i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 4 2 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 6 e3 5

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journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijrefrig

Energy management and CO2 mitigation using

phase change materials (PCM) for thermal energy
storage (TES) in cold storage and transport

Eduard Oró a,1, Laia Miró a, Mohammed M. Farid b, Viktoria Martin c,

Luisa F. Cabeza a,*
a
GREA Innovació Concurrent, Universtitat de Lleida, Edifici CREA, Pere de Cabrera s/n, 25001 Lleida, Spain
b
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
c
KTH e Department of Energy Technology, Brinellvägen 68, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden

article info abstract

Article history: Low temperature sensitive products transport and storage is an issue worldwide due to
Received 28 October 2012 changes of the lifestyle population increase. Thermal energy storage (TES) is nowadays one of
Received in revised form the most feasible solutions in facing the challenge of achieving energy savings. Many re-
19 February 2014 searchers have investigated energy efficiency of different cold units by applying TES systems
Accepted 2 March 2014 using phase change materials (PCM). This paper provides an overview of the existing Spanish
Available online 13 March 2014 and European potential energy savings and CO2 mitigation by incorporating TES systems to
cold storage and transportation systems. Data on energy savings were compiled from different
Keywords: case studies. Results depend on the scenarios studied and the extent of TES systems imple-
CO2 emissions mentation; in the case of Europe for instance, yearly CO2 emissions may be cut down between
Thermal energy storage 5% and 22% in reference to 2008 CO2 emissions from cold production considering that the
Phase change materials proposed implementation of PCM TES in the case studies found in the literature is done.
Cold storage ª 2014 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.
Low temperature sensitive product

Gestion énergétique et réduction du CO2 employant des

matériaux à changement de phase (PCM) pour l’accumulation
d’énergie thermique (TES) dans l’entreposage frigorifique et le
transport
Mots clés : Emissions de CO2 ; Accumulation d’énergie thermique ; Matériaux à changement de phase ; Entreposage frigorifique ; Produit
sensible aux basses températures

* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ34 973003576; fax: þ34 073003575.

E-mail address: lcabeza@diei.udl.cat (L.F. Cabeza).
1
Present address: Catalonia Institute for Energy Research, IREC, Jardins de les Dones de Negre 1, 08930 Sant Adrià de Besòs, Barcelona,
Spain.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2014.03.002
0140-7007/ª 2014 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 4 2 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 6 e3 5
1. Introduction
The increasing of the population and the consumer’s contin-
uous demand for fresh food and changes of the dietary habits
have contributed to an increasing demand of food transport
and storage at low temperature. Refrigerated transport is
necessary for maintaining the quality and prolonging the
shelf-life of fresh, frozen and perishable products during
transportation. In United States, 80% of communities receive
their goods exclusively by transport trucks, and only about
8.5% are climate-controlled because they carry perishable
goods, pharmaceutical items and many other temperature
sensitive products (Ahmed et al., 2010). The production facil-
ities of cold vapour compression involve a high energy de-
mand, and may represent a high economic environmental
impact (Belman, 2008). As an example, to serve China’s
growing middle class with effective safety levels, China would
need 335,000 refrigerated trucks and 133 million m3 cold
storage more by 2017 (IIR, 2012). Therefore an increased en-
ergy demand with associated increase in CO2 emissions is
expected in the near future. Many researchers have dealt with
CO2 mitigation in different sectors such as CO2 emission
reduction by the eco-point program in Japan (Yoshida et al.,
2010), landfill gas generation (Qiyong and Jiaoju, 2011), esti-
mation of the taxes for urban traffic (Almodóvar et al., 2011), or
CO2 capturing in geological formations (Romeo et al., 2009) but
not in the cold production sector.
According to the ‘Kyoto protocol’ from 1997, industrialized
nations should reduce their average individual greenhouse
gas emissions (particularly CO2) by at least 5% below 1990
levels in the period 2008e2012. The proposed specific target
set by the European Union was 7%, while Spain was allowed to
increase its CO2 emissions up to 15% of the 1990 level (Arce
et al., 2011). However, CO2 emissions of 2008 in Spain were
22% more than the Kyoto target for 2012 (Europe’s Energy
portal, 2012); therefore it is necessary to reduce the energy
demand and CO2 emission by improving energy efficiency and
utilizing energy waste. Hence there is an important opportu-
nity for efficiency improvement not only in electricity
Fig. 1 e Refrigerator components and instrumentation used by Azzouz et al. (2009).
27
generation but also in road transport, household, industrial,
and commercial sectors.
Cold thermal energy storage (TES) and the use of phase
change materials (PCM) are an advanced energy technology
that has recently attracted increasing interest in industrial
refrigeration applications such as process cooling, food pres-
ervation and air conditioning (Cheralathan et al., 2007). Many
researchers have studied electrical energy reduction and en-
ergy efficiency improvement using TES systems by the addi-
tion of PCM in domestic refrigerators (Subramaniam et al.,
2010; Azzouz et al., 2009) and freezers (Gin et al., 2010),
refrigerated trucks (Ahmed et al., 2010; Liu et al., 2012), and
industrial refrigeration plants (Cheralathan et al., 2007; Wang
et al., 2007). The main goal in this paper is to provide nu-
merical proof of the electrical energy savings in the low tem-
perature sensitive product sector as well as the associated CO2
mitigation by the use of TES systems using PCM in today’s cold
applications in Spain and in Europe. For that purpose, the total
energy demand for cold systems was calculated, with data on
electrical energy savings compiled from several case studies
published in the literature and new results from previous
author’s work. The potential energy savings and CO2 mitiga-
tions were evaluated for different scenarios in Spain and
Europe (EU-27).
2. Case studies for CO2 mitigation
assessment
In order to assess the potential of CO2 mitigation through
integration of PCM TES, on Spanish as well as European level,
a number of case studies presented in the literature have been
examined.
2.1. Domestic refrigerators
Azzouz et al. (2009) placed the PCM slab in the back side of the
evaporator inside a household refrigerator (Fig. 1) in order to
improve its efficiency and to provide a storage capacity
28 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 4 2 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 6 e3 5

