International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

The use of renewable sources for energy purposes is very important from the global environmental perspective. Biomass is part of this group of fuels. This article focuses on the characteristics of wet biomass, a typical fuel source in the Albanian rural areas and not only. Thus, the most significant factor of biomass combustion is its moisture content in natural conditions. This property significantly influences the burning quality of biomass. Drying of this fuel using conventional methods or energy intensity processes aims to decrease the moisture content in biomass and meantime increase of its calorific value. The techniques of drying wet biomass vary significantly. Energy utilization of wet biomass is the main goal of this paper, considering it an important fuel source especially during winter season in Albanian rural areas. The variation of heating value to moisture content and other significant parameters have been investigated.

The building sector in our country has an important share of energy consumption. According to Eurostat data, final energy consumption in the residential sector was estimated about 35 % of the total consumption. On the other hand about 75% of the electricity consumption takes place in the building sector. It should be noted that currently this sector faces many challenge, as the quality of energy supply (heating) in public buildings and the residential sector remains at low rates. Nevertheless, reducing energy consumption is one of the main targets set in the National Energy Strategy 2018-2030. By 2030 this target suggests 15.5 % of the energy reduction. This study has at its core the assessment of energy consumption in a public building placed in the city of Durres. Determining the typology and thermophysical characteristics of the building is of primary importance. The evaluation of the energy performance of the building in the dynamic regime was carried out through the Hourly Energy Analysis (HAP) software. The implementation of energy efficiency measures is carried out taking into account the energy and cost criteria. A cost analysis of EE measures was performed using the dynamic Net Present Value method.

The city of Korça is situated in the South-East part of Albania. Korça’s climate is partly Mediterranean and Continental, characterized by cold winter and relatively hot summer. The average annual temperature is 10.6 oC, while the average rainfall is 720 mm. Heating of Korça is not an unknown issue, although it still remains unsolved despite many efforts in this sector. This paper shortly describes the building typology and their thermal characteristics in Korça. After defining the heating demand of the Korça city, where as input in the model are used demographic data, climate data, building typology and heating system. Energy scenarios for heating of the city rely on a
baseline scenario where wood is used as an energy source. Heat pump and natural gas energy scenario have been used for this comparative study. Energy and cost analysis for three scenarios are discussed in this paper.

The Energy Efficiency Directive (2012/27/EU) established a set of binding measures to help the EU achieve its 20% energy efficiency target by the year 2020. New directive is called Energy Efficiency Directive (EED). According to INSTAT (Institute of Statistics) the share of non-residential building sector in Albania is approximately 20.6 %. Public buildings with all the sub-categories have a significant contribution on energy demand in buildings. Therefore, according to the new law No.116/2016 “For energy performance in buildings” since 2018 public buildings with area higher than 250m2 are subject of this law for certification of energy performance in buildings. Regarding the National Energy Strategy 2018-2030 Albania’s target is set to 15 % for energy savings in the sector. This article deals with identification of energy efficiency problems in the public building sector in Albania. Typology of the buildings mainly constructed before the 1990 has poor energy efficiency measures, due to the lack of the investments. Thermal imaging was identified as an necessary procedure for scanning of the building. Energy consumption and building characteristics through thermal imaging have been investigated with the aim to improve the energy performance of the public buildings. This will contribute to optimize the energy efficiency measures by
energy audits.

The aim of this work is to investigate the potential of wind energy for the future power supply in Albania. The level of information available about wind zones in Albania requires highly reliable data supplied by our institutions. However, no significant investments have been recorded in the sector in the recent years. A number of studies published a wind map with wind speeds over 5 m/s and its annual number of hours. Based on this data and a boundary layer model with the roughness of the landscape as an input, maps of wind speeds at 50 m and 100 m (typical elevation heights of modern wind hubs) are developed. In order to estimate the potential yield of the most promising Albanian locations, the density of the annual energy output assuming different wind turbine characteristics and wind speed distribution have been carried out. In this paper a basic cost analysis based on simple payback method is performed. Cost of electricity generation from wind power and payback period have been  etermined.

Thermal comfort and indoor air quality highly depend on proper design of Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioned (HVAC) system. These system require large amounts of energy. Efficient use of energy leads to new concept design of HVAC systems. In this article, energy consumption in office building is analysed using Hourly Analysis Program (HAP) software. The aim of this research work is focused in estimation of office building energy consumption considering three different HVAC systems, respectively. Therefore, Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) system, HVAC 2-pipe and HVAC 4-pipe system were analysed with respect to energy consumption. A typical office building placed in Tirana, of 5000 m2 of total area is used for this study.

Photovoltaic thermal system (PV-T) converts sunlight into electricity and heat simultaneously. The overall efficiency of these systems is higher than the efficiencies of PV panels and solar collectors together. In Albania energy production from photovoltaic systems has been promoted in the recent years. Albania’s Mediterranean climate conditions are very favourable for investment in renewable energy systems. In this study a stand-alone 280 W PV-T panel is considered with respect to thermal analysis of the system. The panel is installed at the terrace of the building University in Tirana, Albania. The aim of this work is to present the temperature profile of the panel, since there is a correlation between efficiency and temperature. In order to analyse the temperature distribution on the panel surface a series of experiments are carried out. Temperature variation vs. time for different water flow rate was performed. The inlet and outlet water temperature profile is drawn in this article.

Handling with municipal solid waste nowadays is becoming a global challenge. Albania is facing equally this issue. Although, in recent years a considerable progress has been achieved, still the country is lagging behind the EU states. In generally, the overall progress is slow and the requirements set by the policy and legal framework are not met. However, in recent years in Albania there are some developments related to solve the waste treatment dilemma. Thus, the government chose the public-private partnership model to operate in this field. Therefore currently in Albania are proposed three waste firing plants, placed in Elbasan and Tirana, central Albania and Fier,
southwest of the country. The Elbasan waste to energy plant is in operation since June 2017. Another plant in Fier is projected to start operation soon. This article aims to optimize a 5.5 MWe waste to energy plant in the Albanian conditions. Parametric design of thermodynamic properties of the WtE plant based Rankine cycle model are presented in this study. Optimization of plant efficiency in relation to extraction pressure and feed-water temperature is some of the outputs of this study.