Search results for " Renewable Energy Sources"
showing 10 items of 22 documents
SOFIA: a decision support System for the Optimization of the biomass supply chain and Forest Integrated management in protected areas
2019
A decision support System for the Optimization of the biomass supply chain and Forest Integrated Management in protected areas (SOFIA) is presented. All functionalities have been developed in Python language embedded in the open-source QGIS 3.6 software. Two models were implemented with an approach and methodology based on free and open source software (QGIS, GRASS, SAGA, GDAL). The main aim of SOFIA is to support the Madonie Regional Natural Park authority and forest managers in decision-making processes to assess the costs and benefits in the energy production from residual agro-forestry biomass, as well as for determining the optimum plant size (and power) for energy and heat production …
Environmental assessment of 2030 electricity generation scenarios in Sicily: An integrated approach
2020
Abstract This paper deals with the environmental assessment of two electricity scenarios in Sicily, for 2030, characterized by a high exploitation of renewable energy sources in order to quantify the potential contribution of the local strategies in the achievement of the European climate policies and the potential improvement in the future electricity mix, compared to the current one (2014). In order to match these goals, authors integrate the Life Cycle Assessment with a scenario analysis. The future electricity mix scenarios, characterized by a share of renewables (57% for 2030-BS scenario and 51% for 2030-DS scenario) show a reduction of the greenhouse gases emissions per kWh of electri…
Life-Cycle Assessment Applied to Future Scenarios of Electricity Generation in Sicily
2018
Fighting global warming and increasing the energy security are some of the most relevant objectives of the European energy policy. Thus, defining potential low carbon pathways for the energy sector is of paramount importance in order to identify strategies with the lowest impact on climate. This paper presents an overview of environmental assessment of future electricity scenarios in Sicily (Italy), for 2020 and 2030, characterized by a high exploitation of renewable energy sources. Authors apply the Life Cycle Assessment methodology, according to the standard of the ISO 14040 series, in order to evaluate the environmental impacts of electricity generation in the future scenarios in compari…
State of art and economic evaluation of wave energy converters. A case study
2022
The even increasing energy demand in the world is a relevant problem for the modern society. The energy supply from fossil fuels has become a critical aspect due to the progressive reduction of reserves and political instability among the Countries. For these reasons, the exploitation of renewable energy sources is looked with a great interest. In this context, solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, and biomass can be successfully used through commercial technologies. Other potential renewable energy sources could have potential applications in the next future. Among these, sea wave is considered a very promising energy source, especially for small islands. In this context, the paper propones…
CO2 reduction exploiting RES for EV charging
2017
The world is facing an urgent need to reduce emissions, limiting pollution for a better quality of life. This objective has to be reached by all cities and governments worldwide. This paper focuses on the field of transportation, which is greatly responsible for air pollution, mainly in cities and urban areas such as towns, airports and seaports. The diffusion of electric vehicles (EVs) enables a significant reduction of air pollutants emitted by combustion engines; however, their recharge can affect the total pollution by their increasing energy demand. A solution is the use of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) to charge EVs. This paper analyzes the feasibility of integrating EVs and RES, foc…
A Reinforcement Learning Approach for User Preference-aware Energy Sharing Systems
2021
Energy Sharing Systems (ESS) are envisioned to be the future of power systems. In these systems, consumers equipped with renewable energy generation capabilities are able to participate in an energy market to sell their energy. This paper proposes an ESS that, differently from previous works, takes into account the consumers’ preference, engagement, and bounded rationality. The problem of maximizing the energy exchange while considering such user modeling is formulated and shown to be NP-Hard. To learn the user behavior, two heuristics are proposed: 1) a Reinforcement Learning-based algorithm, which provides a bounded regret and 2) a more computationally efficient heuristic, named BPT- ${K}…
Voltage Profile Improvement for Soc Son's Low-Voltage Grid with High Penetration of PV Systems by Optimizing the Location of SVC Devices
2018
This paper presents a method that is applied to optimize the placement of Static VAR compensators in a real low-voltage grid in the Vietnamese territory. In this way, the voltage profile of the distribution grid turns to be improved. A heuristic method, the Binary Particle Swarm Optimization, is used to find a solution to this problem within the Matlab environment. A case study that considers a high penetration of rooftop PV systems in a branch of Soc Son distribution grid is implemented to show the efficiency of the optimization method for this specific application.
Manure as a potential source of renewable energy: The behaviour and characterisation of biofuels generated from three animal manure types when subjec…
2020
Regions with high livestock density lack sufficient land on which to apply manure without exceeding the legal limits set by the European Union Directives. The lack of manure processing alternatives aggravates the situation, especially in the case of islands. Consequently, manure becomes a liability rather than an asset. Results indicate that pyrolysis is an option for manure processing. However, a significant limitation is the moisture content of the starting material, that could compromise the process efficiency. Yields of biogas, bio-oil and biochar, all of which have a potential use as biofuels, are particular to animal type and manure handling system. The conversion of manure to biofuel…
LCA applied to an anaerobic digestion plant for biomethane and digestate production
2019
Nowadays it is paramount to promote bioenergy for climate protection, energy security and creation of income/jobs. In this perspective, Anaerobic Digestion (AD) for biogas and digestate production seems to be a viable way to simultaneously improve waste management while producing Renewable Energy Sources (RES). The main objective of this work is to assess the environmental impact associated with biomethane and digestate production from an AD plant as Global Warming Potential, expressed in CO2 equivalents. Therefore, a LCA was carried out for the production of biomethane ready for the injection into the Italian distribution natural gas grid. A mix from different waste sources (cattle manure …
Wastewater treatment and electricity production in a microbial fuel cell with Cu–B alloy as the cathode
2019
The possibility of wastewater treatment and electricity production using a microbial fuel cell with Cu&ndash