63 research outputs found
Energy Refurbishment of Historical Buildings with Public Function: Pilot Case Study
No full textAbstractIn the last few decades, an increasing attention has been paid to the enhancement of energy performance and indoor comfort conditions of historical buildings, where the architectural heritage and artistic value do not allow typical retrofit intervention. The need to enhance the energy efficiency and environmental sustainability of historic buildings is addressed in this paper, through energy modeling and dynamic simulation of a real building with the integration of renewable energy plants for building heating and cooling. The pilot case study is “Palazzo Gallenga Stuart”, a historical university building located in Perugia, Italy. The energy performance of the building has been evaluated in order to reduce the building energy demand through the implementation of high-efficiency technologies in historic buildings. The increase of the energy efficiency of the building has been pursued through the improvement of the actual energy plants’ technology by introducing a more effective heat pump plant, in order to prevent the use of visually impacting external units on building historic façade
On an innovative integration strategy of renewable energy system in historic building with public function
No full textEnergy efficiency of existing buildings is becoming an increasingly important research
issue, given the slow building renovation and new construction development in
Europe. Additionally, most of the buildings in the old city centers in Mediterranean area,
and all around Europe in general, often present important architectural and artistic elements
to be preserved even in retrofit interventions. This aspect makes the energy efficiency
optimization even more difficult to implement, and historic buildings are typically
considered as low performance buildings by definition. In this panorama, innovative
strategies and integrated assessment to be specifically designed in historic buildings represent
a fundamental research development, aimed at improving the environmental sustainability
of Italian and European city centers. This paper concerns the integrated evaluation
of multiple retrofit scenarios on a historic building case study for public auditorium
use. Several active technologies and passive solutions are compared in terms of (i) cost,
(ii) energy performance, (iii) technical feasibility, for intrinsic constraints deriving from
the characteristics of the ancient structures and the positioning of the case study. This
building is a large space built in the historical city walls, where the municipality office
would like to install an auditorium and training space for public use. Specific solutions
have been elaborated focusing on the building characteristics and the final use of each
thermal zone. The overall cost-benefit assessment shows how the reduction of the conditioned
volume in association with (i) the integrated geothermal plant and (ii) the methane
boiler with absorption chiller represents the best overall solution after three years from
the construction in terms of primary energy requirement for (i) cooling and (ii) heating,
respectively
On an innovative integrated technique for energy refurbishment of historical buildings: Thermal-energy, economic and environmental analysis of a case study
No full textIn the last decades, increasing attention has been paid to the enhancement of energy performance and comfort conditions of historic buildings, where the necessity to preserve architectural heritage does not allow typical invasive retrofit interventions. The need for a replicable methodology for improving the sustainability of historic buildings based on the integration of energy efficiency solutions with renewable technologies is here addressed, by riding over the constraints imposed by architectural preservations, rather taking advantage of heritage architectural peculiarities. The case study is represented by Palazzo Gallenga Stuart, a historical university building located in central Italy. The optimization of the building energy efficiency has been pursued through two strategies specifically prototyped for application in historic buildings, i.e. innovative cool tiles with the same appearance of traditional historic tiles, and a geothermal heat pump system with water storage tanks positioned in the under-ground unoccupied areas of the building previously used as archives, also preventing the use of external units spoiling the building façade. Four retrofit scenarios were analyzed and compared from a both technical and economical point of view. The results showed that the application of the innovative cool tiles lead to a maximum cooling energy saving of 14.0% and 3.8% in the classrooms of the top floor and in the whole building, respectively. Furthermore, the installation of a more effective energy plant leads to an average energy saving of 64.3% and 67.0% in terms of heating and cooling demand, respectively. The combination of the two effects leads to an average energy saving of 64.0% for heating and 69.2% for cooling. Additionally, the cost-benefit analysis showed a payback time of 5 years. This work shows the important environmental benefit achievable by researching around smart and innovative integrated systems for energy saving in historic buildings having a great potential in reducing energy demand and carbon emissions, in ancient European countries in particular
The Experience of International Sustainability Protocols for Retrofitting Historical Buildings in Italy
No full textThe sustainability and efficiency of buildings represents a crucial issue since the building sector is currently responsible for more than 40% of energy consumption and emissions. This concern is extended to historical buildings, as they are typically low-performance constructions usually equipped with ineffective systems. For these reasons, the upgrade of historical constructions from an energy and environmental perspective is urgent, especially in those countries where such buildings represent more than half of the building stock. This work concerns the refurbishment of a historical Italian building by integrating passive and active solutions to optimize the indoor thermal comfort and the energy performance. To this aim, the innovative GBC Historic Building® rating system, a new tool evaluating the sustainability level of conservation-related activities on pre-industrial buildings, is applied. A combined trigeneration heat and power plant with an absorption chiller to produce cooling and powered by vegetable oil is installed in the building. A dynamic simulation of the building is also carried out to predict the post-retrofit energy performance upgrading. The final aim is to propose an integrated approach for the preservation and energy upgrading of existing constructions by improving their energy performance and environmental quality while protecting their heritage value
Short-range order and chemical compositions of glasses along the basaltic-rhyolite sub-alkaline join by Raman and FTIR spectroscopies
No full textAlbedo Control as an Effective Strategy to Tackle Global Warming: a Case Study
No full textDoha 2012 Climate Change Conference reminds that the
effort to cope with Climate Change has to be increased in
order to achieve Kyoto targets. In this context, an innovative methodology (officially recognized by WEC in 2009) has been proposed by CIRIAF to mitigate Global Warming by artificially enhancing Earth’s albedo. Such methodology allows to quantify the maximum environmental benefit achievable through the installation
of Albedo Control technologies, as a function of the geographical features of the installation site, local meteorological conditions, radiative properties, tilt angle,
and orientation of the surfaces; this benefit is quantified in
terms of CO2eq offset. Albedo Control can be an effective mitigation strategy by means of three synergic positive effects: a direct contribution in Global Warming (GW) mitigation produced by the reflection to the outer space of the shortwave incident radiation; the indirect contribution from energy savings in buildings (given by lower energy requirement for cooling); the indirect contribution from the mitigation of UHI (Urban Heat Island) effect. Since the effectiveness of Albedo Control technologies is
particularly relevant on Mediterranean area both for
climatic conditions and historical‐architectural heritage, this
work presents procedures and findings of ABCD (Albedo,
Building green, Control of global warming and Desertification) project and its application to a Tunisian
case study, funded by the Italian Ministry for the
Environment. The project provides the application of the methodology to a Tunisian factory site, showing that among 16.000 tCO2eq could be offset in 30 years with the installation of about 115.000 m2 of high‐reflective surfaces.
