Proceedings of the 19th International Symposium on District Heating and Cooling

Dirk Vanhoudt is responsible for the research roadmap on the digitalization of district heating and cooling systems at VITO/EnergyVille, an independent research center in Belgium. He has been active in the field of district heating and cooling networks for over 15 years, primarily through Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe projects. His research focuses on the smart control of 4th generation systems, as well as fault detection and diagnosis. At the 19th International Symposium on District Heating and Cooling, he served as Chairman of the Scientific Committee, overseeing the selection of presentations and papers published in these proceedings.

• Modeling with the 223P ontology and adaptation for optimized DHC operation.- Optimizing a Multi-Vector Energy System with Geothermal-Powered District Heating.- Design optimization of district heating networks with thermal-hydraulic validation.- Large-scale solar thermal systems in district heating networks: A review of German projects regarding dimensioning, temperatures and stagnation times.- Enabling data economy for DHC applications through dataspaces.- Mitigating the grid impact of electrifying heat: A case study using solar and thermal storage to achieve a net-zero emission campus.- Natural circulation and other measures to ensure heating supply to buildings connected to district heating in the event of electrical grid blackout.- Feasibility Assessment Tool for District Heating and Cooling (FAST DHC): a simple decision support tool for the techno-economic evaluation of DHC networks.- Testing Dynamic Sector-coupled Operation in a District Energy Laboratory.- TFSB as bedding material in district heating pipe construction – scientifically proven long-term experience.- Experimental Investigation on the Thermal Conductivity of Alternative Backfill Materials for District Heating Networks.- Achieving efficient district heating targets in a Croatian network: heat source mapping and techno-economic scenarios analysis.- Exploiting Synergies of Data-Driven and Model-Based Approaches for Leakage Localization in District Heating Networks: Application of improved Approaches.- Data-Driven Fault Detection and Diagnosis in District Heating Substations and the Impact of Return Temperature Reduction.- Data Pre-Processing Methods Enhancing Heat Cost Allocator Measurement Usability.- Foam Density Distribution Analysis in Pre-Insulated Pipes Using Non-Destructive X-ray Microscopy.- A 5th generation district heating and cooling network (5GDHC) driven by shallow geothermal, economic analysis and geohydrological modelling for comparison with an individual system.- Improved District Heating Return Temperatures by Cascading Concepts.- Status of the VITO deep geothermal project in Mol – Donk (northern Belgium).- Proposal for a method to simultaneously maximize the economic and environmental values of a district heating and cooling system for an electricity market.- Optimizing the Next Generation of District Heating and Cooling Systems While Ensuring Reliable Domestic Hot Water Supply.- Closing a sim-to-sim gap for automatic fault detection in DHC systems using hybrid.- modelling.