ITS4ZEB

LIFE ITS4ZEB svilupperà e dimostrerà sistemi di accumulo di energia termica innovativi, compatti, ad alte prestazioni, economici, modulari e integrati con sistemi a pompa di calore.

Al centro della soluzione si trova un’innovativa pompa di calore multisorgente combinata con accumulo a PCM, il cui accoppiamento è ottimizzato da algoritmi di controllo che massimizzano le prestazioni della sistema integrato, l’utilizzo di energia rinnovabile e quindi la riduzione delle emissioni di gas serra. Inoltre, per ridurre ulteriormente l’impatto climatico della soluzione, la pompa di calore utilizzerà propano (con GWP quasi nullo) come fluido refrigerante.

Il progetto adotta un approccio flessibile, in modo che le soluzioni siano applicabili ad un'ampia varietà di edifici, di nuova costruzione o ristrutturati, scarsamente o ben isolati.

I partner installeranno 50 dimostratori indipendenti in 10 Stati Memberi, per testare e validare il prodotto in tutti i contesti possibili. Questi dimostreranno la modularità, la scalabilità e la fattibilità della tecnologia sviluppata in un ambiente operativo, con l'obiettivo di raggiungere la fase industriale e commerciale alla fine del progetto.

In the last decades, the objective of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions has called the researchers to explore and focus on the development of innovative solutions with the aim of translating them in real applications in the next future. In this scenario, energy management and indoor thermal comfort have become challenging issues. Gagliano et al.11 reported that in the European Countries the total cooled floor area is destined to grow up to 2 billion m2 in 2020 (it was 1000 million m2 in 2012).

Therefore, more than 100 TWh/year will be required for building cooling only. The thermal equilibrium of the buildings’ indoor ambient is strictly affected by the thermal fluid-dynamic interaction of the external air with the building envelopes. This has been calling for continuous efforts in studying solutions to prevent the heat from the outdoors to be transferred into the indoor environment. In an interesting critical review work12, Cabeza and Chafer reported the passive and active strategies needed to achieve zero energy buildings (ZEBs).

They can be summarized in four points:
1. Passive sustainable design: building geometry, natural lighting, natural ventilation.
2. Energy saving techniques: building envelope design, heat storage system, lighting design.
3. Renewable energy: photovoltaic system, solar thermal system, geothermal system.
4. Storage or back-up system for renewable energy: fuel cell system, district heating, district cooling, boiler.

With this purpose, Latent Thermal Energy Storage (LTES) systems seem to be a very promising technology. The LTESs take advantage of particular material denoted as Phase Change Materials (PCMs) to store thermal energy. Different PCMs can be retrieved. Among the differences, their common feature is the ability of storing energy through the phase change process from solid to liquid or vice versa. Therefore, LTESs can find applicability in diverse fields: from the building thermal management to the power generation systems from heating ventilation and air conditioning applications to the thermal management of electric car batteries.

LIFE iTS4ZEB will develop and demonstrate a novel compact LTES integrated with a heat pump all-in-one systems for residential applications. The system will be managed by a novel control algorithm maximising performance and renewable energy utilisation. To further reduce the climate impact of the solution, the heat pump will exploit propane as refrigerant fluid, featuring nearly-zero GWP.