Search results for "Building"

A net zero energy building in italy: Design studies to reach the net zero energy target

2011

In the framework of international actions to reduce the energy requirements and greenhouse gases emissions due to buildings, a new International Energy Agency task has been recently established in order to study Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEBs). The commonly shared concept of NZEB, is a building whose annual balance of energy consumptions tends to zero. This concept is still too imprecise and the authors of this paper participate to the activities of SubTask B of IEA Task40 with the aim of establishing an internationally agreed understanding on NZEBs. The task is based on a common methodology for identifying and refining design approaches and tools to support industry adoption of innovativ…

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF SOLAR COMMUNITIES: A SCENARIO ANALYSIS

The study proposes the comparisonof the life cycle performances of two different energy systems aimed at covering the needs of a large mixed-mode community, in Calgary (Canada). The two systems investigated are a“conventional” one, using heat pumps for heating, cooling and domestic hot water, and another one widely deploying solar thermal panels as well as a district heating infrastructure and a borehole seasonal thermal storage. The analysis is based on the LifeCycle Assessment (LCA) methodology and includes the stages of raw materials and energy supply, system manufacturing, use stage of the systems, generation and use of energy on-site, maintenance and components’ substitution, and explo…

Colours and building thermal balance: the impact of coating colour on energy loads

2013

Towards Positive Energy Districts: Energy Renovation of a Mediterranean District and Activation of Energy Flexibility

2023

The paper presents the analysis of energy retrofitting, integration of renewable energy and activation of energy flexibility in a cluster of buildings in the surroundings of a port on the Mediterranean Sea in Southern Italy, with the aim of checking the potential for it to achieve the status of positive energy district (PED). The objective of this study is to improve the contemporaneity between local energy generation and energy demand and reduce CO2eq emissions by considering signals that reflect the environmental variability of the electricity grid, through flexibility solutions applied to the HVAC system. The proposed scenarios are based on the dynamic simulation of the district and anal…

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment: an implementation to marble products

2011

Vanadium dioxide and gold nanocomposite films for glazing applications

2009

Vanadium dioxide is a material with great potential as an intelligent glazing material. The technology is based on a metal to semiconductor transition (MST) where there is an associated structural change from the higher temperature rutile structure to the lower temperature monoclinic structure. This structural transition results in significant changes in optical properties and electrical conductivity. Hybrid aerosol assisted and atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition methodology has been utilised, to produce thin films of gold nano-particle vanadium dioxide nanocomposites. Good surface coverage is observed comparable to that of APCVD processes and a variety of different film thickn…

Techno-economic analysis of integrated processes for the treatment and valorisation of neutral coal mine effluents

2020

Abstract The disposal of highly-concentrated neutral coal mine effluents into the environment constitutes a severe threat to the natural ecosystem. This work proposes and compares five novel treatment chains to purify the effluent and recover raw materials. The chains present different combinations of pre-treatment and concentration technologies. In all cases, the solution sent to the concentration step is concentrated up to saturation to recover water and sodium chloride. Concerning the technical performances, the treatment chains are compared in terms of total energy demand and salt recovery. Furthermore, the economic feasibility assessment is performed via a novel global parameter, i.e. …

Combined membrane and thermal desalination processes for the treatment of ion exchange resins spent brine

2019

Abstract The disposal of industrial wastewater effluents represents a critical environmental issue. This work focuses on the treatment of the spent brine produced by the regeneration of ion exchange resins employed for water softening. For the first time, a comprehensive techno-economic assessment and an analysis of the energy requirements of the treatment chain are carried out, via the simulation of ad hoc implemented models. The chain is composed of nanofiltration, double-stage crystallization and multi-effect distillation. The valuable product is the brine produced by the multi-effect distillation, which can be re-used for the regeneration. Therefore, the treatment chain’s economic feasi…

Reverse electrodialysis with NH4HCO3-water systems for heat-to-power conversion

2017

Abstract A Reverse ElectroDialysis Heat Engine (REDHE) system operating with “thermolytic” ammonium hydrogen-carbonate (NH4HCO3) aqueous solutions as working fluids is studied. The engine is constituted by (i) a RED unit to produce electric power by mixing the solutions at different salinity and (ii) a thermally-driven regeneration unit including a stripping and an absorption column to restore the initial salinity gradient thus closing the cycle. In the present work only the RED unit and the stripping column are taken into account. In particular, a simplified integrated process model for the whole cycle was developed: it consists of (i) a lumped parameter model for the RED unit validated wi…

Critical Raw Materials and Supply Chain Disruption in the Energy Transition

2022

The energy transition towards efficient energy production, transport, and use, renewable energy (RE) technologies and innovative energy management brings benefits to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and achieving climate targets. The transition requires resources, minerals, metals, and materials for RE technologies themselves, for example, solar photovoltaics (PV), hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs) as well as innovative supporting technologies for variable RE, for example, energy storage systems (ESSs). This requirement of resources and materials occurs over the whole supply chain of the technologies, from the extraction of resources, the manufacture of technology, and the deployme…