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The study tested the use of a trommel screen originally designed for compost materials to reject oversize particles from hog fuel, processed from several sources and by two different comminution devices. The experiment consisted in screening material previously comminuted by a convertible crusher, designed to use both hammers and knives. Three different feedstock types were used, and namely: discarded pallets, logs and branches from park maintenance. Each feedstock type came in two different qualities, depending on the tool used for comminution, i.e. hammers or knives. Trommel screen productivity varied between 4.2 t h-1, and 5.2 t h-1 of oven dry material. Screening hog fuel derived from pallets was 30% and 40% less productive than screening fuel derived from logs and branches, respectively. Screening cost varied from 16.2 EUR t-1 dry material in the case of branches, to 19.9 EUR t-1 oven dry material for pallets. Screening allowed an increase of fuel quality only when applied to pallet-derived hog fuel.

La transizione energetica e lo sviluppo sempre più capillare delle energie da fonti rinnovabili stanno suscitando un interesse sempre più crescente, favorendo la nascita di comunità per la produzione di energia e l'autoconsumo collettivo, al fine di ridurre drasticamente le emissioni e poter così raggiungere definitivamente l'obiettivo di decarbonizzazione prefissato per il 2050 dall'Unione Europea. Nel nostro Paese, le comunità energetiche potranno diventare il volano per le energie da fonti rinnovabili, permettendo ai cittadini di partecipare alla generazione, alla distribuzione, alla fornitura, al consumo, all'aggregazione ed allo stoccaggio dell'energia. Proprio attraverso una maggiore consapevolezza del fenomeno che si sta sviluppando, i cittadini possono associarsi ed effettuare scelte comuni per produrre localmente l'energia elettrica necessaria al proprio fabbisogno, anche condividendola, avendo così accesso a servizi di efficienza energetica. Queste nuove forme di mobilitazione collettiva, già note nei movimenti comunitari legati alla filiera alimentare, cominciano a diventare sempre più presenti nella costituzione delle comunità energetiche, con il fine ultimo, non solo di ridurre l'uso di fonti fossili ed emissioni, in favore di un sistema energetico basato sull'impiego di risorse energetiche rinnovabili, ma anche di poter produrre innovazione sociale in termini di empowerment delle persone, inclusività ed impatto di lunga durata, incoraggiando il cambiamento di pratiche sociali e valori collettivi; il mutamento tecnologico, quanto quello sociale, può essere soddisfatto solo da un forte coinvolgimento degli attori sociali.

Great efforts have been paid to improve engine efficiency as well as to reduce the pollutant emissions. The direct injection allows to improve the engine efficiency; on the other hand, the GDI combustion produces larger particle emissions. The properties of fuels play an important role both on engine performance and pollutant emissions. In particular, great attention was paid to the octane number. Oxygenated compounds allow increasing gasoline's octane number and play an important role in PM emission reduction. In this study was analyzed the effect of fuels with different RON and with ethanol and ethers content. The analysis was performed on a small GDI engine. Two operating conditions, representative of the typical EUDC cycle, were investigated. Both the engine performance and the exhaust emissions were evaluated. The gaseous emissions and particle concentration were measured at the exhaust by means of conventional instruments. Particle size distribution function was measured in the range from 5.6 nm to 560 nm by means of an Engine Exhaust Particle Sizer (EEPS). The results point out that the better result in terms of performance and emission reduction was observed for the high RON fuel. The fuels with ethanol as additive show a large fuel consumption and a not valuable effect on exhaust emissions

The BELIEF Project is a Coordination Action funded by the European Commission in the context of the FP6 and FP7 Programmes. It aims to create a platform where e-Infrastructures providers and users can collaborate and exchange knowledge, ensuring that e-Infrastructures are developed and effectively used worldwide, filling the gap separating the e-Infrastructures providers from the users, and thus contribute to the emergence of a competitive knowledge-based economy. To create this synergy among multi-disciplinary communities, BELIEF created a one-stop-shop providing a Portal and a Digital Library with a huge number of e-Infrastructures open access publications. The Digital Library offers uniform access to multimedia documentation providing continuously updated information on e-Infrastructures-related projects, initiatives and events. The contents are harvested from different sources, such as projects web sites, repositories and databases. The DL - implemented on top of the OpenDLib Digital Library Management System - provides services to support the submission, description, searching, browsing, retrieval, access, preservation and visualization of multimedia documents. Although designed to meet the needs of the e-Infrastructures community, the technology adopted by BELIEF can be easily adapted to meet the information and collaborative needs of other scientific communities.

The Mild Combustion is a relatively novel combustion technique characterized by both an elevated temperature of reactants and an adiabatic flame temperature not higher than l600K, These features arc the results of several technological demands coming form different application fields. The main advantages derived by Mild Combustion concern both the combustion process itself and its applications. In the former case the pollution reduction. the increase of efficiency process and fuel flexibility has to be considered whereas the latter one is principally related to heat treatment process and wall confinement. In this paper, characteristics of Mild Combustion arc discussed with particular regards towards the aspects of plant design. A general classification of the processes, where initial and adiabatic tempera- turc values are different from characteristic ones of classical combustion system, is given. This clas- sification leads to a definition of Mild Combustion process as a direct consequence of technological evolution and practical constrains. especially related ro environmental problems. In this sense. the high temperature of reactants and the 10\\' adiabatic temperature, principally obtained using exhausts for both heal recovery and dilution. can not be considered independently. Application of Mild Com- bustion in practical systems infers the use of particular solutions because of high temperature of rcac- tarns involved. In the final part of the paper. specific solutions utilized in a laboratory mild combustor are presented.

