Refrigerator – Heat Pump Model Approach for Process Start Up of Renewable Energy (RE) Projects

A theoretical model to rethink on process start - up of renewable energy (RE) projects based on; entropy concept (refer: http://sdsanbhatcurriculumvitae.blogspot.in/2016/09/appropriate-technology-overview_27.html) and theme ‘Sustainable energy sources for Earth’ was identified with the intention to propose this solution and offset the “Problem: Impending severe weaknesses and threats witnessed in ongoing RE projects especially in India" as from SWOT analysis and Pestel Analysis conducted by the Government of India briefly highlighted below;

Need for proposing a Working Model for RE start up projects

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Renewable Energy sector in India:

STRENGTHS	WEAKNESS
Conducive policy and regulatory framework at central level	Absence of conducive policy and regulatory framework in some states
Good resource potential	High cost of certain technologies
Growing technology maturity in certain sectors such as grid connected wind power	Current acceptability of end users
Emergence of indigenous manufacturers and developers	Inconvenience of use of certain renewable energy based applications vis-à-vis conventional means
Ability of renewable energy technologies to offer off grid / decentralized energy solutions	Quality and therefore reliability of equipment – particularly for decentralized applications
	Lack of availability of adequately skilled, technical manpower
	Lack of adequate transmission infrastructure in states for evacuation of renewable power
	Lack of implementation infrastructure
	General lack of awareness of end-users
	Lack of adequate distribution & service network

PESTEL Analysis of External Factors:

FACTORS	OPPORTUNITIES	THREATS
Political	Conducive policy and regulatory framework for Renewable Energy, domestically	Non availability of financial resources for supporting RE
	Availability of funds for renewable energy	Political support at the state Government level/institutions vary widely
	Regulatory developments in grid and market integration of RE
	Growing private sector interest in RE	Lack of interest to support such resources by other ministeries
Economic	Increasing price of oil	Continuation of high subsidies for diesel, kerosene, cooking gas
	Increasing energy demand-supply gap	Readiness of financial institutions to take on associated start-up risks
	Increasing pressure on availability of conventional fuel sources such as coal
	Several regions in the country with no access to grid power	Ability to maintain cost competitiveness vis-à-vis international markets
	Possibility of significant reduction in costs of solar technologies
Socio-Cultural	Significant potential of employability	Resistance from local community/end-users towards use of certain technologies (eg. waste to energy)
Technological	Technology break-through in solar	Inadequate transmission system capacity
	New technology breakthrough – for example, second generation biofuel technology breakthrough	Infrastructure bottlenecks
	Development of storage technology
Environmental	Decreasing domestic coal allocations
	Increasing awareness of climate change concerns
Legal	Conducive legal framework – Electricity Act, National Energy Policy, National Tariff Policy	Decentralised existence of renewable energy sources and some are labour intensive processes
	National Action Plan on Climate Change
	Kyoto Protocol and new Global Climate protocol

Source: Strategic plan for New and Renewable Energy sector for the period 2011-17, February 2011, by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India, pp 31, 34, 44, 45

Basis for the proposed model

Significance of the Clausius statement of the 2^nd law of thermodynamics:

Heat always flows from a body at a higher temperature to a body at a lower temperature. The reverse process never occurs spontaneously. Clausius statement of the second law gives: ‘It is impossible to construct a device which, operating in a cycle, will produce no effect other than the transfer of heat from a cooler to a hotter body. Heat cannot flow of itself from a body at lower temperature to a body at a higher temperature. Some work must be expended to achieve this.

Refrigerator and Heat Pump:

A refrigerator is a device which, operating in a cycle, maintains a body at a temperature lower than the temperature of the surroundings. Let the body A in Fig1. be maintained at t₂, which is lower than the ambient temperature t₁. Even though A is insulated, there will always be heat leakage Q₂ into the body from the surroundings by virtue of the temperature difference.

In order to maintain, body A at the constant temperature t₂, heat has to be removed from the body at the same rate at which heat is leaking into the body. This heat is discharged into the atmosphere which is at t₁, with the expenditure of work W in a device operating in a cycle. The device is then called a refrigerator. In a refrigerator cycle, attention is concentrated on the body A. Q₂ and W are of primary interest. Just like efficiency in a heat engine cycle, there is a performance parameter in a refrigerator cycle, called the coefficient of performance, COP, which is defined as;

COP = Desired effect / Work effect = Q₂ / W

[COP]_ref. = Q₂ / Q₁ – Q₂                                                                                      (I)

A heat pump is a device which, operating in a cycle, maintains a body, say B as shown in Fig.2, at a temperature higher than the temperature of the surroundings. By virtue of the temperature difference, there will be heat leakage Q₁ from the body to the surroundings. The body will be maintained at the constant temperature t₁, if heat is discharged into the body at the same rate at which heat leaks out of the body. The heat is extracted from the low temperature reservoir, which is nothing but the atmosphere, and discharged into the higher temperature body B, with the expenditure of work W in a cycle device called a heat pump. In a heat pump, attention is confined to the high temperature body B. Here, Q₁ and W are of primary interest and the COP is defined as;

COP = Desired effect / Work effect = Q₁ / W

[COP]_H.P = Q₁ / Q₁ – Q₂                                                                                     (II)

From equations (I) and (II), it is found that,

[COP]_H.P = [COP]_ref. + 1                                                                                 (III)

The COP of a heat pump is greater than the COP of a refrigerator by unity. At steady state, the electrical energy W supplied to an electric heater is dissipated as heat to the space, but when supplied to a heat pump dissipates Q₁ (>W) giving a thermal advantage.

For heat to flow from a cooler to a hotter body, W cannot be zero and hence the COP (both for refrigerator and heat pump) cannot be infinity.                                    Therefore, W > 0 and COP < ∞

Source: Engineering Thermodynamics, by P.K Nag, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi, pp-89 to 91.

Drawings

But, how to bridge the gap between planning at National/International level and Action to achieve success in these RE Plans. Because inspite of the plans, measures, regulations, etc. taken at the National/World level, still SWOT/Pestle Analysis shows the existence of Weaknesses awaiting to be converted into Strengths as also converting Threats to Opportunities, considering the time that has elapsed between the 1^st Planning Commission to till date. Hence, the following proposal is presented via. drawings as given below.

Available Model Drawings:

Proposed Model Drawing for Process Start-Up of RE Projects:

This model was proposed in the application for patent as it was found that regulations alone would never cut down the commercial fuel usage and RE promotional policies would only remain on paper as the ground reality would ever be a big ‘NO’to any changes in the day to day activities among people in any part of the world.   

Conclusion

To help restructure RE Projects through socio – techno - economically; 

i.                Regulating the use of conventional energy sources to generate the required ‘W’ as seed capital and then,

ii.                 Switch gradually to renewable energy sources,

after applying the basic natural laws of thermodynamics to the existing processes as on date today and as shown in the proposed model above.

Claims

As per the supporting drawings and complete specifications of the proposed Process Model to be referred for the process start – up of Renewable Energy (RE) Projects, I claim;

“All the natural/artificial theoretical and/or practical outcomes which are obvious and true occurrence/s, may it be socio and/or techno and/or economically significant and/or insignificant respectively, the such outcomes as they being based on the natural laws of thermodynamics”