Sustainability Dimensions

Sustainability Dimensions Annual Report of the Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering - Mechanical Engineering 2005 Department, Aristotle University Thessaloniki, Greece The Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental and meetings. In addition, we are hosting on a regular Engineering belongs to the Energy Section of the basis project meetings and other events in various Mechanical Engineering Department of the Aristotle places in Greece. Although several important events University Thessaloniki, Greece. The Laboratory is took place in 2005, the one that deserves to be responsible for eleven pre-graduate courses in the mentioned in this context is the Air4EU project meeting Mechanical Engineering Department, while also in Athens (Air4EU is a STREP within EU’s 6th supervising 24 doctoral candidates in the frame of their Framework Programme). This meeting was combined post-graduate studies. Furthermore, it has a long record with the Workshop on Air Quality Assessment for of research and consulting activities, both at national Europe – From Local to Continental Scale. The work- and international level. The staff of the Laboratory shop was held on 29 June under the auspices of the includes 5 senior scientists, 27 young researchers and 7 Mayor of Athens Mrs. Dora Bakoyanni. It brought technical and administrative members. Most of the together leading European researchers and stakeholders research funds of the Laboratory originate from to discuss practical recommendations on integrated air competitive programmes of the European Commission, quality assessment. although 2005 we received also substantial grants from national funding agencies. In the last years, the total It is no exaggeration to say that 2005 has been the year annual turnover of the Laboratory has been of the order of various celebrations, the most important one being of 1million €. associated with the 50th anniversary since the foundation of Aristotle University’s School of As in previous years, also 2005 our Laboratory has been Engineering. Among other events for commemorating quite successful regarding research conducted and this anniversary, the Department of Mechanical services provided. Seven new projects were launched Engineering organised a ceremony for presenting its during this year, and a large number of new tasks were achievements in the first three decades of its lifetime. initiated in the frame of our long-term involvement in While maintaining high standards in teaching and various networks and actions. Examples for the latter mentoring, we consider our research skills to be our are five different COST actions, in which we play a main strength: Although small in size (32 faculty major role, and the Initiative for Harmonisation in the members), our Department ranks first in our University use of Atmospheric Dispersion Models for Regulatory with regard to international research funding sought in Purposes. The most challenging network to which we the period 2002-2004 (more than 20% of the entire contribute is ACCENT, the European Network of University). Excellence on Atmospheric Composition Change. As another reason for us to celebrate, fifteen years were An important milestone for us in 2005 was the completed in 2005 since the foundation of our preparation of the report “Air Pollution at Street Level Laboratory. Two important developments coincide with in European Cities”, which will soon appear as a this anniversary: Firstly, it is likely that some of our Technical Report of the European Environment (current or former) co-workers will soon be employed Agency. In the context of the EU “Clean Air For in permanent positions in our University. Secondly, Europe” programme, this report summarises the current by the end of the year our Laboratory will have situation and the expected future development of air obtained officially the certificate for implementation of quality in urban hotspots. The results presented may ISO 9001-2000. We consider the latter as a prove useful in identifying which local emission confirmation for our devotion to quality and our wish to reductions are needed in streets in order to reach certain enforce, strive and ensure constant satisfaction of our air quality thresholds. partners in research, training and education. Our numerous research collaborations force us to travel Prof. Dr. Nicolas Moussiopoulos quite frequently for participating at various workshops Laboratory Director December 2005 Research Highlights Energy and Indoor Environmental The most suitable system to accommodate the remaining loads was found to be a Ground Source Evaluation of the Buildings of the Heat Pump (GSHP). The reasons why this is an German School of Athens excellent solution for the GSA are: 1. The remaining thermal loads occur at medium Schools, especially older ones, are buildings with low temperatures. energy performance, this resulting in a high energy 2. The available area at the adjacent sports field is large consumption. Also because of the fact that the vast enough for the installation of the required piping. majority of the people inside the school buildings are 3. A GSHP can be used for space heating and cooling children, it is quite important to retain high levels of and additionally for the production of hot water. thermal comfort and indoor air quality. In that sense, 4. The ground temperatures in the area of Athens are indoor environmental quality is a dominant feature that favorable for the use of such technology. has to be combined with energy conservation. The already installed photovoltaic systems can produce The objective of the project co-ordinated by our a significant part of the electricity that will be Laboratory is to conduct an energy and IEQ audit of consumed for the GSHP allowing certain energy the buildings of the German School of Athens in order autonomy in the GSA. to determine and evaluate the conditions prevailing in the building, to run building simulations, so as to Another intervention on the energy systems of the GSA suggest measures for rational use of energy, in order to concerns the change of end use for the already installed increase the energy efficiency of the buildings, whilst thermal solar collectors. It is proposed to use the solar improving IEQ conditions. collectors for covering the swimming pool heating loads rather than those related to the hot water After the completion of the energy audit, the heating production. That is because the pool temperature is and cooling loads of the buildings were calculated much lower than that of hot water; hence, the collector using building simulation software. This led to the efficiency will significantly increase producing more proper dimensioning and re-design of the various 3 thermal energy and saving more than 10 m of diesel. HVAC systems. The capital and operational costs for upgrading the buildings’ systems are based on their Finally, a bouquet of secondary measures was pro- required performance and on the necessity to take posed for rationalizing the energy balance at the GSA, account of the energy consumption of each one of the including (i) the connection of the GSA to the natural complex’s buildings. The implementation of innova- gas network, (ii) the increase of the thermal solar tive HVAC systems and systems that can use renew- collector surface and (iii) the retrospective reinforce- able energy sources, like thermal solar systems, ment of the insulation at the roof of the Swimming evaporative cooling solutions or shallow-depth geo- Pool building. The latter intervention would lead to a thermal applications were also thoroughly examined. energy consumption reduction by 24%. The final step of this project is a feasibility study, which will allow the selection of the most appropriate Project funded by the German School of Athens (2005). Major Partner: University of Athens. system based on their economic expediency. Contact: Assoc.Professor A.M.Papadopoulos, [email protected] Thermal image of the building’s facade, indicating a uniform behaviour 2 Annual Report LHTEE Research Highlights Urban Air Quality in EEA’s was to ensure consistency between the model assumptions and results. Consistency between the State of the Environment and scenario assumptions at the regional and the urban Outlook Report 2005 scale was ensured through the application of an air quality model cascade approach, where the boundary The European Topic Centre on Air and Climate conditions required by the urban scale OFIS model Change (ETC/ACC) provided support to the European were obtained from the regional scale model (EMEP). Environment Agency in the production of sub-reports 6 As a further step and for studying local air quality, the and 7 of the State of the Environment and Outlook OSPM model was applied using urban background air Report 2005. Through its participation in the quality concentration results from OFIS. Country scale ETC/ACC, our Laboratory’s contribution consisted of emission reductions per SNAP category (CORINAIR) a set of air quality reference year and scenario per pollutant for both LGEP-CLE and LGEP-MFR calculations for 20 urban areas across Europe, for the scenarios were assumed to apply at urban scale and the pollutants PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and O3. Details of all resulting attenuation factors were applied to the model results are presented in the ETC/ACC Technical gridded urban emission inventories. In order to Paper 2005/2, version June 2005. evaluate the influence of meteorology on the actual concentrations at urban scale, two meteorological The

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