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Paper in the 'spotlight'

• Keyaerts, N., Rombauts, Y., Delarue, E., D'haeseleer, W. Impact assessment of increasing unpredictability in gas balancing caused by massive wind power integration. WP. (download pdf)

Research activities

• Electricity generation modeling
  Contact: Erik Delarue - William D'haeseleer
  The models PROMIX and E-simulate dynamically simulate the electricity generation in order to assess the energetic and ecological impact of measures related to electricity generation. Apart from these models, a pure optimization model, applying a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) approach, is developed.
• Renewable energy
  Contact: Erik Delarue - William D'haeseleer
  The potential of renewable energy sources (wind, sun, hydro and biomass) is estimated. Specific attention is put on the backup needs for intermittent sources of energy. Also fuel cells and energy storage are looked at.
• Liberalisation of the electricity market
  Contact: Erik Delarue - William D'haeseleer
  The influence of the trade in electricity on the quality of electricity delivery is studied. Also the interaction between liberalisation and the Kyoto protocol is looked at.
• Emission trading
  Contact: Erik Delarue - William D'haeseleer
  The implications of the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) on the power sector are studied. Putting a price on CO2 can yield a switch from coal fired generation to gas fired generation. These effects are looked at on a methodological scale as well as on EU level.
• Natural gas market
  Contact: Nico Keyaerts - William D'haeseleer
  Import dependency of Europe is increasing and the European natural gas markets are still in the process of adapting to the liberalization. The liberalization has led to a more complicated natural gas supply chain: production and delivery are separated from transportation.
• Natural gas distribution
  Contact: Jeroen Vandewalle - William D'haeseleer
  The effects of the increasing use of distributed energy resources on the natural gas distribution are studied. Interesting (new) technologies are CHP, (heat-fired) heat pumps and more exotic domestic applications. The possibility of active demand control will be studied. Also, the effects of biogas and/or hydrogen injection will be looked at.
• Cogeneration
  Contact: Juliana Zapata Riveros - William D'haeseleer
  The increasing use of cogeneration facilities and their impact on the electric system are investigated. The optimal integration of heat storage to a combined heat and power plant is evaluated. The quality of the massive implementation of cogeneration is valued in the entire energetic context. Also district heating with cogeneration is looked at. A test unit in our laboratory allows experimental work on micro cogeneration.
• Geothermal energy
  Contact: Daniël Walraven- William D'haeseleer
  Low-temperature (120-150°C) geothermal heat is available worldwide and can deliver a part of the world's energy demand. The potential of this low-temperature geothermal heat for electricity generation and heating purposes is investigated. Organic Rankine Cycles (ORC's) and Kalina cycles are optimized to use the geothermal energy as efficiënt as possible.
• Hydrogen (H2)
  Contact: William D'haeseleer
  Hydrogen is an energy carrier that could play an important role in our future energy supply. Hydrogen is convertable into heat and electricity by means of fuel cells in a very efficient way. In combination with renewable energy sources, H2 is an interesting storage medium. Moreover, the injection of hydrogen into the natural-gas grid can help reducing CO2 emissions.
• Nuclear energy
  Contact: William D'haeseleer
  In the context of nuclear safety, cooling by natural circulation in PWR reactors is studied. This type of cooling becomes important when the pumps are unavailable.
• Energy in buildings
  Contact: William D'haeseleer
  Realizing an agreeable indoor thermal comfort in the most efficient way: Determining the boundary conditions for thermal comfort, evaluation of alternatives for heating and cooling of buildings by means of dynamic building simulation software (TRNSYS and ESP-r). Optimal emission, distribution and productions systems are defined, to yield a decrease in energy demand. The requirements for the thermal output of the production systems are hereby established.
• Heat pumps
  Contact: William D'haeseleer
  The potential energy savings and emission reduction by using heat pumps are quantified, both for residential heating as well as for the production of hot water for different types of buildings.

Publications

• All publications
• PhD theses

Projects

• LINEAR: Local Intellegint Networks and Energy Active Regions. In the Linear-project, the main goal is a demonstration of the smart grids philosophy in an existing typical Belgian residential area. This pilot-site will be operational in 2012. Active demand management of more than 100 buildings will be realized within the project where many non-predictable energy resources will be part of, as wel as CHP, heat-pumps, thermal and electrical energy storage (including plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) concepts [ Webpage]. 
• EUSUSTEL: European Sustainable Electricity. Comprehensive Analysis of Future European Demand and Generation of European Electricity and its Security of Supply [Webpage].
• WindBalance: Balancing wind energy in the grid: an overall, techno-economic and coordinated approach  [Webpage].
• IDO-project: Compatibility between a climate-driven energy problem and the liberalisation of grid-bound energy markets: implications for the security of electricity supply.
• FWO-project: Fundamental study of the macroscopic feed back loops and basic uncertainties in pipe and wired based unbundled energy markets with the aim of global, flexible optimisation from different viewpoints.
• Education Innovation project K.U.Leuven: Techno-economic education tool for trading electrical energy and greenhouse gas emission permits.
• Efficient computational methods for the representation and optimization of turbulent-flow phenomena.
• Is there a future for "Hydricity"?. A fundamental energetic/exergetic, economic and ecological study, based on a profound and complete life-cycle analysis (LCA), of the hydrogen chain versus the electricity chain.
• Optimalisatie door middel van regeling van warmtepompsystemen in gebouwen.
• Ontwikkelen van een model voor elektriciteitsproductie in een Belgisch geliberaliseerde markt, rekening houdend met de elektrische connecties, de gaslevering en de CO2-emissies.
• Compatibiliteit tussen een klimaat-gedreven energieproblematiek en de liberalisering van de leidinggebonden energiemarkten: implicaties voor de leveringszekerheid van electriciteit.
• Analysis of Thermical Systems for extreem low energy buildings
• Fundamental study of the macroscopic feed back loops and basis uncertainties in pipe and wired based unbundled energy markets with the aim of global, flexible optimisation from different viewpoints.
• New Energy Externalities Development for Sustainability (NEEDS).

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