“Pumps, pumps…” So goes one of the best-known songs by a Spanish artist from the early and mid-90s Spanish music scene. Although too much has happened since then, we can relate the theme to the current energy crisis we are suffering, caused by the war between Ukraine and Russia.
We are talking about heat pumps.
The concept of how heat pumps works is very simple, in fact, we all have a very similar, refrigeration machine at home, the refrigerator. Heat pumps, like the fridge, base their operation on compressing a refrigerant liquid contained in a closed circuit. This liquid is capable of collecting heat from the environment (in the case of the fridges, it collects heat from inside the fridge, cooling it) and thanks to the compression it undergoes, its temperature increases. This heat is then dissipated in the grille at the back.
The same applies to heat pumps, which are able to collect heat from the outside (even if the temperature is low) and thanks to the compression of the refrgierant, increases its temperature, thus making indoor heating possible.
Because heat pumps are highly efficient equipment, they don´t help to reduce the energy bill of our homes.
Im sure you have heard oft aero-thermal heating, right? Well, if you have any doubts about what it consists of, it is based on the operation of a heat pump that collects heat from the air in the outside environment (hence its name).
It is well known and proven that more than 40% of the energy consumed in Europe is used to air-condition homes. In this sense, heat pumps are the perfect ally as they offer us an efficiency of around 400%, that is to say, for every unit of energy they use, which is usually electrical energy, they are capable of producing 4 units of thermal energy (both heating and cooling), thus offering us high savings rates. In addition, new technologies nowadays allow us to reach higher and higehr heating temperatures due to the use of new coolants and new technologies, such as heat pumps based on acoustic waves that replace the electrical energy source with ultrasound to excite the coolant and thus increase its temperature, but…
Is all that glitters gold? Let´s take a look at it; actually when talking about savings from the use of heat pumps, we have to talk about energy savings and then..we look at the money. Calculating the economic savings provided by theseenergy savings is extremely complicated in the times in which we live, let me explain; currently the price of electricity (the most common energy source for heat pumps) is on a constant roller coaster, where you can see every day how the price changes considerably between the valley-flat-peak periods, in addition to the difference in the intra-daily price (nobody really knows why, there could be many explanations that would take several entries in this blog).
In addition to the price, the different energy sources have to be taken into account, as it is not the same thing to replace a gas or oil boiler, electric heaters or any other heating source with a heat pump. This makes it more difficult to talk about economic savings because the different energy sources also come into play
A third derivative in the economic sense, and something that heat pumps manufacturers do not usually take into account, is that in the case of installation in a home, this is not normally prepared to cover the new electricity consumption that is going to be produced by the installation of the pump, and I will explain this with an example:
Let´s imagine we have a 37kW gas boiler of supplying heat to a house and we want to replace this boiler with a heat pump. We have already mentioned that this equipment offers a ratio of 4 to 1 in terms of heat production and electricity consumption, therefore, to cover 37kW of heat, we have to consume 37/4 =9.25kW of electrical power which we will probably not have contracted and contracting them will increase the bill we are going to pay every month in terms of the fixed term, whether we use the heat pump or not.
So we are saving or not? The ideal way to estimate the savings from installing or replacing an old boiler with a heat pump should be done implementing a reliable measurement and verification protocol, as has been done in the REUSEHEATproject in which CARTIF has participated in the implementation of the IPMVP. To this end, monitored data from the heat generation systems of several demonstratos have been used, connected to the internet via different IoT protocols, send this data to a common platform where the energy savings are calculated.
This savings are calculated on the basis of a mathematical model made with the data from the time period before the installation of the heat pump. Once the actual consumption after the installation of the heat pump is known, the conditions under which this consumption was achieved (weather, indoor comfort,etc.) are taken into the model and the energy that would have been consumed under the conditions prior to the installation of the heat pump is calculated.
At this point, knowing the energy that has been saved, the moneysaved by using heat pumps could be estimated economically, on the basis of an average price, a more detailed estimate of the price, or as you think best.
