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Distributed Thermal Energy Technologies conserve national resources, cut peak electric demand, and enhance indoor environmental quality and security.
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NREL's Distributed Thermal Energy Technologies project works with industry and academia to develop advanced and environmentally sound technologies that use waste heat from onsite electricity production to power heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) systems for buildings. As a result, indoor air quality is greatly improved, enhancing comfort, productivity, and a healthy environment for building occupants. Integrating power and HVAC technologies has the potential to double the efficiency with which these services are currently provided.
Our research identifies and develops promising technologies through analysis, field-testing, and detailed evaluation at the Advanced Thermal Conversion Laboratory. This laboratory is unsurpassed in the speed, accuracy, and flexibility with which it evaluates full-scale systems and components.
At NREL, we bring to bear expertise in thermodynamics, heat mass transfer, fluid dynamics, building/HVAC energy and humidity control, distributed generation, combined heat and power (CHP) design, human comfort, chemistry, microbiology, and advanced sensing techniques. We make advances in components, systems, and controls utilizing synergies between these disciplines.
CHP concepts for industry, research, and commercial buildings efficiently integrate distributed power generation and thermal energy systems. This, in turn, reduces stress on the grid by replacing peak-power-consuming HVAC components with thermally activated technologies (TAT). These systems are better suited for controlling humidity and providing ventilation air in an energy-efficient manner.
TAT consists of equipment that use thermal energy for heating, cooling, humidity control, and power (mechanical and electric) in buildings, factories, campuses, industrial parks, and district systems. They include, for example, absorption chillers, desiccant humidity control, and organic rankine energy recovery devices. CHP systems are a major user of thermally activated technologies, systems in which TAT equipment is integrated with power generation equipment to provide energy savings for customers.
We are also developing thermally activated performance enhancements for energy-efficient evaporative cooling and energy recovery tailored to the unique thermal qualities of waste heat streams. In addition, we are developing dehumidifiers that capture and deactivate air-borne chemicals and pathogens for ventilation credits and indoor air security. Our research also investigates low-cost real-time air-quality sensors that enable energy-saving demand-controlled ventilation.
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