoelectric coupling system. A hybrid combination system can continue to produce energy even if one of the energy sources is unavailable or malfunctioning, whereas a coupling combination system cannot. In laboratory testing, the combined piezo-thermoelectric harvester proposed could generate up to 1.75 mu W without optimizing the materials or power generation. This innovative study demonstrates the feasibility and applicability of combining thermoelectric and piezoelectric technology to harvest energy from road surfaces.

The energy-mix responds to energy transition strategies. Reliable algorithms calculation codes are needed to control the mixture of these various power sources to meet the energy demand. Smart Management AlgoRiThm of electricity Network (SMARTEN) is a multiscale (in time and space) simulation tool dedicated to managing mixed electrical energy flows. This article is a pedagogic support to describe how the software works by explaining the architecture of the software. Then, it demonstrates how to prepare files in the tool and how to conduct a simulation of energy-mix management. Data visualisation is also discussed. The suggested software will serve as an educational tool for energy management and an engineering decision-support tool by analysing the possibilities to integrate renewable energy into smart grids. The free and open-source software may be utilised in educational settings at universities to instruct students on smart grid-related themes.

The world population increased from 1 billion in 1800 to around 8 billion today. The Population Division of the United Nations predicts a global population of approximately 10.4 billion people by the end of the century. That represents over 2 billion more people. Moreover, the global community is currently experiencing a precarious state due to the enduring repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic across all sectors, including energy. Given the rising global population and the limited availability of primary energy resources, we must reach a balance between the demands of a growing human population and the planet's carrying capacity. The dreadful conflict in Ukraine has precipitated an enormous energy crisis. This crisis has served as a warning to the world population of how much it depends on this resource to survive. In France, the building sectors, specifically residential and tertiary, account for 45% of the total final energy consumption. It is the first energy consumer of the country and one of the most polluting (i.e., about 34% of CO2 emitted by France). Consequently, we must consider alternative energy resource forms (i.e., substitution energy forms). Harvesting energy from the building envelope may be a viable technique for partially satisfying the electricity demands of building users. In this context, scientific research offers considerable potential for developing more innovative and efficient systems. This article aims to review the state-of-the-art of advances on the subject to orient and further optimize energy production systems, particularly electricity. This work addresses several points of view: it discusses the overall backdrop of the present study and introduces the subject; details the research strategy and procedures used to produce this paper; develops the state-of-the-art on the potential for generating or recovering power from the building envelope; presents the SWOT analysis of the earlier-described systems. Finally, it concludes by offering findings and viewpoints.

African scientific research faces formidable challenges, particularly with limited access to state-of-the-art measurement instruments. The high cost associated with these devices presents a significant barrier for regional research laboratories, impeding their ability to conduct sophisticated experiments and gather precise data. This predicament not only hampers the individual laboratories but also has broader implications for the African scientific community and the advancement of knowledge in developing nations—the financial cost barrier considerably impacts the research quality of these laboratories. Reflection on technical and economical solutions needs to be quickly found to help these countries advance their research. In civil engineering, the thermal conductivity property is the most important measurement for characterizing heat transfer in construction materials. Existing devices (i.e., conductometers) in a laboratory are expensive (approximately EUR 30,000) and unavailable for some African laboratories. This study proposes a new and affordable device to evaluate thermal conductivity in construction materials. The method involves establishing a thermal flux between a heat source (from the Joule effect provided by steel wool where a current is circulating) and a cold source (generated by ice cubes) under steady-state conditions. The development of the cylindrical prototype is based on the comparative flux-meter method outlined in the measuring protocol of the ASTM E1225 standard document. Experiments were conducted on four distinct materials (polystyrene, wood, agglomerated wood, and rigid foam). The results indicate a correct correlation between the experimental values obtained from the newly developed prototype and the reference values found in the literature. For example, concerning the experimental polystyrene study, the detailed case analysis reveals a good correlation, with a deviation of only 4.88%. The percent error found falls within the acceptable range indicated by the standard recommendations of the ASTM E1225 standard, i.e., within 5% acceptable error.

Occupant behavior controls a building’s energy system to adapt the indoor environment, significantly increasing building energy consumption. Occupant behavior, which refers to the occupancy inside a building and their interaction with building systems (windows, blinds, thermostats, lighting and appliances, etc.), has been largely overlooked in building energy performance analysis. These factors make it essential to design sustainable buildings. It is widely acknowledged in the literature that there is an alarming performance gap between the estimated and actual energy consumption in buildings. This paper proposes a systematic literature review on energy-related occupant behaviors and their implications for energy performance. It aims to better understand occupant behavior, existing behavior modeling approaches and their limitations, and key influential parameters on building energy performance. It is based on a survey of ScienceDirect, Web of science and Scopus scientific databases, using their bibliometric analysis tools together with the VOSviewer software. Finally, this study identifies the following significant research gaps for future development: limitations of the generic and robust occupant behavior model; lack of actual data for validation; lack of research on different types of buildings (institutions, university buildings); limitations of considering all factors which influence occupant behavior; missing the detailed realistic situations of occupant behavior; integrating building information modeling (BIM) into building energy modeling.