Savings obtained at the REUSEHEAT project in one of the demonstrators (comparison real consume vs model at the superior part and savings obtained in the inferior part representd by bars)
The REUSEHEAT project shows very satisfactory results for the use of this type of technology and the energy saving produced. In addition, heat pumps are considered a renewable energy source (when in addition to using aero-thermal energy they meet certain conditions) and clean and avoid a large percentage of CO2 emissions. There is talk that they could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70%.
CARTIF believes that we ,ust continue to support this type of technology and the innovations that help us to improve them, not only for heat pumps based on aero-thermal energy, but also geo-thermal energy, hydro-thermal energy,etc.
This story beggins a sunday afternoon whichever, 2 documentary in the background. With the eye half-open I distinguish a scene in which a beetle locate fresh droppings and gives them the form of a perfect ball (aaaah! hence the name “dung beetle”!! With drums and cymbals music, those beetle triumphs with his ball, facing all type of dangers, and when he finds the perfect place, buries it. Then, being loyal to the proverb “the waist of ones could be a treasure for others”, this mass of droppings is converted into the idela place for his “intimate encounters” and in the housing and food of their babys (larvae) till, finally, leave the home as adult beetles.
In the middle of this exciting adventure, my mind leaves this world moving into another world in which i see myself watching in horror how thousands of larvae came out from my food. Several seconds later, I feel a strong shake and I woke up startled. At those moment, I breath relieved but soon after…in certain mode, the dream became a reality.
The marketing authorisation of Alphitobius diaperinus (dung beetle) larvae, better known as dung beetle, was published on 5 January. With this, are already four the insect species authorized under the Regulation (UE) 2015/2283: (1) the flour larvae (Tenebrio molitor), the migratory locust (locusta migratoria), the domestic cricket (Acheta domesticus) and the dung beetle larvae (Alphitobius diaperinus). The following, I detail you more information about each of them:
Aware of the nutritional and environmental advantages of insects, at CARTIF we have an important research line aimed at developing foods that incorporate insects as an ingredient. With the main researchers of this line, María Ysabel Piñero (marpin@cartif.es) and María Luisa Mussons (marmus@cartif.es), we often discuss the advantages and challenges of this promising industry in the Food area.María Ysabel encourages us, as researchers, to be able to look at insects from another perspective. She tell us not to focus on the insect, but simply to see it as a good source of protein or, in other words, as a sequence of amino acids…
Forgive me, but I can´t avoid thinking about what these beetles eat and the famous phrase “we are what we eat” by the German philosopher and anthropologist Ludwig Feuerbach. Then, following my colleague´s instructions, I close my eyes and try to visualise a long sequence of amino acids.
Elicitation (from the latin elicitus “induced” and elicere “to catch”) is a term associated with psychology that refers to the fluid transfer of information from one human being to another by means of language.
The knowledge elicitation applied to industry is a process by which valuable information and knowledge is collected and recorded from experts or people with experience in a particular area in the organization. Is a technique used to identify, extract and document the tacit knowledge (implicit) that is in the mind of the individuals or in the organizational processes. It is a way to collect and record the existing knowledge not available in formal documentation and is used in different fields such as knowledge- management, engineering, business, among others. The knowledge elicitation could be use inside the engineering field to optimize industrial processes, create expert systems, for apps based in AI, etc.
For example, if it were technologically possible to access the minds of workers as in the fictional series Severance, where a sinister biotech corporation, Lumon Industries, uses a medical procedure to separate work and non-work memories, this knowledge could be recorded and available for use, but it is also clear that this premise would raise significant ethical and legal concerns at this point in history, we do not know in the near future.
The knowledge elicitation is important for different reasons. In first place, allows organizations to document the existent knowledge of their employees and experts in an specific area.This can help to avoid re-invention of the wheel and improve efficiency in decision-making. Secondly, knowledge elicitation can also help to identify gaps in an organisation’s knowledge, enabling them to take action in advance. Thirdly, this elicitation process can help foster collaboration and knowledge sharing among an organisation’s employees.
The aim of elicitation is to obtain accurate and relevant information to aid decision-making, improve efficiency and support training and development. This information is used to develop optimal rules for expert performance that serve as the main input for the controls that can be programmed into a production process.
