Nowadays humans are facing difficult issues, such as increasing power costs, environmental pollution and global warming. In order to reduce their consequences, scientists are concentrating on improving power generators focused on energy harvesting. Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) have demonstrated their capacity to transform thermal energy directly into electric power through the Seebeck effect. Due to the unique advantages they present, thermoelectric systems have emerged during the last decade as a promising alternative among other technologies for green power production. In this regard, thermoelectric device output prediction is important both for determining the future use of this new technology and for specifying the key design parameters of thermoelectric generators and systems. Moreover, TEGs are environmentally safe, work quietly as they do not include mechanical mechanisms or rotating elements and can be manufactured on a broad variety of substrates such as silicon, polymers and ceramics. In addition, TEGs are position-independent, have a long working life and are ideal for bulk and compact applications. Furthermore, Thermoelectric generators have been found as a viable solution for direct generation of electricity from waste heat in industrial processes. This paper presents in-depth analysis of TEGs, beginning with a comprehensive overview of their working principles such as the Seebeck effect, the Peltier effect, the Thomson effect and Joule heating with their applications, materials used, Figure of Merit, improvement techniques including different thermoelectric material arrangements and technologies used and substrate types. Moreover, performance simulation examples such as COMSOL Multiphysics and ANSYS-Computational Fluid Dynamics are investigated.

Energy consumption in the housing sector, is significantly high and continues to escalate. Urbanisation due to population growth and migration from rural areas to cities are two main reasons for this rising demand. With the uncertainty in the energy market and the increasing awareness of the impact of fossil fuels on the environment, research work in efficient building design has gained momentum. Energy conservation guidelines in many countries have become mandatory. Howerver, more emphasis has been given to commercial, institutional, governmental and industrial buildings, which commonly employ more efficient HVAC systems than those deployed in houses. Thus, the push towards energy conservation in the residential sector is less noticeable. This is further compounded with the absence of will power to enforce the same energy conservation rules as the case with other sectors. In this paper five passive cooling and heating strategies have been reviewed (passive building design, night ventilation, nocturnal cooling, PCM (Phase Change Material) and IEC (Indirect Evaporative Cooling), solar thermal energy). The aim is to evaluate how to implement them better in a cost-effective way in existing and new houses. The literature review confirmed the need for further investigation of energy efficient HVAC systems with passives strategies solutions for contemporary residential dwellings is required to make a meaningful impact on the energy map of this sector. Also, the viability of an easy to deploy and configure HVAC system for retrofit and new applications for more benefits of these passive strategies either individually or in a hybrid configuration needs to be explored.

In this work, computational modelling and performance assessment of several different types of variable thermoelectric legs have been performed under steady-state conditions and the results reviewed. The study conducted has covered geometries, not previously analysed in the literature, such as Cone-leg and Diamond-leg, based on the corresponding thermoelectric generator leg shape structure. According to the findings, it has been demonstrated that the inclusion of a variable cross-section can have an impact on the efficiency of a thermoelectric generator. It has been concluded that the Diamond configuration generated a slightly larger voltage difference than the conventional Rectangular geometry. In addition, for two cases, Rectangular and Diamond configurations, the voltage generated by a TEG module consisting of 128 pairs of legs was analysed. As thermal stress analysis is an important factor in the selection of TEG leg geometries, it was observed based on simulations that the newly implemented Diamond-leg geometry encountered lower thermal stresses than the traditional Rectangular model, while the Cone-shape may fail structurally before the other TEG models. The proposed methodology, taking into account the results of the simulation carried out, provides guidance for the development of thermoelectric modules with different forms of variable leg geometry.