allowing several hours of cold storage without power supply.

Here, two PCM were compared (water and water with a
eutectic mixture with a freezing point of 3  C) and perfor-
mance results were compared with the original system
without the addition of PCM. The overall performance of the
refrigerator was estimated from the coefficient of system
performance (COP) calculated as the ratio between the heat
extracted by the evaporator (fev) and the electrical energy
supplied to the compressor (Wcomp) during a complete cycle
(on and off periods). The increase in the COP was 10e30%,
depending on the thermal load and the nature of the PCM.

2.2. Domestic freezer

The effect of door opening, defrost cycle, and loss of electrical

power on a domestic freezer with and without PCM was
studied by Gin et al. (2010). Fig. 2 shows a scheme of the do-
mestic freezer and the placement of the PCM panels inside it
used in the experimentation. They concluded that the appli-
cation of PCM into a domestic freezer has beneficial effects in
minimising temperature variations inside it. As expected, the
tests showed that heat loads resulting from door openings and
defrost cycles increased the electricity consumption and
when PCM is placed in the freezer, the consumption
decreased during a defrost cycle by 8%, and by 7% during door
openings.
2.3. Domestic refrigerators (refrigerator and freezer)
Fig. 3 e Schematic diagram of the dual evaporator based on
a domestic refrigerator with PCM used in Subramaniam
et al. (2010).
help to maximize energy savings. Also the increased off period
due to storage of energy in the fresh food and freezer
compartment gave better food preservation. With the
designed unit (adding PCM) they obtained an 8% reduction in
the electricity consumption compared with the basic system
(without PCM).

Subramaniam et al. (2010) designed a method of a novel dual
evaporator (refrigerator and freezer combination) based on a
domestic refrigerator with PCM which provided TES (Fig. 3) in
order to improve food quality and extend compressor off
period. They managed to prolong the compressor off period
and enhance the COP by 20% by using PCM which also would
2.4. Commercial freezers and low temperature units
Due to the similarity of the cold units between the commercial
and the domestic sector, the same electricity savings consid-
ered for the domestic sector is transferred to the commercial
sector.