Knowledge elicitation is important for several reasons. Firstly (1), it allows organisations to document the existing knowledge of experts in a specific area. This can help to avoid re-invention of the wheel and improve efficiency in decision-making. Secondly (2), knowledge elicitation can also help to identify gaps in an organisation’s knowledge, allowing organisations to take action in advance. Thirdly (3), this elicitation process can help foster collaboration and knowledge sharing among an organisation’s employees.
The methodology for knowledge elicitation requires a series of steps to be followed:
Requirements analysis: identifying the approach to knowledge-based systems.
Conceptual modelling: creating a base of terminology used, defining interrelationships and constraints.
Construction of a knowledge base: rules, facts, cases or constraints.
Operation and validation: Operating using automated reasoning mechanisms.
Return to requirements analysis if necessary or continue with the process.
Enhancement and maintenance: Expanding knowledge as the system evolves, repeat throughout the life of the system.
Subsequently, it is necessary to analyse the knowledge collected, to determine which information is relevant and which is not, by distinguishing and separating the parts of a whole until its principles or elements are known, the result of which is high quality knowledge. The verification or detection of defects of the requirements previously analysed, normally by means of techniques such as formal reviews, checklists, etc.
The following elements are necessary for the correct development of the tendering process:
Experts
The different experts on the procces can have different point of views of a same theme, due to their experience, knowledge and even more subjective aspects such as mentality, way of focus difficulties, challenges, etc. Should be considered experts specialists in different stages, different infrastructures, equipment, products,etc.
The barriers that can appear in this type of exchange of information is that often contain complex ideas and associations, hard to comunicate in an easy way, with detail and organization, the use of a same language, such as concepts or specific vocabulary.
The knowledge elicitation has an objective search, research and help users or experts in the productive process in this case, to document their own needs by an on-site or online interview, group meetings, in situ studies, etc.
Interviews
To acquire expert knowledge the best technique is carrying out a number of personal interviews, some of the disadvantages are; distance, time and people involved on this process, the paper or online questionnaires can be viable option that saves time and costs and it is made easier for all sections to be present, enabling the comparative and evaluation of the results.
The characteristics for a good questionnaire design: define the relevant information, good structuring with different sections organized by themes, organizes points from general to more detailed in each section, focusing on the idea of those section,it is avoid the introduction of tendencies, misunderstandings or mistakes, to realize the design with an expert of the domain to ensure that points are enough understandable to facilitate the answer.
Results
The expected results are the actions to make by the operators when parameters deviations are produced, those answers and information collected are transform intop optimal needed rules to program authomatic controls about the process, and whre this rules are the main element. The obtention of rules is not an easy task, an iterative and heuristic process in several phases is recommended. For the validation it is necessary the comparative of the collected information at the databases with the answers of the operator to verify the actions when parameters deviations of the desired values are produced.
This optimal rules or also denominated if-then rules are part of the knowledge base, in particular of the relations base, that is the part of an expert system that contains the knowledge about the domain. In first place, the knowledge of the expert is obtained and it is codified in the relations base.
Finally, it is when fuzzy logic can be used for the design and implementation of an expert system, which is the logic that uses expressions that are neither totally true nor false, allowing to deal with imprecise information such as average height or low temperature, in terms of so-called “fuzzy” sets that are combined in rules to define actions: e.g. “if the temperature is high then cool down a lot”. This type of logic is necessary if one wants to better approximate the way of thinking of an expert, whose reasoning is not based on true and false values typical of classical logic, but requires extensive handling of ambiguities and uncertainties typical of human psychology.
Currently in CARTIF the expert elicitation knowledge of the plant operators are been used at the INTELIFER project, which main objective is the optimization of the process and of the products of a manufacturing line of NPK granulated fertilisers with support of the artificial intelligence.
The operation of these type of granulated fertilisers plants is controlled manualli and heuristically by expert operators, but that, despite of its skills and habilities, they can not avoid the high rates of recycle, frequent inestabilities and non-desired stops, as well as the limite quality of the products. Due to the extremely complex nature of the granulated process, which includes multistages, multiproduct, multivariables, is not lineal, coupled, stochastic. So that the situation before exposed has meant the scientific base for the defiition of the present project, being necessary the development of R&D activities in which, by the application of the artificial intelligence philosophy joint with a higher degree of sensorization and digitalization, is achieved to optimize this type of manufacturing processes.
