Increasing energy costs are at the origin of the great progress in the field of phase change materials (PCMs). The present work aims at studying the application of clathrate hydrates as PCMs in buildings. Clathrate hydrates are crystalline structures in which guest molecules are enclosed in the...

Many technological solutions have been proposed for CO₂ capture in the last few years. Most of them are characterized by high costs in terms of energy consumption and, consequently, higher fossil fuel use and higher economic costs. High temperature fuel cells are technological solutions...

The optimization of optical properties of buildings’ envelope and urban paving represents an important research field for reducing the urban heat island effect. The overheating of a surface exposed to sunlight can be reduced by improving solar reflectance. In this sense, several studies have...

Solar reflectance of buildings’ envelope and urban paving represents an important optic-energetic property for the characterization of building energy performance for cooling and to reduce the urban heat island effect. Together with the emissivity, it represents the main feature contributing...

Gas hydrates have a large capacity for the storage of gases and are an attractive method for gas filtration and transportation. However, hydrate formation is usually controlled by the rate of crystallization and thus it can be a slow process. A technology that will rapidly and continuously form...

Recent research developments focused on Climate Change issue aimed at achieving Kyoto targets. In this context, an innovative methodology (officially recognized by WEC in 2009) is proposed to mitigate Global Warming by artificially enhancing earth’s Albedo. Such a methodology allows to...

This paper deals with an experimental investigation to improve the hydrogen production by water photoelectrolysis. An experimental facility was built: it is mainly constituted by a solar simulator, the photoelectrolytic cell, the electric power supply system and a recirculating and gas sampling...

An interesting application of agricultural renewable sources is the use of ethanol for supplying molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs). However, ethanol has to be converted into hydrogen by a steam-reforming process. MCFCs are suitable for these applications due to their tolerability to the...

Biodiesel is obtained by the process of transesterification of vegetable oils and animal fats and crude glycerol is the main by-product of the biodiesel manufacturing chain. As a result glycerol production has rapidly increased in the last decades. This work focuses on the development and the...

Cool roofs represent an acknowledged passive cooling technique to reduce building energy consumption for cooling and to mitigate urban heat island effects. This paper concerns the evaluation of the dynamic effect of new cool roof clay tiles on building thermal performance in summer and winter...