Fig. 2 e Schematic of the domestic freezer showing positions of the evaporator, defrost heater, and placement of the PCM
panels (2010).
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 4 2 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 6 e3 5 29

2.5. Refrigerated truck (PCM on the walls)

Ahmed et al. (2010) modified the conventional method of

insulation of a refrigerated truck trailer by adding PCM (Fig. 4).
The inclusion of paraffin-based PCM in the standard trailer
walls as a heat transfer reduction technology was investi-
gated. The results showed lower peak heat transfer rates and
total heat flows into the refrigerated trailer, thus potentially
saving energy and reducing pollution from diesel-driven
refrigeration equipment. The indoor of the trailer would
experience lower temperature oscillations, which could lead
to more stable operation and control, longer operating life of
the refrigeration equipment, reduction in equipment size,
energy conservation, and a decrement in pollution from
diesel-driven refrigeration units. An average reduction of
16.3% in total heat transfer from the exterior to the refriger-
ated truck was achieved by adding PCM to the insulation foam
of the trailers walls.

2.6. Refrigerated truck (refrigeration system

incorporating PCM)

Liu et al. (2012) developed an innovative refrigeration system

incorporating PCM to maintain refrigerated trucks at the Fig. 5 e Scheme of the configuration of the refrigeration
desired thermal conditions. The PCM storage tank (the PCM system for refrigerated trucks used by Liu et al. (2012).
was encapsulated into thin flat containers) was charged by a
refrigeration unit located outside the vehicle when stationary
and therefore provides cooling when in service (Fig. 5). The
storage tank was located as well at the exterior of the refrig-
erated space. They calculated and compared the energy de-
mand and cost of a normal refrigeration system and the
proposed refrigeration system for different scenarios (two
different COP of 1 and 1.5); concluding that the energy savings
would be between 6 and 38%.

Fig. 4 e Schematic of the cooling diagram for the Fig. 6 e Schematic diagram of the experimental set-up
refrigerated trucks used by Ahmed et al. (2010). used in Cheralathan et al. (2007).
30 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 4 2 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 6 e3 5

structure in different places of the refrigerated system for

refrigeration plants, such as after the compressor (PCM A),
after the condenser (PCM B), and after the evaporator (PCM C),
doing three different configurations and evaluating them
separately (Fig. 7). For electricity savings, PCM B was the
suitable application and improved the system COP up to 8% in
UK climate while using configuration PCM C the improvement
was between 4 and 7%.

2.9. Summary

Table 1 shows the potential electricity savings of the different

cases reviewed from the available literature and studied by
the authors to maintain, during storage and transport, low
temperature sensitive products.
Fig. 7 e PCM heat exchanger at different locations in the
refrigeration cycle used by Wang et al. (2007).

3. Methodology

2.7. Industrial refrigeration system 3.1. Annual energy consumption

Cheralathan et al. (2007) carried out an experimental investi-
gation on the performance of an industrial refrigeration sys-
tem integrated with encapsulated PCM based on cold TES
system. The experimental apparatus consisted of two parts, a
cold TES tank and a vapour compression refrigeration system
(Fig. 6). A vertical storage tank was integrated with the evap-
orator of the refrigeration system. They concluded that the
thermal performance of storage system may be improved by
charging the system at lower condensing and optimal evap-
orator temperatures. A comparison of the chiller plant with
and without storage using the specific electricity consumption
(SEC) for various operating conditions was made. Comparing
the SEC of the chiller unit with and without storage a 6e20%
increase in SEC was observed and this percentage increase
was higher at higher HTF temperatures.
2.8. Refrigeration plants
Wang et al. (2007) studied the enhancement of a vapour
compressor refrigeration system locating PCM in some parts
of it. They located a PCM heat exchanger with a shell and tub
To estimate the potential electricity saving and consequent
CO2 emissions in Spain and Europe from changing tradi-
tional ways to maintain sensitive temperature products to
more efficient systems, the annual savings of the case
studies analysed has been considered. Therefore the total
electricity consumed for the actual systems has to be
known.
Domestic refrigeration applications are limited, mainly to
household refrigerators and freezers for food storage; hence
the number of household in Spain and Europe can be directly
related to the number of household refrigerators. Regarding to
commercial refrigeration, the most important sector is the
sale of food products in little shops, supermarkets or hyper-
markets. Therefore, with the total number of stores and esti-
mating the number of refrigerators and freezers that can be
found in each of them, the total number of cold storage units
in Spain and Europe can be estimated. Another important
sector analysed is the cold road transport by refrigerated
trucks or vans. Here, the working vehicle fleet for Spain and
Europe have been taken into account. In industrial refrigera-
tion plants it is difficult to identify the different applications of
cold such as, ice plants, packing, cold storage warehouse, etc.