A dynamic model is presented for a chiller working with a composite adsorbent (silica activated carbon/CaCl2)- water pair in a solar-biomass cooling installation. The main objective is determining a link between two possible evaporator configurations and the refrigerator's performances. The two considered evaporators work at different pressure levels. The related time evolution profiles of temperature, pressure and water content are studied. More-over, the effects of hot water inlet temperature and cooling water inlet temperature on the specific cooling capacity (SCP) and coefficient of performance (COP) are predicted by means of numerical simulations. The results show that an increase in the temperature of hot water and a decrease in the temperature of the cooling water allow an increase in COP and SCP. In particular, for a hot water inlet temperature of 85 degrees C and a cooling water inlet tem-perature of 40 degrees C, the COP and Qev are 0.67 and 4.3 kW, respectively.

A techno-economic analysis of production of bio-oil from catalytic pyrolysis of olive mill wastewater sludge has been performed with two different cooling schemes. The two configurations differ in the manner how the bio-oil vapors are quenched. In scheme-1, a vapor compression refrigeration machine is utilized for condensation of bio-oil vapors while in scheme-2, the vapor compression refrigeration machine is replaced by absorption refrigeration machine. The two schemes are modelled in Aspen Plus which provides mass and energy balances. For techno-economic analysis, Aspen process economic analyzer is employed. The model is first validated against experimental data from lab scale and then upscaled to an industrial scale of 100 tonnes/day wet biomass (93 tonnes/day dry biomass). Results show that the model with absorption refrigeration machine (scheme-2) has a slightly better process efficiency and a lower MFSP compared to the model with compression refrigeration machine (scheme-1). Total anticipated capital investment expenses for scheme-1 and scheme-2, comprising plant fixed capital investment (FCI), start-up, working capital, and interest, are expected to be €22.1 M and €17.5 M, respectively. The equipment costs are based on first quarter of 2021 and the economic life of the project is 20 years. Monte Carlo sensitivity analyses showed that the bio-oil MFSP is most vulnerable to discounted cash flow, income tax and bio-oil yield. The production cost of bio-oil varies between €2.16/GGE and €6.19/GGE for scheme-1 and €1.78/GGE and €5.01/GGE for scheme-2 when cost parameters are varied within an industrially relevant range. The findings support the viability of producing bio-oil by catalytic fast pyrolysis on a commercial scale.

Adsorption refrigeration technology such as green refrigeration method, following environmental protection and growing economic development, has received much attention. Which are considered more environmentally friendly alternatives to conventional compression refrigeration, since they can use refrigerants that do not contribute to ozone layer depletion and global warming.The silica gel -water is the adsorbent-adsorbate pair used in this paper . Compared with other adsorbents (activated carbon - methanol, Zeolite - water), silica gel-water presents the advantage of excellent physical and thermal properties of water (high latent heat of evaporation, low viscosity, high thermal conductivity , thermal stability in a wide range of operating temperature and a compatibility with several materials) as well as good adsorption property of silica gel (high adsorption/desorption rate and low generation temperature). The couple of silica gel-water can be classified as the best couple for adsorption cooling applications. This paper presents an experimental study of a solar adsorption refrigeration system for three typical days. The variation of the solar flux, the characteristic of temperatures of the solar collector as well as the temperatures of the various components of the adsorption chiller allowed seeing the effect of the solar flux on the various parameters and the performance of the adsorption chiller for two different cases : solar/aerothermal coupling and the solar /geothermal coupling system.

Building energy consumption and environmental emission are significantly influenced by end-users, and building energy simulations tools are used to optimize the performance of the building. Currently, most of the simulation tools considered oversimplified behaviour and contribute to the energy gap between the predicted and actual consumption. However, the building energy performance also depends on occupant dynamic behaviours and this tools fails to capture the dynamic occupant behaviour. To overcome this, developing a co-simulation platform is an effective approach to integrate an occupant behaviour modelling using a multi-agent-based simulation with building energy simulation tools. The co-simulation process is conducted in Building Control Virtual Testbed (BCVTB), a virtual simulation coupling tool that integrates the two separate simulations on a time step basis. This method is applied to a case study of a multi-occupant office building within an engineering school in France. The result shows the applicability and relevance of the developed platform.

