energy – Pagina 4 – Progress in Research

Financing sustainable building renovations in the service sector with an innovative tool that will accelerate the ecological transition and counteract energy poverty: This is the objective of the European project SER-Social Energy Renovations, which sees the participation of the Italian CGM Finance, Politecnico di Milano, ENEA, and Fratello Sole, a consortium of non-profit entities dedicated to fighting energy poverty. Other partners include the Spanish company GNE Finance, the project leader, Secours Catholique-Caritas France, and the Bulgarian branch of Econoler.

Financed under the Horizon 2020 programme, the project will last three years, in which a de-risking mechanism will be designed and developed to reduce the risk associated with financing and allow access to credit, even for subjects with limited economic capacity. The mechanism will include analysis and technical standardization when defining interventions to make buildings more energy efficient.

The projects will be consolidated and subject to social impact assessment and then financed, allowing investors to access safe, effective investments in line with ESG criteria. It will also allow social companies to carry out green renovations at accessible prices with the necessary technical assistance.

ENEA and Fratello Sole will involve service entities and select buildings used for non-profit activities, intervening with energy-efficient and sustainable restorations. Energy renovation will be carried out by Fratello Sole Energie Solidali – ESCo, a joint venture between Fratello Sole Scarl and Iren Energia.

Within the project, the Politecnico di Milano will identify indicators to assess and analyse the social impact of the financed projects.

The question of evaluating social impact is as current as it is complex, growing from a topic of interest to few people into an integral part of business strategy and an essential issue in finance.

Mario Calderini, professor of social innovation in the Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering Department He adds:

This project aims to improve not only the environmental impact generated by building efficiency interventions, but also the social impact generated by service-sector organizations, which will be able to offer better services due to the benefits of such interventions.

Finally, Secours Catholique-Caritas France, together with the Bulgarian branch of the energy efficiency consultation company Econoler, will explore the possibility of replicating of this tool in other European countries.

Tag: landfill, energy, hydrogen, animal waste, biomass, biogas, sustainable, green, methane, steam, decarbonization
Researcher: Giampaolo Manzolini
Department: DENG – Energy Department

The use of hydrogen as an energy source could reduce both pollution and the production of greenhouse gases. However, most of the hydrogen currently produced comes from natural gas, coal or oil, processing all of which creates carbon dioxide. Biomass, though, is an almost carbon-neutral renewable energy source. The anaerobic digestion process of residual biomass from various sources – animal waste, sewage treatment plants, industrial wastewater and landfills, for example – produces biogas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide. Politecnico di Milano has an important focus on this matter. One of the most promising technologies developed by our researchers comes from the European project BIONICO (BIOgas membrane reformer for deceNtralIzed hydrogen produCtiOn), funded with over 3 million euros under the Horizon 2020 scheme.

The team developed, assembled and is currently testing a pilot plant that converts biogas directly into hydrogen, with a novel reactor concept at its core. The plant is expected to produce 100 kg of hydrogen per day. It will be the first example of a biogas-to-hydrogen plant based on membrane reactor technology installed in a real biogas plant at this scale, with more than 100 membranes in a single fluidised bed membrane reactor. It aims at a hydrogen production efficiency of 70%, 10% over same-size conventional reactors. It works with biogas produced through biodigesters or from municipal waste, fed into the plant together with steam inside the reactor. The reaction is enhanced by a catalyst which circulates in the reactor through the same flow of biogas. Inside the reactor, palladium tubular membranes on ceramic support allow to selectively separate the hydrogen. The high efficiency obtained with the BIONICO reactor is guaranteed from the simultaneous production and separation of hydrogen in a single reactor. The use of a single reactor operating at temperatures limited (550 vs 800 ° C) also allows to simplify the system, with potential cost advantages over traditional systems.

The project shows the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of the solution and define the market potential for the new plant, while proving biogas-produced hydrogen to be a viable sustainable energy source, with potential environmental benefits that can come from using such plants in the long term.

The BIONICO consortium benefits from the cooperation of eight partners from seven different countries across the EU. Each partner has been involved in a different aspect of the mission, such as the design and testing of the reactor together with the main system components. The BIONICO project stems from the knowledge gained in years of research from three previous projects: ReforCELL, FERRET and FluidCELL.

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Tag: energy

SER-Social Energy Renovations

Green deal: a pilot plant for turning biomass into clean hydrogen