Search results for "Eating"
showing 10 items of 1247 documents
“Local Production”: What Do Consumers Think?
2022
Since the mid-1990s, there has been a growing interest among consumers and producers in downscaling to a local level the length of the agri-food chains as a solution for fairer and more sustainable food production systems. From the point of view of consumption, the attribute “local” is assuming an important role in defining food purchasing preferences, both in terms of expectations of product quality and in terms of its perceived relevance in determining the supply chain sustainability. This research aims to define how individuals’ perception of local production influences the definition of “local” among consumers based on a survey submitted to a sample of 500 consumers in North-Western Ita…
Dynamics of carbon pools in a soil covered with different forest tree species after controlled heating and wetting
2012
Fire-induced soil heating deeply affects soil organic C pools and their dynamics. The objective of this study was to investigate, in a soil covered with different forest tree species (Eucalyptus camaldulensis, E. occidentalis, Pinus halepensis, and Cupressus sempervirens), the effect of controlled heating on C pools and C mineralization dynamics. Soil samples were heated under controlled condition in laboratory (160 and 380°C) and then wetted with distilled or sea water to simulate the extinction of wildfires. Soil organic C pools react to heating in different way depending on forest tree species. Total organic C was almost halved following the heating of soils at 380°C. Soil covered with P…
Large Scale Properties of Coronal Heating along the Solar Cycle
2010
We discuss various studies of the global properties of coronal heating. Some of them find power laws tying the X-ray luminosity with the magnetic flux of individual structures, of the whole Sun, and of active solar-type stars. Others are based on methods to model the Sun as an X-ray star. We also briefly discuss solar-like active stars and how the Sun fits in the whole scenario. We use a new model, including all flares, of the Sun as an X-ray star to describe the evolution of the corona along the solar cycle and the implications on the heating of closed coronal structures. We point out that, as activity increases, more heating is released into the confined coronal plasma and such a heating …
A novel renewable system supplying energy and water to the island of Pantelleria
2016
In this paper a thermoeconomic analysis of a novel hybrid Renewable Polygeneration System connected to a district heating and cooling network is presented. The plant is powered simultaneously by solar and geothermal energy and capable to supply electricity, desalinated water, heat and cooling energy. System layout includes a Parabolic Through Collector (PTC) field, geothermal wells, an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) unit and a Multi-Effect Desalination (MED) system. A model of a typical building of Pantelleria urban area and a heating and cooling system based on fan coils have been modelled and linked to the plant model in TRNSYS environment. A detailed system control has been implemented in t…
An integrated building energy simulation early—Design tool for future heating and cooling demand assessment
2022
Climate change and its effects are becoming clear on a global scale either from the perspective of global warming and the increase in the rate of occurrence of weather events of extreme magnitude. This has impacts also for sure on the standard building performance analysis approach, since the buildings designed today are supposed to withstand for the following decades climate impacts that may be different than those they were designed for. The paper proposes a simple, easy to use and freely available building simulation utility which performs morphing of existing weather data files and, by connecting to the Energy Plus simulation routine, allows to perform future climate building simulation…
Electrical hybrid heat pumps assisted by natural gas boilers: a review
2022
In this paper, a comprehensive review is performed on hybrid systems using electrical Heat Pumps for Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning systems and Domestic Hot Water production using case studies from 2016 to 2022. This work particularly focuses on studies that investigated systems with electrical Heat Pumps assisted by a gas boiler. Some studies that considered the exploitation of renewable energy sources, but not as a whole sub-stitute for fossil sources, have also been included. In particular, the analysis investigated the layouts of the systems by considering the type and the size of the components, the control methods applied (by distinguishing rule-based control methods and …
Life Cycle Assessment of solar heating and cooling systems: the tool “ELISA”
2018
Solar heating and cooling (SHC) systems play an important role in the achievement of energy and climate European goals. The benefits of these technologies should be evaluated taking into account their lifecycle energy and environmental impacts, calculated by applying the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. The development of a complete LCA can be difficult and time-consuming particularly for no-LCA experts, discouraging them in the inclusion of the lifecycle perspective in their assessments. To overcome this limit, the paper presents “ELISA - Environmental Lifecycle Impacts of Solar Air-conditioning systems”, a user-friendly simplified tool for estimating the lifecycle energy and envir…
A CCHP system fed by low enthalpy sources in Mediterranean area
2018
Climate change and energy consumption increasingly call for a better use of energy sources. Renewable sources are still growing in the power production of many countries, so leading to the reduction of CO2 emissions. Further restrictions will be applied to the use of fossil fuels with a lot of consequences; for example, some German cities are all contemplating bans related to diesel pollution, and on the other hand some of the biggest car producers are planning to stop the diesel engines production in a few years. At the same time, some restrictions are applied also to many refrigerating fluids, in order of limiting the ODP and GWP values. This restriction leads to research new fluids and/o…
Dynamic simulation of a 4th Generation District Heating network with the presence of prosumers
2022
District Heating Network is identified as a promising technology for the decarbonization of urban areas. Thanks to the surplus of heat available from distributed renewable energy plants, a typical heat consumer of the network could become an energy producer during the day (typically referred to as “prosumer”). Models for thermal grids developed during the years usually assumed a centralized heat production. The increasing presence of prosumers will require accurate dynamic modeling to monitor the changes induced in the thermohydraulic variables of the network. To fill this knowledge gap, this paper aims at developing a model of a thermal grid with prosumers in TRNSYS environment. The model …
Data fusion analysis applied to different climate change models: an application to the energy consumptions of a building office
2018
The paper aims to achieve the modelling of climate change effects on heating and cooling in the building sector, through the use of the available Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecasted data. Data from several different climate models will be fused with regards to mean air temperature, wind speed and horizontal solar radiation. Several climatic models data were analyzed ranging from January 2006 to December 2100. Rather than considering each model in isolation, we propose a data fusion approach for providing a robust combined model for morphing an existing weather data file. The final aim is simulating future energy use for heating and cooling of a reference building as a conse…