All Projects

OptSmallGrids – Opimization of small district heating systems

Heating networks are considered to be one of the key technologies in regard to energy transformation because of facilitating smart connection of different renewable energy sources, waste heat, storages, heat consumers and coupling the networks to other energy supply networks such as power and gas to increase the overall efficiency, the economic performance and the reduction of CO2 emissions of future energy systems.

giga_TES – Giga-Scale Thermal Energy Storage for Renewable Districts

To reach 100 % renewable energy supply in a long term, district heating (DH) networks require large-scale thermal energy storage (TES) technologies such as pit and tank storage. These would enable a) seasonal storage of heat from renewables such as solar thermal energy and b) flexible heat storage from waste heat sources (e.g., power plants, waste incineration) as well as power-to-heat. As these systems need to be implemented in an urban environment, the required surface area should be minimized to compensate for the relatively high land value in an urban environment. These minimized costs can be achieved by moving the system below surface level and further decreased by allowing usage of the surface area for recreation or installation of solar collector fields.

IEA-EBC Annex 73: Towards Net Zero Energy Resilient Public Communities

Public building clusters like hospitals or university campuses often include critical infrastructure which have to be operational at every occasion. Consequently, these structures are in dire of robust and reliable energy supply which is additionally sustainable and cost-effective as far as possible. The IEA EBC Annex 73 aims at developing tools for the planning process of resilient, efficient and low carbon energy systems for such building clusters.

KooWo – Volkersdorf

Kooperatives Wohnen Volkersdorf – Suffizienz, Flächen sparen und Energieeffizienz im Areal

Am Beispiel des gemeinschaftlich geplanten Wohnprojekts „KooWo“ in Volkersdorf soll Suffizienz umgesetzt und das übergeordnete Ziel einer ganzheitlichen Energie- und CO2-Reduktion erreicht werden.

DeStoSimKaFe – Concept development & coupled deterministic/stochastic evaluation of cold district heating for heating & cooling supply

The main objective of the project is to increase the applicability and feasibility of an innovative and sustainable heat and cold supply based on cold district heating. In order to achieve this, the development of complex technical system solutions and methodical fundamentals for the simulation, conception, planning and long-term evaluation of such systems takes place. Furthermore, a stochastic model for the long-term evaluation of system solutions based on varying framework conditions and exogenous scenarios is being developed. Based on the developed system solutions and the technical/ecological evaluation, tailor-made products and services for cold district heating are developed, which are then incorporated into an economic evaluation method.

IEA EBC Annex 75 – Cost-effective Building Renovation at District Level Combining Energy Efficiency & Renewables

The cost efficient renovation of existing districts requires the right balance between energy efficiency measures and renewable energy measures. How this right balance can look like, will be investigated in this project.

6D BIM-Terminal: Missing link for the planning of CO2-neutral buildings

The goal of the project is to achieve a continuous life cycle analysis in all planning stages of buildings, with a special focus on the planning and construction of CO₂-neutral buildings, by the application of building information modelling (BIM).

Kostenreduktion Plusenergiegebäude – KoProLZK+

Effective processes, robust solutions, new business models and reliable life cycle costs, supporting user engagement and investors’ confidence towards net zero balance.

The aim of the project is to develop a continuous process chain for the energetic-economic optimization of zero and plus energy buildings. The project will focus on proven and new approaches to cost reduction of nearly zero energy buildings (nZEBs) at all stages of the life cycle. The main goal is to identify the extra-costs for nZEBs, and to promote innovative approaches taking into account the cost-effectiveness for all the Stakeholders. A database containing important cost parameters and potential savings will be developed.

Radi-Cal

Numerical model for detailed calculation of solar radiation through transparent surface areas of the building envelope

In the light of global warming and regarding the fact that in the EU buildings account for about half of the total energy consumption the significance of highly accurate energetic models for buildings is rising constantly. Predictive and physically valid models are crucial in order to further increase the energy efficiency of buildings.

Ammonia-to-Power

Ammonia-to-Power“ – Energy Recovery from ammonium-containing Substances by means of Vacuum-Membrane Distillation and Ammonia-Fuel Cell

A considerable high amount of ammonium (in the form of Nitrogen salts) is available in various waste product streams such as industrial wastewater, municipal sewage or digestate. Due to lack of efficient resource recovery technologies, the ammonium bound hydrogen in waste products cannot be utilized. Both these problems – the efficient recovery of ammonia gas and the utilization and energy recovery of ammonia in a fuel cell – require the development of new appropriate technologies.

Within the project “Ammonia-to-power” a vacuum membrane distillation method (MD) for ammonia gas extraction and an ammonia fuel cell (SOFC ammonia) are developed.

The outcome of the project will be an optimized membrane distillation plant at laboratory scale with a characterized vacuum membrane module and appropriate process parameters, as well as a 5kW SOFC CHP system exclusively operating with ammonia. Furthermore a technical concept for a real-scale plant will be elaborated.