energy – Pagina 3 – Progress in Research

What role is there for nuclear power in the decarbonisation process?

Posted on 03/11/202206/08/2024 by Erik Franco

The Politecnico di Milano is a partner in the ECOSENS (Economic and Social Considerations for the Future of Nuclear Energy in Society) project funded under the research and training programme of the European Community HORIZON-EURATOM.

The project aims to analyse citizens’ opinions and perceptions of risk, the benefits and potential related to the use of nuclear technologies (current and future) in relation to the main social challenges: climate crisis, sustainable energy policies and energy security.

In order to identify the possible role of nuclear energy within the decarbonisation objectives set for 2050, the sustainability of current technologies and the integration of new generation reactors (III + and IV) will be assessed with reference to the future energy market and social developments taking place.

The Department of Management Engineering of the Politecnico di Milano will be supported by that of Energy in the development of an economic model based on the “system of provision approach” to create and calculate indicators relevant to the evaluation of nuclear systems, including the “social discount rate” (reflecting uncertainties about the socio-environmental costs and benefits of the project) and the impact on sustainability.

The research work will lead to the drafting of guidelines for the evaluation of new nuclear infrastructures with a view to improving their sustainability.

The research group of the Politecnico is coordinated by Professor Giorgio Locatelli of the Department of Management Engineering.

Researchers at Politecnico synthesise a new material

Posted on 21/06/202206/08/2024 by Erik Franco

The SupraBioNano Lab (SBNLab) at the Politecnico di Milano’s Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta”, in partnership with the University of Bologna and the Aalto University of Helsinki (Finland) has, for the first time, synthesised a superfluorinated gold nanocluster, made up of a core of only 25 gold atoms, to which 18 branch-structured fluorinated molecules are linked.

The metal clusters are an innovative class of very complex nanomaterial, characterised by ultra-small dimensions (<2nm) and peculiar chemical-physical properties such as luminescence and catalytic activity, which encourage its application in various scientific fields of high importance in relation to modern global challenges. These include precision medicine, in which metal nanoclusters are used as innovative probes for diagnostic and therapeutic applications, and the energy transition, where they are applied as efficient catalysers for the production of green hydrogen.

The crystallisation of metal nanoclusters offers the possibility of obtaining high-purity samples, allowing their fine atomic structure to be determined; however, at present this remains a very difficult process to control. The methodologies developed in this study promoted the crystallisation of nanoclusters, allowing their atomic structure to be determined. The end result is the structural description of the most complex fluorinated nano-object ever reported.

The atomic structure has been determined by means of x-ray diffraction at the Sincrotrone Elettra in Trieste. It will soon be possible to study the structure of these advanced nanomaterials at the Politecnico di Milano, where – thanks also to the grant from the Region of Lombardy – Next-GAME (Next-Generation Advanced Materials), a laboratory dedicated to the use of state-of-the-art x-ray instruments to characterise crystals, nanoparticles and colloids, is being established.

Among the authors of the study were Prof. Pierangelo Metrangolo, Prof. Giancarlo Terraneo, Prof. Valentina Dichiarante, Prof. Francesca Baldelli Bombelli, Dr. Claudia Pigliacelli (SBNLab); professor Giulio Cerullo, from the Politecnico di Milano’s Department of Physics, also contributed to the study, looking at the nanocluster’s optical characteristics and demonstrating the fluorinated binders’ impact on the gold core’s optical activity.

The study on Nature Communication

ERC Advanced Grant to Daniele Ielmini with Animate

Posted on 28/04/202206/08/2024 by Erik Franco

Daniele Ielmini, professor at the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, will conduct ANIMATE (ANalogue In-Memory computing with Advanced device Technology), a project that aims to develop a new computational concept to reduce energy consumption in machine learning.

We generate, process and use a huge amount of data every day. Searching for a keyword on the internet, choosing a film for the weekend or booking our next holiday are just some of the actions that rely on data-intensive algorithms.

The energy cost of this type of calculation is extremely high: it has been estimated that training a conventional neural network for artificial intelligence (AI) produces the same amount of carbon dioxide as 5 cars in their life cycle. Data centres, which currently meet most of the world’s AI needs, now consume about 1% of global energy demand, with growth expected to reach 7% by 2030. To correct this worrying trend, new energy-efficient hardware solutions are needed. Professor Ielmini’s preliminary ANIMATE research has shown that computational energy requirements can be reduced by closed-loop in-memory computing (CL-IMC), which can solve linear algebra problems in a single computational step.

