Zenaida Mourão’s research while affiliated with Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC TEC) and other places

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Publications (12)


Optimising green hydrogen injection into gas networks: Decarbonisation potential and influence on quality-of-service indexes
  • Article

October 2024

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13 Reads

Sustainable Energy Grids and Networks

João Fontoura

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Zenaida Mourão

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Decarbonization potential of integrating industrial excess heat in a district heating network: The Portuguese case
  • Article
  • Full-text available

March 2022

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68 Reads

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16 Citations

Cleaner Energy Systems

The paper performs an assessment of the decarbonisation potential in utilizing industrial excess heat to meet the baseload heating requirements of a district heating network in Portugal. The excess heat source considered was a municipal waste-to-energy plant located 5km from a district heating and cooling network. It performed an economical comparison between two integration procedures: (i) extending the existing pipeline to the excess heat source; and (ii) using a continuous supply of portable thermal storage modules. For the excess heat characterization and tecno-economic assessment, the EMB3RS platform was used. The analysis demonstrated the pipeline alternative more economically feasible (with a levelized cost of heat of 17,25 €/MWh), meeting the baseload consumption with a decarbonisation reduction potential of 30 %. The higher levelized cost of heat of the portable thermal storage solution is mainly due to the high daily replacement cost for the thermal stores.

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Liberalized market designs for district heating networks under the EMB3Rs platform

December 2021

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59 Reads

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15 Citations

Sustainable Energy Grids and Networks

Current developments in heat pumps, supported by innovative business models, are driving several industry sectors to take a proactive role in future district heating and cooling networks in cities. For instance, supermarkets and data centers have been assessing the reuse of waste heat as an extra source for the district heating network, which would offset the additional investment in heat pumps. This innovative business model requires complete deregulation of the district heating market to allow industrial heat producers to provide waste heat as an additional source in the district heating network. This work proposes the application of innovative market designs for district heating networks, inspired by new practices seen in the electricity sector. More precisely, pool and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) market designs are addressed, comparing centralized and decentralized market proposals. An illustrative case of a Nordic district heating network is used to assess the performance of each market design, as well as the potential revenue that different heat producers can obtain by participating in the market. An important conclusion of this work is that the proposed market designs are in line with the new trends, encouraging the inclusion of new excess heat recovery players in district heating networks.


Distance between agents.
Pipelines' diameter.
Total revenue and heat dispatched for each agent type.
Mutual-benefit of district heating market and network operation for prosumers integration

The integration of prosumers (consumers who can both consume and produce energy) in a current district heating network (DHN) brings new challenges to the market and DHN operation, since they can change the thermal flow in the DHN and increase competition in the district heating market. In this scope, this work proposes the implementation of a coordination methodology based on a peer-to-peer (P2P) market to enable bilateral energy trades between producers, prosumers and consumers, coupled with the DHN operation. A Nordic DHN containing prosumers is used to test and validate the proposed methodology. The results point out that the coordination methodology is able to provide compromise solutions between the market negotiation and the DHN operation. An important conclusion is that the coordination methodology encourages prosumer integration in DHN, increasing market competition that may pull down the energy costs for consumers while avoiding DHN's operating and management burdens.


Figure 4 -Schematic diagram of the energy centre installed to supply heating and cooling to Climaespaço DHC network.
Main thermal performance parameters and properties of the thermal storage studied.
CAPEX and OPEX costs comparison for the systems studied.
Decarbonization potential of integrating industrial excess heat in a district heating network: The Portuguese case

October 2021

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100 Reads

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4 Citations

This paper assesses the decarbonisation potential of utilizing industrial excess heat to meet the baseload heating requirements of a district heating network (DHN) located in the Portuguese capital. It performs an economical comparison between two integration procedures: (i) extending the pipeline to the excess heat source; and (ii) using a continuous string of portable thermal storage modules. In this scope, this work assesses the integration of the excess heat from a municipal waste-to-energy plant located 5km from a district heating and cooling network and the decarbonisation potential achieved by meeting the baseload heating requirements of the DHN. For the characterization of excess heat and economic analysis, the EMB3RS platform was used. The analysis showed that laying out a new pipe route was more economically feasible (with a levelized cost of heat of 17,25€/MWh), meeting the baseload consumption with a decarbonisation reduction potential of 30%. The higher levelized cost of heat (LCOH) of the portable thermal storage solution is mainly due to the high daily replacement cost for the thermal stores.


Fig. 1. (A) -Baía Farta salt pans; (B) -Benguela salt pans; (C) -Lobito salt pans. The arrow indicates the Caota beach, location of the solar pond under study [31].
Fig. 5. Temperature evolution of LCZ during the second year of operation.
Fig. 6. Temperature evolution of LCZ during the third year of operation.
Fig. 7. Time evolution of the energy efficiencies.
Analysis of the thermal performance of an uncovered 1-hectare solar pond in Benguela, Angola

October 2021

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85 Reads

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6 Citations

Case Studies in Thermal Engineering

This is the study of the thermal efficiency performance of a possible 1-ha solar pond located at Caota beach, in Benguela, Angola. During the first year of operation there was no energy extraction from the pond and the water temperature in the lowest and denser layer reached 93 °C. From the second year onwards thermal energy was extracted. Two scenarios were adopted, water heating from 40 to 60 °C or water heating from 50 to 70 °C. Yearly 1600 MWh and 700 MWh could be extracted, in the first and or the second scenario. Operating regimes of 8, 12 or 24 h/day were considered. Based on the total pond incident solar energy, the overall energy efficiency of the pond is in the 2 to 5 % range, while the exergy efficiency is in the 0.4 to 2.6 % range. The repartition of the pond energy losses is also quantified.