In the end, I coukd not resist…I went to see AVATAR 2. Even in 3D! The idea of recalling the sensations I experienced 13 years ago as a spectator of one of the greatest technological advances in animation of the 21st century, won over the laziness of being inside a cinema for a whopping three hours. However, this time I wanted to see how something that already caught my attention in the first film of the saga had evolved: being able to establish a direct link with nature. Amazing!
Having seen the “movie” and coming back to reality, I believe that we have never lost our link with nature but have ignored it thinking that it was no longer necessary for us and that only technological advances would make this world a better place, disregarding our natural essence. It is important to know that any measure developed to protect an ecosystem, and the biodiversity that inhabits it, will protect us as part of that biodiversity and will only improve our living conditions.
Source: Raúl Sánchez Francés
Currently there is a growing need to get in touch with nature, either due to being fed up with a sedentary and overly urban life, to practice sports or to come into contact with nature and the trees that inhabit it, but without knowing the multiple benefits that his “forest or nature bath” is providing. Although it is believed that the concept of forest bathing (Shinrin-yoku in Japanese) seems to have an ancient origin, it was not until the early 1980s when the Japanese forest authorities promoted the concept to bring people closer to the benefits of the forest. The feeling of well-being that we perceive walking through the forest has a proven scientific explanation. Already in the middle of the 20th century it was shown that certain conifers were capable of purifying/disinfecting their environment by generating a natural antibiotic (phytoncides), mainly in response to the attack they continually receive from fungi. This has a a direct consequence that the presence of trees in residential areas improves the health of its inhabitants.
Source: Raúl Sánchez Francés
There is clear evidence about the essential role that green and blue spaces play in promoting a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle. In urban and peri-urban areas, natural spaces reduce exposure to potentially harmful factors such as excessive heat, noise, and air pollution. Studies have shown that green areas surrounding urban spaces are associated with lower mortality.
Similarly, various experimental and observational studies have shown that exposure to nature is associated with improvements in cognition, brain activity, blood pressure, sleep, physical activity and mental health. Special relevance is given to the improvement of mental health (anxiety, depression and stress) due to activity in nature. An increase in well-designed, equitably distributed adn accesible green/blue spaces, as promoted by the concept of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), is an important factor in preserving and improving mental health and well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic recession have affected the mental health of the population, with an increase un symptoms of anxiety and depressive disorders, and have highlighted the need to improve our understanding of the specific types and characteristics of nature that are key to mental health.
At CARTIF, we have been working for some time on the re-naturalization of our cities, environments and all those inhabited spaces that have lost their natural quality, with the purpose of making our cities more livable…but in a natural way and in coexsitence with nature. Projects like Urban GreenUP, MyBuildingisGreen, NATMED…are a sample of this.
Taking all this into account, the medical prescription of forest bathing, of solutions based on nature or what we have called therapies based on nature (Nature based Therapies) is getting closer.
I recently had the opportunity to talk to Odile Rodríguez de la Fuente, Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente´s daughter, about the bond with nature that her father instilled in her and her sisters and that she still maintains, from her facet as a disseminator of nature, which she performs in a fantastic way. It was undoubtely Félix who perceived the disconnect between human beings and nature at a key moment in the country´s growth, which made his work even more difficult but which has allowed him to leave a deeper and more lasting mark, laying the foundations for the sought-after link with nature.
It is about looking for real and deep connections between the human being and the natural world, which go beyond cultural work in the field or some gardening experiences such as the erroneous perception that tomato plants slowly fatten when being caressed… as if it was a test of love. Nothing could be further from the truth. When you caress a tomato plant every day, its vertical growth slows down and its stem thickens, but it is nothing more than a natural reaction to a fictitious load from the wind.
However, we still have time to protect the nature that surrounds us, to bring nature closer to our cities and living spaces, and to reconnect, to link ourselves with nature.
The closing process of a successful project, executed for 7 years continuously (60 months of implementation and almost a year of preparation), always carries a bittersweet feeling.