Table 1 e Potential electricity savings related in the maintenance of low temperature sensitive products.
Cases analysed Sector Authors Electricity savings
Domestic refrigerators Domestic and Azzouz et al. (2009) During normal working conditions, 10e30% COP
Domestic freezer commercial sector Gin et al. (2010) During defrost cycle by 8%, and by 7% during door openings
Domestic refrigerator Subramaniam During normal working conditions by 8%
(refrigerator and freezer) et al. (2010)

Refrigerated trucks Cold in road Ahmed et al. (2010) Daily average reduction of the heat flux from the ambient
(PCM on the walls) transport to the refrigerated truck of 16.3%
Refrigerated trucks Liu et al. (2012) During normal working conditions between 6 and 38%,
(novel refrigeration depending on the chosen scenario
system incorporating PCM)

Industrial refrigeration Cold in industry Cheralathan During normal working conditions, 6e20% SEC (kW TR1)
et al. (2007)
Refrigeration plants Wang et al. (2007) During normal working conditions, 4e8% COP
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 4 2 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 6 e3 5 31

Table 2 e General assumptions and input data for the analysed sectors.
Sector General assumptions Input data values
Domestic sector One refrigeration for each household 21,562,739 households in Spain in 2009
(Banco de España, 2012)
195,880,629 households in Europe in 2006
(EUROSTAT, 2009)
Commercial sector Number of refrigerators/freezers: 413 hypermarkets, 2674 big supermarkets,
100/30 in hypermarkets, 50/20 in big supermarkets, 8/5 in 13,338 supermarkets; 41,466 POS in Spain
supermarkets, and 2/1 in little point of sales in 2010 (The Nielsen Company, 2012)
The input data for Europe has been extrapolated from 6469 hypermarkets, 41,884 big supermarkets,
the real data from Spain 208,916 supermarkets; 649,492 POS in Europe
Road transport In United States 8.5% of trucks are refrigerated 235,526 refrigerated trucks in Spain (DGT, 2010)
(refrigerated trucks, (Ahmed et al., 2010). It has extrapolated to Spain from 198,312 refrigerated vans in Spain (DGT, 2010)
vans) the total trucks and vans 2,400,000 refrigerated trucks in Europe (IIR, 2012)
The average heat losses for a refrigerated truck 50,594,831 refrigerated vans in Europe (DGT, 2010)
(interior 20  C, exterior 30  C) is 24 W m2
(Ahmed et al., 2010)
Refrigeration plants From the electrical consumption for industries, 36,663,174 MWh year1 for cold production
10% is for cold production (Belman, 2008) in Spain 479,549,813 MWh year1 for cold
production in Europe (EUROSTAT, 2009)

However, from the industrial electrical consumption, 10% is 3.2. CO2 emissions factor
for cold purposes (Belman, 2008), therefore, the total energy
used for cold can be estimated using the total energy con- The conversion factor is required to obtain the potential CO2
sumption for industry in Spain and Europe. Table 2 shows the emission reduction. The CO2 emission reduction is calculated
general assumptions and the input data values for each sector by multiplying the saved energy, after applying the TES sys-
analysed here. tems to actual cold units, by the correspondent conversion
factor. This is done based on the Spanish and European elec-
trical CO2 emission reduction factor available in the literature
(Banco de España, 2012; European Commission, 2012). Ob-
Table 3 e Spanish and European emissions factor for tained conversion factors for Spain (Banco de España, 2012;
various energy carriers in 2010 (Banco de España, 2012; European Commission, 2012) and Europe (EU-27) (European
European Commission, 2012). Commission, 2012) are shown in Table 3. Related to Euro-
Electric source Emission factor (tCO2 MWh1) pean emissions factor, there are two different emissions
Spain factors:
Diesel fuel 0.263
Gasoline 0.249  The standard emission factor, which covers all the CO2
General electric power 0.639 emissions that occur due to energy consumption within
Low voltage electricity 0.27 the territory of the local authority
(domestic sector)
 The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) emission factor, which
Europe (EU-27) takes into consideration the overall life cycle of the energy
Diesel fuel 0.305 carrier. This approach includes not only the emissions of
Gasoline 0.299
the final combustion, but also all emissions of the supply
General electric power 0.578
chain.

