IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v175y2021icp686-701.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A framework for sustainable evaluation of thermal energy storage in circular economy

Author

Listed:
  • Abokersh, Mohamed Hany
  • Norouzi, Masoud
  • Boer, Dieter
  • Cabeza, Luisa F.
  • Casa, Gemma
  • Prieto, Cristina
  • Jiménez, Laureano
  • Vallès, Manel

Abstract

The circular economy can be promoted as a solution to support the sustainability market position of renewable energy systems. To design a circular and sustainable system, a structured approach is needed. The present study develops a methodology framework for sustainable circular system design (SCSD), aiming to assess thermal energy storage (TES) technologies from a sustainable perspective. To this end, a composite indicator, namely, environmental sustainability and circularity indicator (ESC) is provided. This indicator combines the environmental impacts of the TES system via the conduction of a life cycle assessment and its circulatory performance using the product-level material circularity indicator (MCI). The developed methodology is applied to a case study of high-temperature TES using molten salts as a part of a concentrated solar power plant. The SCSD embraces the analysis for the most relevant processes through proposing different ecological scenarios including, increasing the recycling rates (Modest Scenario), increasing the reuse rates (Medium Scenario), and a combination of both (Optimistic scenario). The circularity analysis showed that for the Modest, Medium and optimistic scenarios, the MCI moves from 20.6% for the current situation to 30.3%, 38.6%, and 46.4%, respectively. Accordingly, the optimistic scenario showed the most environmentally sustainable and circular scenario with ESC of 7.89%, whereas the Modest and Medium scenarios exhibited ESCs of 1.20% and 2.16%, respectively. A major obstacle for substantial improvement of the circulatory and ESC is the high share of unrecyclable molten salts in the system and therefore, any effort to improve the circulatory and the environmental benefits of this system can be reached by using more environmentally friendly alternative materials. The study concludes that the integration of reusing and recycling at the initial design should be sought in order to achieve a more environmentally sustainable and circular outcome.