On the one hand, there is the satisfaction of having achieved the objective, which is none other than reaching the major energy and environmental impacts committed to. On the other hand, in the case of mySMARTLife, where the main beneficiaries are the citizens, this feeling of satisfaction is even greater. But it is also true that there is a certain feeling of melancholy, especially related to the foreseeable lack of contact with the many people from organisations in different countries who have accompanied you throughout this process. It is something like being relieved, happy and satisfied, but at the same time a little sad at having to say goodbye to colleagues and friends with whom it will not be so easy to keep in touch due to the distance. Something difficult to explain, but I’m sure many of you who read this blog have experienced it at some point.
After a few days in which CARTIF has managed to recover from the tremendous effort required to close our mySMARTLife project, as the famous song by Mecano (so appropriate for these dates) says, it is time to take stock of the good and the bad.
mySMARTLife was a project that involved three cities of the size of Nantes in France, Hamburg in Germany and Helsinki in Finland, surrounded by strong innovation ecosystems, which committed to improve energy efficiency by 55% in three districts and to cover the remaining energy demand with at least 54% from renewable energy sources. In addition, they also committed to a massive deployment of electro-mobility actions and to improve and strengthen existing data acquisition and decision-making platforms in the three cities. To this end, the project undertook to design, implement and evaluate 140 actions, which have already been successfully implemented and have leveraged more than 200 million euros of investment, receiving close to 18 million euros of funding from the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme.
CARTIF congratulates itself for having fulfilled this ambitious commitment. The numbers, which are usually cold, in this case allow us to certify the resounding success of the project.
147,054 m2 of heated space have been rehabilitated or built under high energy efficiency criteria. 8,777.59 MWh of net energy have been saved per year in the three districts by the energy efficiency actions deployed and 4,350 electric vehicles have been deployed in the three cities (including 388 electric buses). In short, 33,145 tonnes of CO2 are not emitted annually into the atmosphere in the three cities as a whole. In the local vernacular, that’s a great deal…
This overwhelming success is further complemented by the three energy transition plans in the follower cities, which are already underway, starting the implementation phase of the actions studied in many cases. Such as the district heating in Palencia, the city closest to us, which is already in its implementation phase. As said before, the numbers in this case do reflect the achievements of the 6 cities accompanied by the rest of the project partners.
Before closing mySMARTLife, I would like to mention or highlight some of the most emblematic or innovative actions. In Helsinki, a 3D Energy Atlas was developed to help plan solar actions throughout the city. In Hamburg,hydrogen (H2) was injected into a gas network. For several days, up to 40% hydrogen was injected into the grid. In Nantes, 22 electric buses with a length of 24 metres and a capacity of 150 passengers were designed and deployed. In Hamburg, in addition to deploying 80 electric buses, a complete electrification of a bus depot station for recharging, mainly at night, was carried out. Finally, two electric mini-buses were piloted for the first time in France or Finland under autonomous driving in real traffic conditions. These are just a few examples of the actions deployed by mySMARTLife.
But as in CARTIF we do not take even a minute of rest, we are ready to start new adventures. On the 31st of January, 1st and 2nd of February we start NEUTRALPATH, a project around the theme of Positive Energy Clean Districts, in which we will work with the cities of Zaragoza, Dresden, Istanbul, Vantaa and Ghent. But this will be the subject of a future blog. Stay tuned…
“Divide et impera”, popular ancient Rome motto later attributted to the Roman emperor Julius Caesar. “Divide and dominate” or better known as “Divide and rule”, was the strategic foundation on which the Roman Empire was built (27 bC – 476 ac). Almost nothing. In line with the political and military relevance of this slogan, in the mathematical field, it gave its name to one of the eight classic heuristic strategies of problem solving, together with codification, organisation, experimentation, analogy, introduction of auxiliary elements, search for regularities and assumption of the solved problem.The others are proper notation, solution drawing, systematic experimentation, analogy, introduction of auxiliary elements, problem reformulation and way back.
The solution strategy we are talking about is based on breaking a problem into a set of smaller sub-problems, solving these sub-problems, and combining the solutions. This methodology is widely used in various scientific fields and that under different names, theorems, or methos, such as the method of integration by parts (integral calculus) or the principle of virtual jobs (strength of materials), has promoted the resolution of complex problems by converting them into multiple “easily” solvable problems.
