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In order to reduce the heat leakage from the evaporator and achieve a longer transport distance, a new type of loop heat pipe (LHP) has been proposed based on a hypothesis that the circulation of working fluids is driven by not only the capillary head, but also the pressure head due to evaporation. In the evaporator, the wick is separated from the heating surface by a chamber, which can effectively use the pressure head generated by evaporation. In this work, a prototype of such a LHP was studied experimentally and theoretically. In order to understand the mechanism of operation, a new mathematical model was established. Comparing the simulated results with the experimental data about the operation temperature, a good agreement was observed that the average absolute deviation and the maximum absolute deviation were in ranges of 0.67–1.21 °C and −1.3 to 6 °C, respectively. With the validated model, the two driving forces were investigated. Results showed that the ratio of the pressure head of evaporation to the capillary head was in a range of 59–54% corresponding to heating powers from 30 W to 110 W. It confirms that the pressure head due to evaporation plays an important role in the circulation of working fluids.

This work evaluates the techno-economic feasibility of integrating the cold energy storage system and the electrical energy storage system in a refrigerated warehouse for shifting the power consumption. A dynamic model has been developed in TRNSYS®. Based on the dynamic simulation, the performance and benefit of those two types of energy storage systems were compared. Results showed that, the integration of a cold energy storage can reduce the electricity consumption and operational cost by 4.3% and 20.5%, respectively. Even though integrating a battery system will increase the electricity consumption by 3.9%, it can reduce the operational cost by 18.7%. The capacity of the energy storage systems, the battery price and the peak electricity price had been identified as key parameters affecting the performance and benefit. To achieve a payback period less than 3 year, for the integration of a cold energy storage system, the peak electricity price should be increased by 25% from the current level, while for the integration of a battery system, the battery price should drop to 0.7 kRMB/kWh.

Anaerobic digestion is a straightforward process to produce energy from biomass. However, the lignin composed of phenylpropanoid units induces a strong resistance for the hydrolysis step. Ionic liquids (ILs) have been applied in biomass pretreatment to dissolve the biomass components and enhance the anaerobic digestion. However, there are still some challenges such as the toxicity. ILs could inhibit the digestion process and reduce the CH4 production. In this work, a toxicity test for [BMIM]Cl (1-chlorobutane and N-methylimidazole) was conducted. Results show that IL has a strong inhibition and lowered CH4 production when its concentration was higher. At 0.2305±0.0116 g L-1 and 0.4367±0.0219 g L-1, the anaerobic digestion process was inhibited by 10 and 50%, respectively. Accordingly, a higher recovery ratio or a lower pretreatment ratio are necessary to avoid the negative impact of inhibition on BMP.