Suggested Citation

  • Abokersh, Mohamed Hany & Norouzi, Masoud & Boer, Dieter & Cabeza, Luisa F. & Casa, Gemma & Prieto, Cristina & Jiménez, Laureano & Vallès, Manel, 2021. "A framework for sustainable evaluation of thermal energy storage in circular economy," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 686-701.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:175:y:2021:i:c:p:686-701
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2021.04.136
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096014812100656X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2021.04.136?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tulus, Victor & Abokersh, Mohamed Hany & Cabeza, Luisa F. & Vallès, Manel & Jiménez, Laureano & Boer, Dieter, 2019. "Economic and environmental potential for solar assisted central heating plants in the EU residential sector: Contribution to the 2030 climate and energy EU agenda," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 318-339.
    2. Arce, Pablo & Medrano, Marc & Gil, Antoni & Oró, Eduard & Cabeza, Luisa F., 2011. "Overview of thermal energy storage (TES) potential energy savings and climate change mitigation in Spain and Europe," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(8), pages 2764-2774, August.
    3. Boer, Dieter & Segarra, Mercè & Fernández, A. Inés & Vallès, Manel & Mateu, Carles & Cabeza, Luisa F., 2020. "Approach for the analysis of TES technologies aiming towards a circular economy: Case study of building-like cubicles," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 589-597.
    4. Ritthoff, Michael & Rohn, Holger & Liedtke, Christa, 2002. "Calculating MIPS: Resource productivity of products and services," Wuppertal Spezial, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, volume 27, number 27e.
    5. Qiu, Lin & Ouyang, Yuxin & Feng, Yanhui & Zhang, Xinxin, 2019. "Review on micro/nano phase change materials for solar thermal applications," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 513-538.
    6. Tomić, Tihomir & Schneider, Daniel Rolph, 2018. "The role of energy from waste in circular economy and closing the loop concept – Energy analysis approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 268-287.
    7. Konstantinos Mantalovas & Gaetano Di Mino, 2020. "Integrating Circularity in the Sustainability Assessment of Asphalt Mixtures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-17, January.
    8. Konstantinos Mantalovas & Gaetano Di Mino, 2019. "The Sustainability of Reclaimed Asphalt as a Resource for Road Pavement Management through a Circular Economic Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-20, April.
    9. Ochs, Fabian & Dahash, Abdulrahman & Tosatto, Alice & Bianchi Janetti, Michele, 2020. "Techno-economic planning and construction of cost-effective large-scale hot water thermal energy storage for Renewable District heating systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 1165-1177.
    10. Prieto, Cristina & Osuna, Rafael & Fernández, A. Inés & Cabeza, Luisa F., 2016. "Thermal storage in a MW scale. Molten salt solar thermal pilot facility: Plant description and commissioning experiences," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 852-866.
    11. Prieto, Cristina & Fereres, Sonia & Ruiz-Cabañas, Francisco Javier & Rodriguez-Sanchez, Alfonso & Montero, Cristina, 2020. "Carbonate molten salt solar thermal pilot facility: Plant design, commissioning and operation up to 700 °C," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 528-541.
    12. Dahash, Abdulrahman & Ochs, Fabian & Janetti, Michele Bianchi & Streicher, Wolfgang, 2019. "Advances in seasonal thermal energy storage for solar district heating applications: A critical review on large-scale hot-water tank and pit thermal energy storage systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(C), pages 296-315.
    13. Gemma Gasa & Anton Lopez-Roman & Cristina Prieto & Luisa F. Cabeza, 2021. "Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Plant in Tower Configuration with and without Thermal Energy Storage (TES)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-20, March.
    14. Oró, Eduard & Gil, Antoni & de Gracia, Alvaro & Boer, Dieter & Cabeza, Luisa F., 2012. "Comparative life cycle assessment of thermal energy storage systems for solar power plants," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 166-173.
    15. Abokersh, Mohamed Hany & Vallès, Manel & Cabeza, Luisa F. & Boer, Dieter, 2020. "A framework for the optimal integration of solar assisted district heating in different urban sized communities: A robust machine learning approach incorporating global sensitivity analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    16. Miró, Laia & Oró, Eduard & Boer, Dieter & Cabeza, Luisa F., 2015. "Embodied energy in thermal energy storage (TES) systems for high temperature applications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 793-799.
    17. Vincenzo Muteri & Maurizio Cellura & Domenico Curto & Vincenzo Franzitta & Sonia Longo & Marina Mistretta & Maria Laura Parisi, 2020. "Review on Life Cycle Assessment of Solar Photovoltaic Panels," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-38, January.
    18. Palacios, A. & Barreneche, C. & Navarro, M.E. & Ding, Y., 2020. "Thermal energy storage technologies for concentrated solar power – A review from a materials perspective," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 1244-1265.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Carla Zarbà & Gaetano Chinnici & Giovanni La Via & Salvatore Bracco & Biagio Pecorino & Mario D’Amico, 2021. "Regulatory Elements on the Circular Economy: Driving into the Agri-Food System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-22, July.
    2. Aşkın, Asmin & Kılkış, Şiir & Akınoğlu, Bülent Gültekin, 2023. "Recycling photovoltaic modules within a circular economy approach and a snapshot for Türkiye," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 583-596.