DEVELOPMENT OF A DISTANCE LEARNING PLATFORM BASED ON A NETWORK OF CONNECTED LABS TO STUDY THE ENERGY PERFORMANCE OF BUILDINGS SYSTEMS

Energy production from fossil fuels is a conventional method which has negative impacts on environment and puts a heavy burden on economy of a country. The developed countries are focusing more on renewable energy sources and reducing their dependency on fossil fuels. Among other renewable sources of energy, biomass is a reasonable source of energy because it also solves the problem of disposal of waste products. Fast pyrolysis is a high temperature thermochemical conversion process widely used for production of bio oil from biomass. Pyrolysis model of olive mill waste water sludge is developed in Aspen Plus based upon the experimental results. Pyrolysis of olive mill waste water takes place at 450°C in a fluidized bed reactor. The products are passed through cyclone at 350^°C for removal of biochar. Bio oil vapors and non-condensable gases are passed through a series of condensers. A heat exchanger carrying water is employed after cyclone to condense the bio oil vapors at 90°C. Cooling water is heated upto 67°C in the heat exchanger which is a suitable temperature to drive an adsorption machine. This adsorption machine is used to condense water vapors at 10°C. The exergy analysis of the process shows that a net heat transfer of 30 W takes place in the first condenser. Overall exergy efficiency of pyrolysis olive mill waste water sludge is about 83% taking into account all products. High efficiency suggests that pyrolysis is a very efficient process for production of bio-oils.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the influence of wood ashes on the mechanical and thermal characteristics of the clayey earth-ashes compound (CEAC) compressed blocks. Variable mass percentages of 0% to 60% of wood ashes were incorporated to clayey earth stabilized with 10% of cement. The physical characteristics of the clayey earth were determined according to the protocols of the french association of normalization. The manufactured blocks were subjected to mechanical tests: simple compression and tensile by bending. The thermal conductivity was then appreciated by the method of the hot strip. The blocks made with a mixture of “90% clayey earth” and “10% cement”, usually used in construction in Benin, served as a reference material. From the results obtained, it appears that the clayey earth used is a soil A2ts: fine clayed sand in a very dry state. The results of the mechanical and thermal tests show that for an addition of wood ashes between 10% and 20% by weight, the performances of the blocks are significantly improved. The CEAC blocks formulated from 80% of the mixture “90% of clayey earth and 10% of cement” and 20% of wood ashes can be used as building materials.

The work we present is a comparative study based on an experimental approach to the mechanical and thermal properties of different local clay-based building materials with the incorporation of agricultural waste in Chad. These local building materials have been used since ancient times by the low-income population. They were the subject of a detailed characterization of their mechanical and thermal parameters. The objective is to obtain lightweight materials with good thermomechanical performance and which can contribute to improving thermal comfort, energy-saving, and security in social housing in Chad while reducing the cost of investment. Several clay-based samples with increasing incorporation of 0 to 8% of agricultural waste (cow dung or millet pod) were made. We used appropriate experimental methods for porous materials (the hydraulic press for mechanical tests and the box method for thermal tests). In this article, we have highlighted the values and variations of the mechanical compressive resistances, thermal conductivities, and thermal resistances of test pieces made with these materials. Knowing the mechanical and thermal characteristics, we also carried out a thermomechanical study. The thermal data made it possible to make Dynamic Thermal Simulations (STD) of the buildings thanks to the Pléiades + COMFIE software. The results obtained show that the use of these materials in a building presents good mechanical and thermal performance with low consumption of electrical energy for better thermal comfort of the occupants. Thus agricultural waste can be recovered thanks to its integration into building materials based on clay.

This study aims to determine the physical characteristics of rice straw and highlights the presence of sugar in rice straw. The use of natural fibers as a reinforcement in construction has existed for millennia. They are mixed with clay to make building materials. This addition avoids cracks and sometimes contributes to flexural strength. Researchers have detected a high level of sugar in natural fibers. This sugar contained in the biomass is at the origin of the setting delay and the hardening of the building materials. Another not least significant defect found in natural fiber is its high water absorption potential. This hydrophilic character is due to the intrinsic porosity of the straws. This article aims to determine the physical characteristics of rice straw and highlights the presence of sugar in rice straw. First, the density and water absorption rate of the rice straw were determined. Then chemical tests were carried out to determine the rate of mineral constituents (ash), lignin, hemicellulose and finally the rate of cellulose is deduced. Like most crop straws, rice straw contains a high level of sugar. It also has a very low density compared to other building materials. It is around 450 kg/m3. Rice straw also has a high water absorption rate. The absorption rate absorption rate (At) 5 min of immersion in water, its absorption rate reaches 234%.