Performance Analysis of a Hypothetical 1-Hectare PV Plant in the Benguela Region. The First Year of Operation.

April 2021

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28 Reads

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1 Citation

Angolan Mineral Oil & Gas Journal

The presents study evaluates the performance of a hypothetical 1-hectare solar photovoltaic (PV) plant located in the Baía Azul Beach, in Benguela, Angola. The first year performance of the plant composed by 2,784 DuoMax 365 PV modules from Trina Solar Company was evaluated by means of the VelaSolaris Polysum software package. The total surface area of the PV modules was of 5,456.64 m2. The annual alternate current electricity production was of 1,511.70 MWh allowing a total of 710.47 tCO2 of CO2 emissions reduction and a performance ratio of 72.8 %. The annual average energy and exergy efficiencies of the PV system were respectively of of 14.3 % and 14.7 %.


Citations (6)


... For instance, market liberalization can motivate industrial heat producers to utilize waste heat as an additional resource within district heating networks. Under competitive conditions, the system can adopt pool and peer-to-peer (P2P) market models, wherein the integration of new participants into district heating systems emphasizes consumer choice through differentiated products, allowing consumers to select their preferred heat sources [5,6]. Furthermore, various trading strategies available in the market may influence the feasibility of utilizing excess heat and the efficiency of centralized DHSs [7,8]. ...

Reference:

METHOD FOR ASSESSING THE EFFICIENCY OF THE DISTRICT HEATING SYSTEM UNDER MARKET CONDITIONS
Mutual-benefit of district heating market and network operation for prosumers integration
  • Citing Article
  • November 2023

Energy sources. Part B Economics, planning and policy

... To ensure appropriate gas usage by downstream users following hydrogen blending, it is essential to analyze both the steady-state and transient operational characteristics of the pipeline network. Current related studies typically employ algorithm optimization [40,41] and mathematical modeling [42,43] methods to analyze the operational characteristics of hydrogen-blended gas pipeline networks and the impact on non-pipeline components after hydrogen blending. Regarding algorithmic improvements, [47], as detailed in the following Eq.: ...

Optimal Operation of Gas Networks with Multiple Injections of Green Hydrogen
  • Citing Conference Paper
  • September 2023

... The most critical aspect is end-use electrification [48] in regions characterized by dense populations and high heating demand, the use of district heating networks [49] is the most cost-effective option. Industrial waste heat [50] or large-scale solar thermal energy [51] can be used to meet the basic load of the heating network and increase the share of renewable energy [52] in electricity generation. Moreover, carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies [53] can be developed to ensure a low-emission energy supply for district heating. ...

Decarbonization potential of integrating industrial excess heat in a district heating network: The Portuguese case

Cleaner Energy Systems

... Зважаючи на мінливий попит на теплову енергію залежно від температурних умов та часу доби, технології, що мають високі капітальні та низькі операційні витрати, використовуються для забезпечення базових теплових потреб (когенерація, особливо на біопаливі, тепло сміттєспалювальних заводів тощо), тоді як інші, що мають низькі капітальні та високі операційні витрати, -для покриття пікових теплових потреб (газова когенерація, парові котли тощо). Тому різними вченими досліджуються різні технології теплогенерації з позиції їх економічної ефективності функціонування за ринкових умов, зокрема: когенерації [4][5][6], відновлювальних джерел енергії [7; 11] та надлишкового і скидного тепла [8][9][10]. ...

Liberalized market designs for district heating networks under the EMB3Rs platform
  • Citing Article
  • December 2021

Sustainable Energy Grids and Networks

... A finite-difference approach was utilized in [19,33,34], whereas a finite element methodology was used in [20,35] to control the solar pond. Numerous numerical [1,22,36] and analytical models [2,21,37] for describing and forecasting the temperature profiles in SGSPs have been presented. Other recent experimental investigations on solar ponds [9,23,24,27,38,39] have been conducted to examine and measure the solar pond's performance in various ways. ...

Analysis of the thermal performance of an uncovered 1-hectare solar pond in Benguela, Angola

Case Studies in Thermal Engineering

... The authors (Nacer et al. 2016;Lee et al. 2016; Thotakura et al. 2020;Podder et al. 2021) presented their literature on the feasibility study of PV plants in various regions with an analysis with simulation models. The survey by authors (Pinho C et al. 2021) presented a simulation analysis of the one year operation of 1-hectare solar PV plant located in a coastal area of Benguela region, Angola. The study was conducted with a Vela Solaris Polysum Software and recorded a 1511.70 ...

Performance Analysis of a Hypothetical 1-Hectare PV Plant in the Benguela Region. The First Year of Operation.
  • Citing Article
  • April 2021

Angolan Mineral Oil & Gas Journal