If there is one thing that characterises the world of engineering, it is precisely this eagerness to transform problems. We have all heard the joke about how an engineer calculates the volume of a cow and how, compared to the functions of approximation to a surface and its subsequent integration that a mathematician would carry out or the performance of a physicist using Archimedes’ principle and putting the cow in a swimming pool, the engineer would give his solution by approximating the cow to a sphere.
In the field of structural engineering, the branch in charge of the design and calculation of structural elements and systems to ensure in advance an optimal structural response (safe, resistant and functional) applies the mechanics of continuous media, a super nice calculation model in the “academic” world whose application in real life is very “chunky”. That´s why we resor to the finite element method, another “divide and conquer” engineering glorification, where the strategy is to convert the continuous medium into a finite number of parts, “elements”, whose behaviour is specified by a finite number of parameters at certain characteristic points or “nodes”. This is commonly called “simulation”, although it should at least be called numerical.
Professionally, I work in this area to design “things” optimally. But when these things are sets of configurable elements or product catalogues, and we want to cover all the options to offer the best, we could talk about the need to develop dimensioning applications or system and product calculation configurators.
Well, after years working on these developments for different sectors, I can say, without fear, that dismembering a project among the different knowledge teams will be the iceberg that leaves us frozen. It seems logical to think that if we are talking about the development of a robust validation application of a configurable product, we need someone who knows the product perfectly, with all its variants and possibilities, its terminology, its meaning, its cost and even its soul, if I may say so. In the same way that we need, at this level of knowledge, someone capable of calculating and validating the product in resistant and functional terms and who knows how to transform, transcribe or visualise this numerical validation in a user-friendly platform. NO, prepare the lifeboats. A dose of reality difficult to digest for an engineer and staunch defender of multidisciplinary projects like me and of breaking down problems. NOT EXACTYL, get lifeboats ready. A dose of reality difficult to admit for an engineer staunch defender of multidisciplinary projects.
Professional experience, with blood, sweat and tears included, has improved our conception of strategy, avoiding sectorial strategies that push the global objective, and ultimately the product, to the background. And to understand this, there is nothing better than the well known expression “cobbler to your shoes”. Do you know what I’m talking about, not yet?
However the presence of different team members’ roles in this kind of work, make it impossible to detect errors or incoherencies derived from lack of conception and lack of understanding cooperation between professionals. It is unavoidable. Architects and engineers do not speak on the same scale, for example. In addition sectoral strategies relegate the functions of the “expert of the product” to setting the norms, rules or ranges of consideration. Which seems quite illogical since the expert is separated from the course of the project. The question is how do we detect failures? and when? it may be even more important. Everything points to final report. So we work such as Titanic’s valiant musicians and we’ll see how the ocean of corrections treats us. I’m talking about that ocean like a succession of final versions succession in which we will be submerged by unforeseen failures and with the corresponding increasing final workload. Now we do know what we’re talking about, don’t we?
All this, without going into responsibilities which it have also been diluted. To blame are those who…If the person or persons responsible had bid me do so, I might have…
In this sense it is impossible to offer a service aimed to set up validation of configurable products application development if it is not a completely calculation project. So Turnkey project or I hope you are good swimmers.
However, trainings should also be conducted by people that are knowledgeable about the subject matter or the product, better even than costumer who can have been in the business for more than 30 years. We must become experts and think. It’s the only way to cope successfully such a service and that under a holistic approach where each part must be considered as one. So we avoid misinterpretations, unreasonable casuistic, excessive computing (no scale-resolving simulations) and cannot effectively communicate (the customer never knows what he wants until you show it to them). I want to stand out with it the necessity of acting “in” the moment and “for” the future.
For those interested in these possibilities… where are we going to find someone who wants to learn? To find someone who wants to ask questions? To find someone who can improve the product and performance for your company, and have the ability to do so. I am talking about to use experimental or scientific techniques, with computational capacity and that you can also implement it on a platform so that its usability improves, for example, the competitiveness of the different technical and sales departments of other companies? Can you imagine pressing a button to get the weekly job of a technician?