It is recognised that several constraints such as the lack of knowledge and expertise of farmers, land users and policy makers concerning agroforestry systems establishment and management hamper the adoption of agroforestry systems (Camilli et al. 2017). AFINET project acts at EU level in order to direct research results into practice and promote innovative ideas to face challenges and solve practitioners' problems. AFINET proposes an innovative methodology based on the creation of a European Interregional Network, linking different Regional Agroforestry Innovation Networks (RAINs). RAINs represent different climatic, geographical, social and cultural conditions and enclose a balanced representation of the key actors with complementary types of expertise (farmers, policy makers, advisory services, extension services, etc.). The Italian RAIN is focused on the Extra-Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) value chain, with the main aim to promote agroforestry management of local olive orchards. Olive trees are still managed traditionally, often in marginal sites, with minimal mechanization and relatively low external inputs such as chemical treatments in comparison to other crops. The presence of permanent crops (olive trees) guarantees a partially tree cover reducing hydrogeological risk. Soil management usually keeps natural grassing reducing soil carbon emission and increasing soil fertility (Bateni et al. 2017). Intercropping with cereals and/or fodder legumes and livestock can also be practiced in olive orchards, increasing the complexity of the olive tree multifunctional system. Moreover, olive orchards can be managed as agroforestry systems since they can be intercropped with arable crops (cereals, legumes) and/or combined with livestock (sheep, poultry). The RAIN process, involving local stakeholders, highlighted the main bottlenecks of the EVOO value chain related to communication and dissemination of knowledge, technical and management aspects, market and policy. In order to contrast bottlenecks and exploit opportunities of the olive oil supply chain, the identified innovations are: i) adoption of best practices: testing and experimenting innovative agroforestry systems introducing different crop/animals species and varieties; ii) improve the management of the olive orchards: encouraging and increasing the organic production; iii) valorisation of olive processing residues: identifying and testing innovative products (bio-materials, olive paste as example); iv) arise the awareness among consumers: educating people about the benefits of olive oil consumption, creating networks among stakeholders, improving marketing and commercialization. Creating a Bio-district, defined as a geographical area where farmers, citizens, tourist operators, associations and public authorities enter into an agreement for the sustainable management of local resources, emerged a powerful tool to implement the innovation in the local EVOO value chain.

Gamma-valerolactone is a valuable chemical that can be obtained by catalytic methods from nonedible vegetable biomass. However, the demand is felt for more environmentally friendly and cost-effective production processes. The topic is reviewed in this paper from the perspective of catalyst design. Focus is on those systems enabling one-pot reaction sequences in the liquid phase at low energy expenses and combining metal and acid sites, spanning, from homogeneous to heterogeneous catalysts. A final section is dedicated to continuous flow applications. The 230 references cover the most significant. achievements published in the literature from January 2011 to July 2014 and highlight critical issues and future trends.

This paper reports 1D and 3D CFD analyses aiming to improve the gas-dynamic noise emission of a downsized turbocharged VVA engine through the re-design of the intake air-box device, consisting in the introduction of external or internal resonators. Nowadays, modern spark-ignition (SI) engines show more and more complex architectures that, while improving the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), may be responsible for the increased noise radiation at the engine intake mouth. In particular VVA systems allow for the actuation of advanced valve strategies that provide a reduction in the BSFC at part load operations thanks to the intake line de-throttling. In these conditions, due to a less effective attenuation of the pressure waves that travel along the intake system, VVA engines produce higher gas-dynamic noise levels. The worsening of the engine gas-dynamic performance can be compensated with a partial re-design of the air-box device, without significantly penalizing the engine power output. In order to find new design configurations of the air-box device capable of improving the noise levels, different numerical models can be successfully employed. In the present work, a detailed 1D engine model is firstly developed and validated against the experimental data at full load operations. 1D model is realized within GT-Power(TM) software and it utilizes proper user routines for the modeling of the turbulence and combustion process and for the handling of different intake valve strategies. The 1D engine model also includes a refined user model of the turbocharger able to better describe the acoustic behavior of the device. The engine model allows for the prediction of the main overall engine performances and the gas-dynamic noise with good accuracy. It also provides a first estimation of the gas-dynamic noise and gives reliable boundary conditions for the subsequent unsteady 3D CFD analyses, allowing to obtain a more accurate noise prediction. A proper Helmholtz resonator is designed and virtually installed along the inlet pipe of the air-box device. An additional geometrical configuration of the air-filter box, that includes an internal resonator, obtained through the insertion of inner walls, is considered, too. The effectiveness of the redesigned air-box configurations, are firstly tested in terms of Transmission Loss characteristics, and in terms of gasdynamic noise abatement, as well.

Multi-fuel operation is one of the main topics of investigative research in the field of internal combustion engines. Spark ignition (SI) power units are relatively easily adaptable to alternative liquid-as well as gaseous-fuels, with mixture preparation being the main modification required. Numerical simulations are used on an ever wider scale in engine research in order to reduce costs associated with experimental investigations. In this sense, quasi-dimensional models provide acceptable accuracy with reduced computational efforts. Within this context, the present study puts under scrutiny the assumption of spherical flame propagation and how calibration of a two-zone combustion simulation is affected when changing fuel type. A quasi-dimensional model was calibrated based on measured in-cylinder pressure, and numerical results related to the two-zone volumes were compared to recorded flame imaging. Gasoline, ethanol, methane and hydrogen were used as fuels and the aforementioned comparison was performed for each case. In order to identify the influence of specific properties, intake pressure, air-fuel ratio and spark timing were kept constant for al fuel types. Overall the spherical flame assumption was found to ensure acceptable results and the correlation between turbulence intensity and flame propagation emphasized the importance of proper description of localized scales at which chemical reactions occur behind the flame front.