Table 4 e Estimation of the potential savings and CO2 emissions for different sectors in Spain.
Sector Energy use CO2 emissions Energy reduction CO2 mitigation
[GWh year1] [1000 tCO2 year1] [GWh year1] [1000 tCO2 year1]
Low-S High-S Low-S High-S
Domestic sector 9342 2522 654 2803 177 757
(refrigerators þ freezers)
Commercial sector 266 67 19 80 12 51
(refrigerators)
Commercial sector 823 206 66 66 42 42
(freezers)
Cold in road transport 3481 916 104 1393 28 366
Cold in industry 36,663 9166 1467 7333 937 4686
Total 50,576 12,876 2309 11,674 1195 5902
32 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 4 2 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 6 e3 5

Here, the LCA emission factors will be used as it is the most

Table 7 e Spanish and European electricity and fuel cost
realistic value.
in 2012 [25e26] (Iberdrola, 2012; Europe’s Energy Portal,
2012).
Spain
4. Estimation of the electrical and Domestic sector (P < 10 kW) 0.14 V kWh1
economical potential savings and CO2 emission Commercial sector (10 kW < P < 15 kW) 0.17 V kWh1
reduction Industrial sector (P > 15 kW) 0.03 V kWh1
Fuel price 1.36 L h1
The results obtained by the assessment method described Europe (EU-27)
above, are grouped according to each sector, utilizing different Domestic sector (3500 kWh year) 0.18 V kWh1
parameters and obtaining the approximate annual quantity of Commercial sector (7500 kWh year) 0.17 V kWh1
saved energy. Here a full implementation of PCM TES systems Industrial sector (2 GWh/year) 0.12 V kWh1
Industrial sector (20 GWh/year) 0.10 V kWh1
in the calculations was assumed. Global energy savings and
Fuel price 1.48 L h1
CO2 emission reduction results for Spain and Europe are
shown in Tables 4 and 5, respectively. Moreover, the
economical savings due to the PCM TES implementation were
calculated as well (Table 6). Table 7 shows the price of the (Fig. 8). As an example, Liu et al. (2012) concluded that the
electricity and the fuel (for road transport) for Spain and electricity reduction was between 6 and 38%, hence, the low
Europe used in these calculations. The authors considered scenario takes into account the 6% and the high scenario the
that the consumption of the refrigeration system in a refrig- 38% of electricity reduction.
erated van or trailer were 2 L h1 and 3.75 L h1 of fuel, From the energy use in each sector for both Spain and
respectively (Tassou et al., 2012). Concerning to the fuel con- Europe, the total energy use for cold applications in Spain (50.6
sumption, the increase of the total mass of the refrigerated million MWh year1) and in Europe (613.5 million MWh year1)
truck due to the addition of PCM is neglected. was determined. Fig. 9 shows the distribution of the energy
Two scenarios have been studied, the low and the high consumed yearly for cold applications in Spain and Europe.
scenario. The low scenario (Low-S) accounts for the lowest Hence, from the electricity consumption and assuming a full
factors of energy savings, while the high scenario (High-S) implementation of PCM TES systems, the economical savings
accounts for the highest values of energy savings from Table 1 accounts between 239 and 1760 million V in Spain and

Table 5 e Estimation of the potential savings and CO2 emissions for different sectors in Europe.
Sector Energy consumed CO2 emissions Energy reduction CO2 mitigation
[GWh year1] [1000 tCO2 year1] [GWh year1] [1000 tCO2 year1]
Low-S High-S Low-S High-S
Domestic sector 84,866 49,053 5941 25,460 3434 14,716
(refrigerators þ freezers)
Commercial sector 4169 2410 292 1251 169 723
(refrigerators)
Commercial sector 12,894 7453 1032 1032 596 596
(freezers)
Cold in road transport 31,970 9751 959 12,788 293 3900
Cold in industry 479,550 277,180 19,182 95,910 11,087 55,436

