Global warming and climate change due to the excessive consumption and exploitation of fossil fuels are currently hot topics on everyone's lips. Many talk about the impact on the planet's ecosystem, on people and future generations. Up until some time ago, however, these discussions have raised an unanswered question as to when and how the consequences of climate change would have involved personally each inhabitant of the planet, more or less responsible for the problem. In fact, the issues of raising the average atmospheric temperatures or increasing the level of the oceans have already been the subject of discussion for several years. Nowadays the result is that people are becoming aware of the issue and have decided to move towards systems that exploit renewable energies such as solar/photovoltaic panels, wind farms or even geothermal wells, which have low CO2 production with a consequent reduction in emissions. Much of the pollution from fossil fuels is due precisely to the heating and cooling systems of residential dwellings. Renewable energy is often thought as a positive solution in absolute value, without considering the impact of their entire life cycle on the environment. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the impact assessment of a heat pump coupled with photovoltaic panels to provide a vision of alternative methods to the thermal sustenance of the Italian city residences. To do this, an LCA based on the ReCiPe 2016 method implemented by SimaPro® 9 software will be conducted: all the components of a heat pump, the photovoltaic panel and the traditional systems of heating and cooling such as condensing boiler and AC split, have been modelled based on the Authors' experience, an in-depth literature survey and with the support of the Ecoinvent v3.5 database. The different systems will, therefore, be compared and the process representing the photovoltaic panel in the Ecoinvent v.3.5 database will also be analysed and questioned. In addition, a sensitivity analysis will be conducted, observing and commenting on the critical issues. Finally, it is inferred that the environmental impact of a system that uses renewable energy is significantly lower than the classic one with considerable reductions in emissions.
Il surriscaldamento globale e i cambiamenti climatici dovuti all’eccessivo consumo e sfruttamento di combustibili fossili, sono attualmente l’argomento scottante sulla bocca di tutti. In molti parlano dell’impatto sull’ecosistema del pianeta, sulle persone e sulle generazioni future. Fino a qualche tempo fa, tuttavia, queste discussioni hanno sollevato una domanda senza risposta riguardo a quando e in che modo le conseguenze del cambiamento climatico, avrebbero coinvolto in prima persona ciascun abitante del pianeta, più o meno responsabile del problema. Infatti, i temi di innalzamento di temperatura media atmosferica o dell’aumento del livello degli oceani sono già stati oggetto di discussione per diversi anni. Oggigiorno il risultato è che le persone stanno prendendo coscienza della questione e hanno deciso di muoversi verso sistemi che sfruttano energie rinnovabili quali pannelli solari/fotovoltaici o parchi eolici, che hanno una bassa produzione di CO2. Gran parte dell’inquinamento da combustibili fossili è dovuto proprio ai sistemi di riscaldamento e raffrescamento delle abitazioni. Spesso si pensa alle energie rinnovabili come soluzioni positive in valore assoluto, senza considerare l’impatto del loro intero ciclo di vita sull’ambiente. Lo scopo di questo lavoro è quello di valutare l’impatto ambientale di una pompa di calore accoppiata a pannelli fotovoltaici, per fornire una visione di metodi alternativi al sostentamento termico delle residenze cittadine italiane. Per fare ciò sarà condotta una LCA basata sul metodo ReCiPe 2016 implementato dal software SimaPro® 9: tutti i componenti di una pompa di calore, il pannello fotovoltaico ed i sistemi tradizionali di riscaldamento e raffrescamento ambientale quali caldaia a condensazione e AC split, sono stati modellati sulla base dell’esperienza degli Autori, di un’approfondita indagine di letteratura e con il supporto del database Ecoinvent v3.5. Saranno dunque messi a paragone i diversi sistemi ma verrà anche analizzato e messo in discussione il processo rappresentante il pannello fotovoltaico presente nel database Ecoinvent v.3.5. Inoltre, un’analisi di sensitività sarà condotta, osservandone e commentandone le criticità. Infine si evince che l’impatto ambientale di un sistema che sfrutta energie rinnovabili è notevolmente minore rispetto a quello classico con significative riduzioni di emissioni.
Life cycle analysis of a PV-driven heat pump system for residential applications
RIVA, CAROLINA
2019/2020
Abstract
Global warming and climate change due to the excessive consumption and exploitation of fossil fuels are currently hot topics on everyone's lips. Many talk about the impact on the planet's ecosystem, on people and future generations. Up until some time ago, however, these discussions have raised an unanswered question as to when and how the consequences of climate change would have involved personally each inhabitant of the planet, more or less responsible for the problem. In fact, the issues of raising the average atmospheric temperatures or increasing the level of the oceans have already been the subject of discussion for several years. Nowadays the result is that people are becoming aware of the issue and have decided to move towards systems that exploit renewable energies such as solar/photovoltaic panels, wind farms or even geothermal wells, which have low CO2 production with a consequent reduction in emissions. Much of the pollution from fossil fuels is due precisely to the heating and cooling systems of residential dwellings. Renewable energy is often thought as a positive solution in absolute value, without considering the impact of their entire life cycle on the environment. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the impact assessment of a heat pump coupled with photovoltaic panels to provide a vision of alternative methods to the thermal sustenance of the Italian city residences. To do this, an LCA based on the ReCiPe 2016 method implemented by SimaPro® 9 software will be conducted: all the components of a heat pump, the photovoltaic panel and the traditional systems of heating and cooling such as condensing boiler and AC split, have been modelled based on the Authors' experience, an in-depth literature survey and with the support of the Ecoinvent v3.5 database. The different systems will, therefore, be compared and the process representing the photovoltaic panel in the Ecoinvent v.3.5 database will also be analysed and questioned. In addition, a sensitivity analysis will be conducted, observing and commenting on the critical issues. Finally, it is inferred that the environmental impact of a system that uses renewable energy is significantly lower than the classic one with considerable reductions in emissions.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/164780