In CL-IMC, the time to solve a given problem does not increase in proportion to the size of the problem, unlike other computing concepts, such as digital and quantum computers. Thanks to the reduction in calculation time, CL-IMC requires 5,000 times less energy than digital computers with the same accuracy in terms of number of bits.

Ielmini’s project will develop the device and circuit technology, system architectures and set of applications to fully validate the CL-IMC concept. System-level architecture and exploring its applications will further prove the scalability and feasibility of the concept, to prove that CL-IMC is a major contender among energy-efficient computing technologies.

Our university once again proves to be at the forefront, having outperformed its scholarly competitors in a very competitive selection process, with only 14.6% of the 1735 projects submitted receiving funding. With this project, the Politecnico di Milano has been awarded a total of 86 European Individual Grants (including ERC and Marie Curie).

ERC Consolidator Grants to Massimo Tavoni’s EUNICE project

Posted on 17/03/202206/08/2024 by Erik Franco

The European Research Council (ERC), the European Union organization that rewards talented scholars engaged in innovative research, is funding EUNICE, a project led by Prof. Massimo Tavoni from the Politecnico di Milano. The research project was selected from among more than 2,000 proposals received by ERC.This is a great result for the Politecnico, considering that this year only 11.8% of the projects submitted have obtained funding. In addition to these two projects, to date, a total of 49 ERC grants have been awarded to researchers from the Politecnico di Milano.

Massimo Tavoni, Professor of Engineering for the Environment and the Territory, has been awarded the grant for EUNICE, which aspires to correct the errors of the ensembles of climate-energy-economy models that study climate stabilization, and to develop methods to validate and confirm the intuitions of the scenarios.

The objective of the project is therefore to develop an innovative and integrated approach to quantify, translate, and communicate in an effective and timely manner the main uncertainties associated with low-carbon pathways and scenarios that explore very distant futures, renewing the methodological and experimental bases of model-based climate assessments.

EUNICE is a project of great relevance also for other research areas: the approach and innovations developed by EUNICE can in fact also be applied to other high-risk environmental, social, and technological assessments.

Its unique combination of computational and behavioural science and public engagement will be an important mediation tool in debates on fundamental decisions for our society, increasing confidence in and recognition of the scientific method.

ERC Consolidator Grants are intended for researchers with at least 7 years of experience since obtaining their PhD and with a very promising scientific profile. These are scholars who aim to consolidate their independence in research, strengthening their research group and continuing to develop a career in Europe. Funding can reach €2 million per single project, for a maximum duration of 5 years.

Agreement with a2a

Posted on 09/02/202206/08/2024 by Erik Franco

The A2A Life Company Group and Politecnico di Milano have started up collaboration for the development of innovation, research and training initiatives in the Energy & Utility sector, to support Italy’s ecological transition. The recently signed partnership model is based on two agreements with a total value of 8 million euros and a duration of 5 years.

In particular, the agreement provides for the establishment of a Joint Research Centre to implement multidisciplinary experimental projects on specific issues such as sustainable mobility, the development of renewable energy and hydrogen, battery recycling, the study of new technologies for waste treatment and the recovery of materials and energy, for a total of 5 million.

At the same time, the partnership will give rise to a Joint Research and Innovation Centre inside the Innovation District, which Politecnico di Milano is developing at the former Bovisa gasometer park and in which A2A will take part with a total investment of 3 million euros. The Joint Centre will be entirely dedicated to innovation in the following thematic macro-areas: “Technologies for the environment and energy” and “Technologies for sustainable mobility”, also touching on the themes of energy transition and the circular economy.

The JRC – Joint Research Center has proven to be one of the most valid tools for strengthening the understanding between universities and business.

The agreement was signed by the Rector of the Politecnico, Ferruccio Resta, and by Renato Mazzoncini, CEO of A2A, in the presence of the President of A2A, Marco Patuano, the Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala and the President of Regione Lombardia, Attilio Fontana.

