INTRODUCTION:

Recently with the global warming rising issues, it became very important to find
solutions to maximize the power efficiency in buildings which directly impact the
environment. In buildings with central cooling systems such as hospitals and hotels the
cooled air needs to be reheated again to be in comfort zone 20 24 °C, duct electrical
heater is used to reheat the cooled air, but in order to reheat the cooled air to the comfort
temperature the electrical duct heater consume a lot of power and therefore increase the
electrical bill and building carbon footprint, which shows the necessity of thermal (heat)
exchanger solutions such as thermal wheels in the building with central cooling system.

PROBLEM STATEMENT:
With the increase of buildings with central cooling system (HVAC) all around the
globe, it became important to find ways to reduce the electrical bill and building carbon
footprint. One of the ways is to use thermal wheel which act like heat exchange system
between the supply fresh air and return air filled with CO2 without mixing physically
between them. The idea of using such a device is to benefit for the cooled return air
without mix it with supply air.

RESEARCH GOALS:
The first goal is to optimize the use of thermal wheel within the HVAC system to
maximize the power efficiency by using custom model to calculate the electrical power
saving. The second goal is to calculate the reduction of the CO2 emissions after using
the thermal wheel.

LITERATURE REVIEW:
As a result of urbanization, rising human living standards, and global warming, there is
a gradual increase in the need for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. HVAC
systems are primarily used in buildings to maintain the thermal comfort of the
occupants, and they account for about 40% of global energy consumption. Additionally,
the HVAC systems in commercial buildings use between 40% and 60% of the total
energy consumed by the structures. To maintain the Indoor Air Quality values set by
the standards, fresh air must be supplied to conditioned spaces. In harsh environmental
circumstances, there is a greater demand for fresh air, which increases the energy
needed for air conditioning. A method that holds promise for lowering HVAC system
energy use is the use of thermal wheels, which, unless otherwise wasted, can be used
to recover the energy contained in the return air. When compared to other energy
recovery devices, it demonstrates appealing energy savings and payback times. CFD
modeling work has been done in this study to look at the thermal wheel's heat-
exchanging properties. Additionally, an experimental program has been carried out to
verify the CFD modeling work. The performance of the thermal wheel at various
rotational speeds has been examined using the verified CFD model. In the study, a
thermal wheel temperature contour was found. Additionally, it is advised to rotate the
heat wheels between 10 and 30 RPM. Moreover, it was found that the geometry of the
wheel matrix affects this optimum RPM. (H.M.D.P. & others, 2022)

Due to the potential for major energy savings in both new construction and building
renovation projects, air to air heat wheel are essential components of mechanical
ventilation systems. Due to their excellent effectiveness and low pressure drop. This
research does a thorough optimization of heat wheel design parameters to enhance
reasonable efficacy and reduce pressure drop. In order to estimate pressure drop, the
analysis is conducted using a one-dimensional lumped parameter heat wheel model that
has been validated. The key design factors and operation circumstances are varied in
order to optimize the device: length, base, height, thickness, air face velocity, and
revolution speed of the wheel. (De Antonellis & others, 2014)
The use of air conditioning systems is expanding in European countries as a result of
the hotter summers brought on by climate change. It is very important to find new
technical direct cooling methods to lower the energy demand and consumption of these
systems. In this research study, a field investigation is done on the cooling energy
performance of an active ventilation system installed on the flat roof of a shopping mall
in the Hungarian city of Eger. An air-to-air rotary heat wheel, a mixing box element,
and a direct expansion cooling coil are all parts of the running system, which circulates
cooled air to a shop's back office and storage area. The study's goal was to examine the
thermal characteristics of each component separately in order to get precise scientific
conclusions on energy usage. Additionally, the cross-contamination of carbon dioxide
in the heat wheel, the main flaw in this kind of heat recovery unit was also examined.
To do this, a temperature, humidity, air velocity, and carbon dioxide sensor was
installed in the inlet and outlet section of each component that affects the cooling
process, as well as an electricity energy meter in the outdoor unit. A network monitor
interface was created using building management system-based software to offer
continuous data recording and remote monitoring of air handling parameters and system
energy usage. In comparison to the system without a heat wheel, the energy impact of
the heat wheel led to a 624 kWh energy savings and a 25.1% energy savings rate for
the outside unit's electric energy consumption over the course of the cooling period.
When taking into account the entire cooling season, the CO2 cross-contamination level
in the heat wheel was estimated to be an average value of 16.4%.(Kassai, 2019)
In 2018 the world CO2 emissions grew by 1.7% to 33.1 Gigaton of CO2, which is the
fastest growth in the last decade. Using solar panels is promising solution but with the
increase of solar panel temperature its efficiency become less, this problem can be
reduced by absorbing the excess heat of the solar panels using heat recovery wheel. The
external air stream enters the HRW where it is precooled by exchanging heat with the
exhaust air from the building. After that, the exhaust air enters the BIPV/T collector
where it cools the PV panels, increasing their effectiveness as shown in picture-1. The
parameters the effect the efficiency of this system are duct size, flow rate, heat recovery
wheel size and heat recovery wheel speed. This research shows that there are many
variables and methods of system optimization each based on many factor. (Shahsavar
& Khanmohammadi, 2020)
4-
In order to provide the necessary thermal comfort for occupants, buildings in hot and
humid regions spend more than 60% of the total energy cost for Air Conditioning and
Mechanical Ventilation Systems (ACMV). With the need for fresh air in the
conditioned room, the necessary air conditioning load dramatically rises, which results
in exorbitant energy expenditures for buildings' central air conditioning systems,
especially in hot and humid regions. As a result, the main objective of this study is to
investigate and assess whether a rotational thermal wheel may be used to recover energy
from the return air of an air handling unit (AHU) that operates central air conditioning
The percentage of energy saved by the rotational thermal wheel rises as external fresh
air temperature and relative humidity rise and as the central chiller's Coefficient of
Performance (COP) drops. Furthermore, research study shows that, depending on the
fresh air mass flow rate, the simple payback period of a building that receives 20% fresh
air can range from 1.1 years to 4 years. According to the findings, it is strongly advised
to use rotational thermals in hot, humid areas.(Herath & others, 2022)

