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To assess the sustainability of waste management scenario with energy recovery, it is necessary to carry out an adequate analysis of all influential criteria. The main problem in the analysis is to determine the indicators that clearly and fully sublimate the most important influential factors. The model for the assessment of the sustainability of waste treatment scenarios based on multi-criteria analysis AHP (analytic hierarchy process) method is developed. The model predicts an increase in the number of indicators, if it found that a selected number of indicators are not sufficient to distinguish between scenarios and new criterion for the selection of indicators: the relevance of the indicator for certain waste treatment. The model is verified in the case study the city of Nis. Four scenarios were selected and examined: business as usual scenario (landfilling of waste) and the other are created as scenarios with energy recovery and recourses preserving: composting organic waste with recycling inorganic waste, incineration of waste and anaerobic digestion of waste. The assessment of the sustainability of waste treatment scenarios was made in several steps. It is found that the best sustainable scenario is composting of organic and recycling of inorganic waste.

Environment preservation, energy, and the growing economy are becoming strongly interconnected themes requiring new solutions to be exploited. An example of this interconnection is the demand for the development of almost zero-energy buildings, i.e. buildings capable to be almost autonomous from external energy supply or at least not dependent on the energy supply from utilities. The actual conception of a zero energy building is a very complex system formed by several subsystems, with the consequence that costs are very high and reliability relatively low. The aim of this research program is to deepen the possibility to employ the Stirling engine and cooler technology to lower the number of components required in a near zero-energy building, increase the efficiency, and contemporary raise the reliability of the overall system. Stirling cooler could be used to convert mechanical work into heating and cooling effects and produce the temperature difference by the expanding and compressing the working fluid. A similar concept of the Stirling cooler could also be adopted to develop a heat pump. Compared to the traditional vaporcompression refrigeration systems, the Stirling coolers are of higher efficiency and with no components like compressor, expansion valve, evaporator, or condensers. Therefore, they are considered to be clean cooling devices. On the other hand, the Stirling engine is an external combustion engine, which is compatible with a variety of thermal sources, such as solar radiation, waste heat, geothermal energy, combustion, and so on. With the heat input to the hot end of the engine, the Stirling engine could be operated to produce mechanical work/electricity at high thermal efficiency. In principle, the Stirling machines are capable to provide all the forms of energy (heat, cool, and electricity) that form the almost total energy load of a building.

The growing threats of global warming and climate change are two of the main concerns of world society. The culprits are greenhouse gas emissions, which mainly result from the combustion of fossil fuels (i.e. the consumption and production of energy from oil, coal and natural gas), a well-known issue at the centre of many climate change debates. The European Parliament has endorsed the EU target of zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 [1]. It is therefore essential to provide for sustainable energy development strategies such as biomass. The valorization of biomass makes it possible to alleviate environmental problems. we are able to obtain energy from what was, until recently, considered to be waste. this article assesses the contribution that chestnut skin biomass makes, in energy, environmental and economic terms, to the production process of the company Monsurgel Lda. The results show that the chestnut skin can contribute to an energy saving with a good investment payback time and also an environment contribution with the CO2 reduction. Proceedings of the 29th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 26-29 April 2021, Online, pp. 515-521

This study explores the role of digital and smart technologies in cultural heritage organizations, particularly museums, in promoting sustainability and social inclusion. The rapid advancement of digital tools and smart technologies, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has shown their potential to overcome barriers and support the ambitious goals of the UN Agenda 2030. However, the widespread adoption and integration of these technologies present complex challenges for managers and policymakers. In the context of Italian museums, the use of innovative technologies for sustainability and social inclusion is still in its early stages and underutilized. Through a literature review and multiple case study analysis, this research examines the adoption of digital tools and smart technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, in leading Italian museums. The findings offer valuable insights to guide future research in this area.