The JRC – Joint Research Center has proven to be one of the most valid tools for strengthening the understanding between universities and business. For activating an ever closer synergy on topics of common interest and to meet the challenges that the NRRP poses to Italy: from energy transition, to sustainable mobility, and renewable energy. These are some of the objectives of the agreement which sees Politecnico di Milano working alongside A2A. One of the companies most actively encouraging this path of shared growth. Ready to support joint research from an open supply chain perspective. This agreement in fact represents a shared desire to create a real ecosystem of innovation that goes beyond applied research projects to the development of a flagship project on which the Politecnico will focus in the coming years.
Ferruccio Resta, rector of the Politecnico di Milano

CO2OLHEAT

Posted on 13/01/202206/08/2024 by Erik Franco

Politecnico di Milano is a partner in CO2OLHEAT – Supercritical CO2 power cycles demonstration in Operational environment Locally valorising industrial Waste Heat, a research project funded by the European Union as part of the Horizon 2020 programme with a total budget of 18.8 million euros.

The aim of the project is to support the EU objectives relating to energy efficiency and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by recovering waste heat from industrial processes and converting it into electricity via an energy system based on innovative closed thermodynamic cycles using carbon dioxide in supercritical conditions (sCO2).

This four-year project will lead to construction of the EU’s first sCO2 energy plant, which will be installed and operate in the CEMEX cement works, in Prachovice in the Czech Republic.

The Politecnico di Milano research group, headed by Professor Giacomo Persico, will provide a multi-disciplinary contribution to the project, systematising the competences of the Laboratory of Fluid-Dynamics of Turbomachinery (LFM) with those of the Group for Energy Conversion Systems (GECOS) in the Department of Energy.
On the fluid dynamics front, research with focus on shape optimisation of the sCO2 compressor, the most critical component of the system, and on high-fidelity analysis of performance and function of the compressor itself and the high-pressure turbine.
On the energy front, studies will concentrate on analysis of the system’s thermodynamic behaviour, under both project and non-project conditions.

A new polimi study makes the cover of Catalysis Science and Technology

Posted on 29/10/202106/08/2024 by Erik Franco

A new study by Politecnico di Milano into the thermo-catalytic activation of CO₂ is the cover story of the latest edition of the Catalysis Science and Technology journal by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

The article explains the work carried out by Professor Matteo Maestri’s team of the Catalysis and Catalytic Processes Laboratory of the Energy Department.

The document highlights how recycling carbon dioxide by reducing with hydrogen from renewable sources plays an important role in energy transition, to avoid accumulation of CO₂ in the atmosphere and to make it possible to synthesise high-energy-density fuels produced using renewable energy.

Catalysis is fundamental in this process. This review article attempts to fill in the gaps on this question, gathering and rationalising state-of-the-art literature, analysing and suggesting orientation and future challenges regarding the aspects of the catalytic mechanism and multiscale analyses from catalyser to reactor solutions.

This study is part of the ERC-SHAPE and MSCA-Biogas2Syngas projects.

The online study

Eni Award 2020 to Bi-Rex project

Posted on 19/10/202106/08/2024 by Erik Franco

The Eni Award ceremony has taken place at the Palazzo del Quirinale in the presence of the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella, of Eni Chairman Lucia Calvosa and of Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi.

The Award, now in its 13th year, is also known as the “Nobel Prize for Energy” and has become an internationally recognised award for research in the energy and environment sectors. The Scientific Commission, which evaluated the applicants’ research, is made up of scientists belonging to the most advanced research institutes in the world and over the years has seen the participation of six Nobel Laureates.

In association with Joule, Eni’s business school, the company this year created an additional award for teams, university spin-offs and start-ups, with a view to encouraging technology use, enhancement and transfer,while promoting the creation of a sustainable innovation ecosystem.

One of the projects awarded with this important prize is Bi-Rex an early stage start-up (TRL 4) that has developed a green process for biopolymer production. A significant example of female entrepreneurship, it was founded by Monica Ferro and Greta Colombo Dugoni, two researchers from the Politecnico di Milano, and is in the process of industrial development thanks to the support of a business angel. Recognised by Joule at the 2020 “StartCup Lombardia”, it has benefitted since January 2021 from a customised incubation scheme led by Polihub, with the methodological support of Joule.