(Herath & others, 2022)

METHODOLOGY:
I will develop mathematical model to see the impact on CO2 emissions and power
consumption by using multi-Steps thermal wheel with the hot supply air and cooled
supply air.
The idea is to use data from other researches which discuss individual ideas of using of
thermal wheel in citrine part of HVAC system. I will try to combined these ideas and
methods using multi-stages thermal wheel to see if we can reach a better reduction in
electrical bill and carbon footprint and if so does it worth it.

Step-1
In this step thermal wheel shall act as heat exchanger between the returned cooled air
filled with CO2 and cooled supply air coming from AHU. In this case supply cooled
air is very cooled below 13 degree Celsius and the return air is between 29-35 degree
Celsius. So based on that and the amount of flow we can calculate the raise in supply
air temperature after the thermal wheel. The raise of the temperature of supply air will
help a lot in minimizing the use of electrical heater when necessary, therefore it will
save the electricity and reduce carbon footprint.(Wang & Song, 2012)

Step-2
Same methodology as step-1 but this time the heat exchange is between the exhausted
returned air from step-1 and the supply fresh hot air from outside the building. This step
will help with the consumption of the cooling machine used in the HVAC system.

7
 assuming the building use 1 million CFM we will see the impact of step 1 and step 2
on electrical bill and carbon footprint in Saudi Arabia.

The main basic Heat Exchanger equation is

Where
A = Heat transfer area (m²) (ft²)
Q = Heat transfer rate (kJ/h) (Btu\h)
U = Overall heat transfer coefficient (kJ/h.m².°C) (Btu/h°F)

Required Power based on flow and temperature equation is

P = (F

Where
P = Power (Kw)
F = Flow (CFM)
= Temperature Difference (°C) (°F).

TIME TABLE:
The thesis will be organized as follows

Second Semester 2020

Task Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
13/9 20/9 27/9 4/10 11/10 18/10 25/10 1/11 8/11 15/11 22/11
Preparing the proposal.

L.R
Data Collection & Analysis
Modeling
Results
Discussion
Submission
LIST OF REFERENCES:
De Antonellis, S., Intini, M., Joppolo, C., & Leone, C. (2014). Design
Optimization of Heat Wheels for Energy Recovery in HVAC Systems.
Energies, 7(11), 7348 7367. https://doi.org/10.3390/en7117348
Herath, H. M. D. P., Wickramasinghe, M. D. A., Polgolla, A. M. C. K.,
Jayasena, A. S., Ranasinghe, R. A. C. P., & Wijewardane, M. A. (2020).
Applicability of rotary thermal wheels to hot and humid climates. Energy
Reports, 6, 539 544. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2019.11.116
H.M.D.P., H., R.A.C.P., R., & M.A., W. (2022). Analysis of Heat
Exchanging Performance of Rotary Thermal Wheels.
Kassai, M. (2019). Energy Performance Investigation of a Direct
Expansion Ventilation Cooling System with a Heat Wheel. Energies,
12(22), 4267. https://doi.org/10.3390/en12224267
Shahsavar, A., & Khanmohammadi, S. (2020). Energy and economic
evaluation and multicriteria optimization of different arrangements of
integrated photovoltaic thermal and heat recovery wheel system.
International Journal of Energy Research, 44(3), 1488 1505.
https://doi.org/10.1002/er.4899
Wang, G., & Song, L. (2012). Air handling unit supply air temperature
optimal control during economizer cycles. Energy and Buildings, 49,
310 316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2012.02.024