Regional and local decision-makers still require relevant information and training in order to establish long-term strategies and to contribute to national and supranational energy and climate targets. As an example, a widespread participation of local authorities to comply with the Italian long-term building renovation strategy has not occurred so far. Thus, the overall target, annual 1% floor area of new or deeply renovated buildings to the nearly zero-energy building (nZEB) standard by 2020 (PanZEB 2015), proves to have been disregarded to date. Evidence-based, data-enabled assessment of the building stock and of its relationship with the energy system as a whole at a capillary level is crucial to this extent. In Italy, various building databases are already being used with the ultimate purpose of EPBD implementation and to track and record incentives for public and private building renovation. These datasets have an untapped potential for local energy planning that could be released from wider integration, also including energy consumption data and smart-metering data. Moreover, the regulatory landscape is changing toward an interaction of the building with the user, the energy grid and other buildings in a dynamic and functional way. Within this context, the paper will investigate how integrated data could unlock the value of a more evidence-based planning starting from the DIPENDE integrated dataset, a REQUEST2ACTION (IEE 2014–2017) pilot project combining data from energy performance certificates (EPCs) with bottom-up information on building renovation, and other data in order to support decision making at different territorial scales.

The non-Antarctic Notothenioidei families, Bovichtidae, Pseudaphritidae and Eleginopsidae, diverged early from the main notothenioid lineage. They are important in clarifying the early evolutionary processes that triggered notothenioid evolution in the Antarctic. The early-diverged group represents 8% of all notothenioid species and never established themselves on the Antarctic shelf. Most attention has been paid to the Antarctic notothenioids and their limited physiological tolerance to climate change and increased temperatures. In this review, we discuss key life history traits that are characteristic of the non-Antarctic early-diverged notothenioid taxa as well as the genetic resources and population differentiation information available for this group. We emphasise the population fitness and dynamics of these species and indicate how resource management and conservation of the group can be strengthened through an integrative approach. Both Antarctic waters and the non-Antarctic regions face rapid temperature rises combined with strong anthropogenic exploitation. While it is expected that early-diverged notothenioid species may have physiological advantages over high Antarctic species, it is difficult to predict how climate changes might alter the geographic range, behaviour, phenology and ultimately genetic variability of these species. It is possible, however, that their high degree of endemism and dependence on local environmental specificities to complete their life cycles might enhance their vulnerability.

This paper addresses the current knowledge on climate change impacts on mass movement activity in mountain environments by illustrating characteristic cases of debris flows, rock slope failures and landslides from the French, Italian, and Swiss Alps. It is expected that events are likely to occur less frequently during summer, whereas the anticipated increase of rainfall in spring and fall could likely alter debris-flow activity during the shoulder seasons (March, April, November, and December). The magnitude of debris flows could become larger due to larger amounts of sediment delivered to the channels and as a result of the predicted increase in heavy precipitation events. At the same time, however, debris-flow volumes in high-mountain areas will depend chiefly on the stability and/or movement rates of permafrost bodies, and destabilized rock glaciers could lead to debris flows without historic precedents in the future. The frequency of rock slope failures is likely to increase, as excessively warm air temperatures, glacier shrinkage, as well as permafrost warming and thawing will affect and reduce rock slope stability in the direction that adversely affects rock slope stability. Changes in landslide activity in the French and Western Italian Alps will likely depend on differences in elevation. Above 1500 m asl, the projected decrease in snow season duration in future winters and springs will likely affect the frequency, number and seasonality of landslide reactivations. In Piemonte, for instance, 21st century landslides have been demonstrated to occur more frequently in early spring and to be triggered by moderate rainfalls, but also to occur in smaller numbers. On the contrary, and in line with recent observations, events in autumn, characterized by a large spatial density of landslide occurrences might become more scarce in the Piemonte region.

Abstract While small and medium size biomass combined heat and power (CHP) plants (i.e., up to 5 MW of electrical rated power) represent an attractive option to exploit locally available biomass resources at low cost, the corresponding investment per unit of rated power significantly rises when the installed power decreases. In these cases, secondary pollutant emissions control measures are most of the time not economically viable and primary emissions control must be used alone to avoid the formation of undesired compounds such as NO x and SO x . Primary control measures require the careful optimization of fuel quality and combustion process. For plant operators, being able to accommodate biomass quality changes in order to minimize the fuel cost can be of great importance in order to guarantee the profitability of the plant. This contribution is dedicated to the development of a zero-dimensional (input–output) combustion simulation model able to predict the pollutants emissions resulting from complete and incomplete combustion with respect to varying combustion operation (ambient temperature, humidity, fumes recirculation, …). This tool is intended to be integrated in a global simulation model of the CHP plant and the attached district heating network installed on the University campus in Liege. Doing so, the plant operation can be optimized with respect to economic as well as environmental and energetic aspects (3E approach) thus ensuring the sustainability of the approach.