Bi-Rex, was born in the Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta” from the union of two research projects: study of new green and non-toxic solvents, and study of biopolymers, in particular of cellulose.

Despite being born only a year and a half ago, Bi-Rex led to four patents and the winning of important funding. In fact, after being selected among the winners of the 11th edition of Switch2Product Innovation Challenge, it has won the € 30,000 grant and the acceleration path within Polihub. Furthermore, thanks to the skills acquired, Bi-Rex obtained a pre-seed grant of € 160.000 from Poli360, an investment fund managed by 360 Capital Partners, a leading European venture capital company.

The project is about an innovative and eco-sustainable treatment of different biomass deriving from agri-food processing normally considered and managed as waste, in order to recover high added value products, such as cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, chitin, silica. The project is fully part of the circular economy, also recognized by Legambiente with the special mention in the Innovazione Amica dell’ambiente 2019 Award.

The pre-seed grant will allow to validate the proof of concept by tackling the scale up from the laboratory to the pilot plant. This will allow to study technical feasibility and economic sustainability on an industrial scale.

LIGHT-CAP: sustainable solutions for conversion and storage of solar energy

Posted on 15/10/202106/08/2024 by Erik Franco

Environmental sustainability is today a focal aspect of technological innovation and European research policies. The European Union is ready to achieve the ambitious objective of climate neutrality by 2050, and fundamental to this aim is the promotion of new solutions for energy, from renewable sources, such as solar energy, and with efficient effective energy consumption.

Politecnico di Milano is a partner in the LIGHT-CAP project, and as such it is pursuing the goal of bringing about radical change regarding methodologies used for conversion and storage of solar energy. Still today, these are based primarily on silicone solar panels and bulky batteries, kept separate in two different devices. LIGHT-CAP will introduce a new nanotechnology-based architecture able to combine the two functions of conversion and storage in a single versatile device.

LIGHT-CAP has obtained funding worth 3.18 million euros from the European Union and the consortium, coordinated by the IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, includes EU and non-EU partners with academic and industrial backgrounds, in order to also be able to produce the first prototypes at the end of the project. In Italy in addition to the IIT, it also sees the involvement of Politecnico di Milano and the IIT start-up, Bedimensional, active in the production of nanomaterials and their implementation in devices for energy applications..

The aim of the LIGHT-CAP project is to manufacture a device similar to a battery charged by light; exposed, for example, to sunlight, the device charges like a normal battery plugged into a power outlet. Again like a normal battery, the energy stored can be used to power portable apparatus. To do this today,it takes two devices, a photovoltaic cell and a battery. The project device will be able to do both things.

The mechanism at the base is the separation of positive and negative charges after light irradiation on interfacing between two nanomaterials, one made up of nanoparticles measuring just a few nanometres, the other as fine as one or a few atoms like graphene.

To do this, Politecnico di Milano will use ultrafast continuous spectroscopy techniques (up to a time resolution of just a few femtoseconds) to study the optical properties of manufactured nanomaterials. The fundamental interactions between the different types of nanomaterials in liquid-liquid, liquid-solid, and solid-solid interfaces will also be studied.. The experimental measurements will be corroborated by a variety of theoretical models.

Politecnico di Milano will coordinate the project’s second Work Package, which focuses on the optical characterisation, optoelectronic characterisation and electrical characterisation of the new nanomaterials and new interfaces and heterojunctions.

The researchers will be using eco-compatible, easy-to-source materials (such as many minerals in the earth’s crust), to avoid supply-related criticalities. The project’s innovative ideas were successful in the Horizon 2020 European call for proposals for “Breakthrough zero-emissions energy storage and conversion technologies for climate-neutrality” as part of the “FET Proactive: Emerging Paradigms and Communities” programme.

The LIGHT-CAP comprises: the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italy), the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Switzerland), the Technische Universitaet Dresden (Germany), the Justus-Liebig-Universitaet Giessen (Germany), Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and the Fundacion IMDEA Energia (Spain). The project also benefits from collaboration with a non-EU research group at the ‘Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan, which will provide key competences in the synthesis and application of graphene-based nanomaterials. Further support will also come from the IIT start-up Be-Dimensional and from the company “Thales Research and Technology”.

THE PROJECT TEAM