Evaluation of Technical Feasibility of Solar Heat Integration in Agri-Food Industries

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This manuscript presents results regarding thef technical feasibility of solar heat integration in agri-food industries. In reviewer’s opinion, this research is novel, interesting, and important for today’s trend (carbon neutrality). Also, the article is informative, and the manuscript is clear and concise the authors should consider the below comments in order to improve their paper.

1.      The author should reformulate the abstract in order to emphasize the novelty of the paper. More numerical results should be inserted to give a better insight on the study.

2.      Please insert some citations for the description and data from section 3. There are so many information about the case studies but almost no citations.

3.      Some economic KPIs would be useful in addition to the existing technical ones.

4.      It would be great if the authors could insert some discussions based on the comparison of their own results with other concepts from the literature.

5.      I think more references need to be inserted from Processes journal in order to accentuate the relationship between the content of the paper and the scope of the journal and to emphasize the importance of the subject to the readers of the journal.

6.      Please insert a list of abbreviations which would be useful considering the notations used in the paper.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Introduction

The paper “Evaluation of technical feasibility of solar heat integration in agri-food industries” is reviewed herein.

Content

The following questions/concerns should be resolved prior to publication. 

·      Section 3.5: As this paper’s stated objective is to present a technical feasibility study on the SHIP integration in agri-food industries in southern Europe, the inclusion of this section in the paper is confusing. Its omission does not impact the study, or the conclusions resulting from the simulations. It is suggested that it either be omitted or some discussion be included as to why its inclusion is relevant. 

·      Section 4.1, Figure 9b: It is believed that the inclusion of the CHP in Figure 9b adds no value, as each value is 100%. Additionally, it is difficult to understand how the CHP system is providing solar contribution (%). It is recommended that the CHP values be removed from this figure, and that the vertical scale be reduced to make the solar values more easily read.  

·      Section 4.1: The last sentence of this section indicates that the study avoided per 99.8 t_co2eq per year. As there are several configurations that have been discussed for the Italian spirits distillery in this section, it is believed that the specific configuration that was used to achieve these savings needs to be mentioned in this sentence…. is this the system with the direct heat transfer?

·      Section 4.2, Figure 12.b: While is it understood that the simulation data is in  starting at the beginning of the year, it is suggested for consistency with the discussion and with Figure 12a, that the horizontal (time) axis be changed to months which is more consistent with the discussion of seasonal effectiveness of the technology.

·      Section 4.2, Figure 14: It is suggested that the horizontal (time) axis for this figure be changed as well, to something that is more relevant to the discussion. 

·      Section 4.2: The last sentence states that 6.15 t_co2eq per year were saved by considering the best thermal configuration. The definition of this best thermal configuration needs to be included within this statement.

·      Section 4.3: The last sentence of this section indicates the performance of configuration #1, and the bestarrangement of configuration #2. A detail or clarification of what is meant by the best arrangement of configuration #2 needs to be included. 

·      Section 5: The authors presented conclusions for each of the three specific cases of SHIP integration in SME industries in southern Europe. Can any conclusions be made that span all three configurations, i.e. solar heat has limited applicability in industries whose primary heat demand is in winter, etc.

 

Importance to the Field

The subject of this paper is both relevant and important as society strives to decarbonize industrial processes. This paper theoretically demonstrates the solar thermal impact on a few agri-businesses to understand the applicability and benefits of this type of technology. 

Comments for author File: Comments.docx

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The document seems to be an excellent academic exercise of TRNSYS usage, no findings were observed.

 The scientific and technological relevance must be supported by an adequate state of the art, in Introductory Section.

 The method must be presented in a section outside of the Introductory Section.

 The modeling, or simulation results, must be validated and/or contrasted with experimental results, as well as with previous works.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors have addressed this reviewer's comments.