In this paper, the performance of a multi-pass heat pipe-based heat exchanger (HPHE) is investigated experimentally and theoretically. The heat pipe system consists of copper heat pipes in a specific equatorially staggered configuration to facilitate heat transportation from a hot gas (air) to a water flow, which cools the condenser section of these heat pipes. The effect of the Reynolds number on the heat transfer rate was studied by altering the number of passes for the evaporator section for the same system by the incorporation of various baffles and by varying the water flow rate. The experimental results have highlighted the strong correlation between heat exchanger performance and the Reynolds number. By increasing the number of passes from one to five, the effectiveness of the HPHE was improved by more than 25%. It has been demonstrated that increasing the number of passes increases the Reynolds number of the flow, leading to higher heat transfer coefficients and lower thermal forced convection resistances. The HPHE overall performance, as well as, the outlet temperatures of the fluids were predicted through two theoretical models, based on the Log Mean Temperature Difference (LMTD) method and the Effectiveness-Number of Transfer Units (epsilon-NTU) method. The predictions were compared with experimental results and the accuracy of the models reported. The validation showed that the developed iterative LMTD model predicted the performance of the HPHE within 15.5% error. In comparison, the epsilon-NTU model predicted the total effectiveness with a maximum error of 19% and was able to predict the outlet temperatures of both air and water streams within an accuracy of +/- 0.7 degrees C. The reported research is of importance for the application of heat pipe heat exchangers in waste heat recovery. Finally, knowledge is provided on the accuracy of the available prediction models. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The ceramics industry is the second largest energy consuming sector in Europe. The main energy used in the ceramics industry is heat generated through burners using natural gas. The main area can be identified in three stages, the drying stage and the firing stage, and the cooling stage. The firing stage represents about 75% of the total energy cost. The roller hearth kiln technology is considered to be the most cost-effective solution for ceramic tile manufacturing. The kiln is separated into two sections, the firing stage and the cooling stage. The cooling stage generates large amounts of waste heat as the exhaust of the kiln is composed of a challenging flue gas for heat recovery. The recovery of this heat in an efficient way with no cross contamination has been achieved with a heat pipe heat exchanger (HPHE) system, which was designed, manufactured and installed on a roller hearth kiln and is presented in this paper. The heat pipe heat exchanger located next to the cooling section exhaust stack managed to recover up to 100 kW at steady state without cross contamination or excess fouling. The return on investment of the system has been evaluated at 16 months with a saving of 30,000 pound per year. This paper will present a deep row by row theoretical analysis of the heat pipe heat exchanger. The Computational Fluids Dynamics will also be presented to investigate the fluid dynamics within the evaporator and condenser section. Both investigations have then been validated by the experimental investigation carried out on a full-scale industrial system. The design approach used in this paper will highlight the benefits of this type of technology and provide a guideline for the design of novel heat pipe heat exchangers. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

This article discusses the functionalities and developments of different types of solar panels. It explains the latest technological advances in this field, especially in the context of different types of solar panels, namely, photovoltaic (also known as PV), thermal collectors, photovoltaic-thermal (known as PV/T) panels and concentrating solar panels. Specifically, the paper examines how each of the technologies analysed operates to produce heat and electrical power, how to improve the energy efficiency and which technology provides the best system efficiencies and fastest return on investment. Finally, it also assesses the extent to which the exploitation of renewable energy sources and incentives to achieve energy efficiency is supported by the European regulatory framework and policies.

'Energy efficiency first' is one of the key principles of the Energy Union, mainly due to it being the most cost effective way to reduce emissions, improving energy security, enhancing competitiveness and making energy consumption more affordable for all consumers. In light of the revised EU Energy Efficiency Directive, this paper discusses new developments brought by the EU together with the national case studies of Slovenia and Spain. Given that the paper has a specific focus on the industrial sector, it discusses the selected measures of the Energy Efficiency Directive, such as defined in Articles 7, 8, and 14, which are the most relevant to this sector. The paper also explores the newly issued integrated national energy and climate plans together with national measures and policies that support energy efficiency in industry, including the quantification of achieved and forecast energy savings in these two EU Member States.

The development of waste heat recovery technologies has surged as a result of climate change initiatives, which require energy intensive industries to curb their emissions and lower energy consumption. Installing heat pipe heat exchangers has proven to be a reliable and effective method of recovering waste heat due to their passive operation, superconductive properties and small footprint. This paper highlights the application of a vertical multi-pass heat pipe heat exchanger to a lab scale ceramic kiln system used to transfer heat from the kiln exhaust to water. The innovative heat pipe heat exchanger exists as a novel variable unit able to recover heat energy for a range of inlet temperatures and flow rates. The installed unit has shown a heat recovery rate of up to 63 kW. A range of exhaust gas temperatures from 135 to 270 degrees C were trialled at varying heat source and sink mass flow rates. The results of the experiments as well as simulation results using a model built using the software TRNSYS are given. The investigation has confirmed that the TRNSYS simulation results agree well with the experimental results. Additionally, return on investment analysis predicted 33 months payback for a theoretical full-scale unit preheating water for space heating. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.