    3. Chin, Hon Huin & Varbanov, Petar Sabev & Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír & Kravanja, Zdravko, 2023. "Novel circularity and sustainability assessment of symbiosis networks through the Energy Quality Pinch concept," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    4. Anne P. M. Velenturf, 2021. "A Framework and Baseline for the Integration of a Sustainable Circular Economy in Offshore Wind," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-41, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abokersh, Mohamed Hany & Vallès, Manel & Cabeza, Luisa F. & Boer, Dieter, 2020. "A framework for the optimal integration of solar assisted district heating in different urban sized communities: A robust machine learning approach incorporating global sensitivity analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    2. Konstantinos Mantalovas & Gaetano Di Mino & Ana Jimenez Del Barco Carrion & Elisabeth Keijzer & Björn Kalman & Tony Parry & Davide Lo Presti, 2020. "European National Road Authorities and Circular Economy: An Insight into Their Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-19, September.
    3. Claudia Fabiani & Anna Laura Pisello & Marco Barbanera & Luisa F. Cabeza & Franco Cotana, 2019. "Assessing the Potentiality of Animal Fat Based-Bio Phase Change Materials (PCM) for Building Applications: An Innovative Multipurpose Thermal Investigation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-18, March.
    4. Cristina Prieto & Sonia Fereres & Luisa F. Cabeza, 2020. "The Role of Innovation in Industry Product Deployment: Developing Thermal Energy Storage for Concentrated Solar Power," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, June.
    5. Golmohamadi, Hessam & Larsen, Kim Guldstrand & Jensen, Peter Gjøl & Hasrat, Imran Riaz, 2022. "Integration of flexibility potentials of district heating systems into electricity markets: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    6. Fadi Alnaimat & Yasir Rashid, 2019. "Thermal Energy Storage in Solar Power Plants: A Review of the Materials, Associated Limitations, and Proposed Solutions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-19, October.
    7. Zhao, Jinling & Lyu, Lianyi & Li, Xuexin, 2020. "Numerical analysis of the operation regulation in a solar heating system with seasonal water pool thermal storage," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 1118-1126.
    8. Ochs, Fabian & Dahash, Abdulrahman & Tosatto, Alice & Bianchi Janetti, Michele, 2020. "Techno-economic planning and construction of cost-effective large-scale hot water thermal energy storage for Renewable District heating systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 1165-1177.
    9. Adam X. Hearn & Raul Castaño-Rosa, 2021. "Towards a Just Energy Transition, Barriers and Opportunities for Positive Energy District Creation in Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-18, August.
    10. Abokersh, Mohamed Hany & Gangwar, Sachin & Spiekman, Marleen & Vallès, Manel & Jiménez, Laureano & Boer, Dieter, 2021. "Sustainability insights on emerging solar district heating technologies to boost the nearly zero energy building concept," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 893-913.
    11. Gasia, Jaume & Miró, Laia & Cabeza, Luisa F., 2017. "Review on system and materials requirements for high temperature thermal energy storage. Part 1: General requirements," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 1320-1338.
    12. Ushamah, Hafiz Muhammad & Ahmed, Naveed & Elfeky, K.E. & Mahmood, Mariam & Qaisrani, Mumtaz A. & Waqas, Adeel & Zhang, Qian, 2022. "Techno-economic analysis of a hybrid district heating with borehole thermal storage for various solar collectors and climate zones in Pakistan," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 1639-1656.
    13. Yang, Tianrun & Liu, Wen & Kramer, Gert Jan & Sun, Qie, 2021. "Seasonal thermal energy storage: A techno-economic literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    14. Ambroise Lachat & Konstantinos Mantalovas & Tiffany Desbois & Oumaya Yazoghli-Marzouk & Anne-Sophie Colas & Gaetano Di Mino & Adélaïde Feraille, 2021. "From Buildings’ End of Life to Aggregate Recycling under a Circular Economic Perspective: A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-25, August.
    15. Dahash, Abdulrahman & Ochs, Fabian & Tosatto, Alice, 2021. "Techno-economic and exergy analysis of tank and pit thermal energy storage for renewables district heating systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 1358-1379.
    16. Tschopp, Daniel & Tian, Zhiyong & Berberich, Magdalena & Fan, Jianhua & Perers, Bengt & Furbo, Simon, 2020. "Large-scale solar thermal systems in leading countries: A review and comparative study of Denmark, China, Germany and Austria," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    17. Jacob, Rhys & Belusko, Martin & Inés Fernández, A. & Cabeza, Luisa F. & Saman, Wasim & Bruno, Frank, 2016. "Embodied energy and cost of high temperature thermal energy storage systems for use with concentrated solar power plants," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 586-597.
    18. Liu, Changchun & Han, Wei & Wang, Zefeng & Zhang, Na & Kang, Qilan & Liu, Meng, 2021. "Proposal and assessment of a new solar space heating system by integrating an absorption-compression heat pump," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    19. Narula, Kapil & De Oliveira Filho, Fleury & Chambers, Jonathan & Romano, Elliot & Hollmuller, Pierre & Patel, Martin Kumar, 2020. "Assessment of techno-economic feasibility of centralised seasonal thermal energy storage for decarbonising the Swiss residential heating sector," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 1209-1225.
    20. Guelpa, Elisa & Bischi, Aldo & Verda, Vittorio & Chertkov, Michael & Lund, Henrik, 2019. "Towards future infrastructures for sustainable multi-energy systems: A review," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 2-21.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:175:y:2021:i:c:p:686-701. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.