Total 613,450 345,846 27,405 136,440 15,578 75,371

Table 6 e Estimation of the economical savings in Euros for different sectors in Spain and in Europe.
Sector Economical savings in Spain Economical savings in Europe
[millions V year1] [millions V year1]
Low-S High-S Low-S High-S
Domestic sector 93 399 1082 4638
(refrigerators þ freezers)
Commercial sector 3 14 51 218
(refrigerators)
Commercial sector 11 11 179 179
(freezers)
Cold in road transport 82 1089 951 12,675
Cold in industry 49 247 2167 10,837
Total 239 1760 4430 28,547
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 4 2 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 6 e3 5 33

the most promising followed by the domestic sector in both

Spain and Europe. The potential CO2 mitigation accounts for
4% and 21% in Spain for the low and high scenarios, respec-
tively, when it is compared to the total CO2 emissions to
produce cold for different applications and assuming a full
implementation of PCM TES systems. Regarding to Europe, the
potential CO2 mitigation accounts for 5% and 22% for the low
and high scenarios.

Fig. 8 e Potential energy reduction in cold applications

using different scenarios.
5. Conclusions

A model to estimate the potential Spanish and European

between 4430 and 28,547 million V for Europe for the low and
high scenarios, respectively.
A graphic comparison between the potential reduction and
the CO2 emissions for both scenarios is shown in Fig. 10 for
Spain and in Fig. 11 for Europe. The potential CO2 mitigations
by applying TES in the actual systems, the industrial sector is
impact when using thermal energy storage (TES) for cold
production, in terms of energy consumption and CO2 emis-
sion reduction, has been developed. The total energy demand
for cold applications in Spain and in Europe was calculated,
and after that the energy reduction and therefore CO2 emis-
sions mitigation was determined assuming a full imple-
mentation of the phase change materials (PCM) TES systems.

Fig. 9 e Distribution of the energy consumed by sectors in Spain (a) and Europe (b).

Fig. 10 e Potential reduction and CO2 mitigation in different sectors by using TES systems in Spain.
34 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 4 2 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 6 e3 5
Fig. 11 e Potential energy reduction and CO2 mitigation in different sectors by using TES systems in Europe.
The industry sector shows the highest potential of all the
sectors analysed. Related to economical savings, Spain could
save between 239 and 1760 millions of V and Europe between
4430 and 28,547 millions of V, depending on the scenario
evaluated. However, these economical saving are not real due
to the cost of the implementation of PCM TES to the actual
systems is not account because the authors do not know the
price for each analysed system. Furthermore, in Spain, yearly
CO2 emissions may get to be cut down from 4% to 21% in
reference to 2008 emissions levels for cold production
depending on the scenario studied. Related to Europe CO2
emissions mitigation, those values become 5% and 22%,
respectively. However, it is not just about minimizing CO2
emissions or potential savings, but also PCM integration im-
proves the quality of the refrigeration. Even though on an
overall level the impact of the implementation of PCM TES
systems compared to the total CO2 emissions in 2008 in
Europe is really small, it could be much more important than it
seems. One can realized that the domestic cold and some of
the energy to industry is probably during peak hours and
therefore leading to the dirtiest technology for producing
electricity being used. Then, the emission factors become
much higher because here the marginal production factors
have to be account instead of the energy mix factors being.
Moreover, this implementation could come to alleviate the
peak load and hence improve grid stability.
Acknowledgements
The work partially funded by the Spanish government
(ENE2011-22722). The authors would like to thank the Catalan
Government for the quality accreditation given to their
research group (2009 SGR 534). Eduard Oró would like to thank
the University of Lleida for his research fellowship. Laia Miró
would like to thank the Spanish Government for her research
fellowship (BES-2012-051861). The work leading to this in-
vention has received funding from the European Union’s
Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant
agreement n PIRSES-GA-2013-610692 (INNOSTORAGE).
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