Finally an allocation of a tradable value (ETS carbon credits)
to Albedo Control technologies is proposed
A Batch Digester Plant for Biogas Production and Energy Enhancement of Organic Residues from Collective Activities
No full textAbstractAn innovative little-sized batch biogas plant has been recently developed by the Italian Biomass Research Centre. It was fed by the residual biomass (agriculture residues and zootechnical wastes) produced by a farm located in the countryside of Perugia, Italy. The successful experience allowed the research group to design an upgrade of the existing plant, making it replicable to every communitarian activity such as Conference Halls, Schools, Condos, where organic biomass is produced as waste. Biomass recovery from markets, canteens and little food companies represents an opportunity for the installation of new residues-powered plants, achieving the production of both electricity and thermal energy for house heating and industrial processes. The collected biomass could also be integrated with pruning or residual biomass from the maintenance of the green and the neighbouring municipal wastewater from a septic tank. The simplicity, automaticity, and the cost-effectiveness of the plant, together with the incentives from electric energy injection to the grid, made the investment payable in a few years, allowing the operator to gain from renewable sources. Little sized biogas plants solves the problem of harvesting and disposal of the organic waste, reducing its transportation costs and producing green energy. The paper presents the preliminary design of the plant
An Innovative Small Sized Anaerobic Digester Integrated in Historic Building
No full textThe CRB - Biomass Research Centre of the University of Perugia has developed an innovative anaerobic batch plant for the biogas production consisting on polyethylene bags, conventionally used for agriculture silage storage, converted and used as anaerobic digesters. Bags equipped with piping systems, become biocells: hence the name of the plant, biocells biogas plant.
The biocells, filled with biomass residues and manure, allow the disposal of residual agricultural biomass and manure, with a reduced cost for plant and a quick return on investment, thanks to the incentives for electric production from renewable sources, particularly advantageous for small biogas plants, according to the last Ministry Decree.
The tests carried out on the biocells system detected the critical issues in order to implement a new prototype of a small size plant, more flexible and adaptable to other contexts different than the rural one.
Unlike previous systems that worked for farms, the new plant will be integrated into a civil building: the stables of the Fortress of Saint Apollinare, located in the municipality of Marsciano (PG), currently under renovation in order to create an office structure at service of the fortress, that will be rehabilitated to host a research and education centre, with classrooms, dining areas, offices, rooms and canteen.
The plant will be fed by waste from the canteen residues and the pruning or residual biomass from the maintenance of the green and the neighbouring municipal wastewater from the septic tank. The thermal production is partially absorbed to maintain the temperature for the biological reactions in the digester; electrical energy is injected into the grid to take advantage of incentives from renewable sources
An innovative bio-digester for biogas production and energetic enhancement in a little sized engine
No full textIn the Fortress of S. Apollinare di Marsciano, the Biomass Research Centre of the University of Perugia, in cooperation with the Foundation for Agricultural Education in Perugia, Italy, has developed a laboratory for biogas testing and treatments, equipped with systems for dehumidification, desulphurization and continuous monitoring, that are able to analyze the gases contained in biogas and the exhaust post-combustion gases in an engine. The Fortress, currently subjected to an overall intensive retrofit intervention, will be reorganized in order to host international training programs, specifically designed to take advantage from the available biomass sources of the pertinent area. The facilities will consist of classrooms, bedrooms, a food court and some pertinent amenity. Therefore, the Biomass Research Centre has developed a project for the treatment of civil waste, organic residues from the food court, pruning, herbaceous cuttings and agricultural residues harvested from the surrounding area. The innovative plant is composed of biocells modular digesters for the biogas production, and its enhancement in a 30 kW powered cogenerator engine for electricity and thermal production. The thermal production is mainly used to preserve the biological conditions in the digester and the surplus of thermal demand. The digested from biological anaerobic reactions is stabilized with aerobic treatments including fito-depuration to obtain clear water for non-potable end uses.The objective is to make energetically independent towns of very small dimensions, insulated from the national energetic grid (methane and electricity): the biomass that characterizes the place it origins, constitutes a potential energy.The plant realization will constitute an example of the feasibility of integrated systems of small size for energy production for residential utilities
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