Rational Exergy Management Model for Sustainable Buildings to Reduce CO2 Emissions

• Aiming to respond to ever-urgent needs for strategies to curb buildings’ CO2 emissions at large, a new model, namely the Rational Exergy Management Model (REMM), was developed. REMM provides a new analytical perspective on the energy usage and emissions of buildings with an intra-systems scope. It links the initial mismatch in the supply and demand of exergy to broader impacts in the energy system. Particularly, based on a cross-cutting parameter, it formulates the compound CO2 emissions factor, which includes a direct and avoidable CO2 emissions footprint according to the level of exergy mismatch. Presently, base-case buildings have sub-optimal values due to structural exergy overshoots. This paper thus exemplifies an array of strategies developed for exergy-green paradigm shifts. These include supply, demand-driven, and hybrid approaches, and net-zero exergy building targets, which integrate into multi-fold CO2 mitigation strategies for buildings. A new, exergy-mapping technique furthers the demand-driven approach for bundles of renewable energy. Furthermore, an analysis tool based on exergy-centric scenarios formulates the CO2 savings relative to the base-case to expand the horizon of existing CO2 wedges. The paper concludes that REMM identifies key opportunities for sustainable buildings to capture their vast CO2 reduction potential and increase their lead in CO2 mitigation.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik -- Husbyggnad (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering -- Building Technologies (hsv//eng)

Keyword

energy

sustainable buildings

exergy

CO2 emissions

net-zero buildings

carbon mitigation

SRA - Energy

SRA - Energi

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)