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The main challenge for concrete industry - and in general for construction materials - is to serve the two major needs of human society, the protection of the environment, on one hand, and the requirements of buildings and infrastructures by the world?s growing population, on the other. In the past concrete industry has satisfied these needs well. However, for a variety of reasons, the situation has changed dramatically in the last years. First of all, the concrete industry is the largest consumer of natural resources. Secondly, Portland cement, the binder of modern concrete mixtures, is not as environmentally friendly. The world's cement production, in fact, contributes to the earth's atmosphere about 7% of the total CO2 emissions, CO2 being one of the primary greenhouse gas (GHG) responsible for global warming and climate change. As a consequence, concrete industry in the future has to face two antithetically needs. In other words, how the concrete industry can feed the growing population needs being - at the same time - sustainable? The answer to this question is represented by the ?3R-Green Strategy? widely discussed in the first chapter of this PhD thesis: Reduction in consumption of gross energy for construction materials production, Reduction in polluting emissions and Reduction in consuming not renewable natural resources. In particular, this thesis is focused on the alternative binders to Portland cement such as alkali-activated slag cements and calcium sulphoaluminate cement-based binders in order to manufacture sustainable mixtures for special applications such as repair mortars, lightweight reinforced plasters and concretes for slabs on ground. The experimental results show the feasibility of manufacturing both EN 1504-3 R3 class mortars and Portland-free concretes for jointless slabs on ground with calcium sulphoaluminate cement, supplementary cementitious materials (fly ash, ground granulated blast furnace slag) and hydrated lime instead of Portland cement. Moreover, alkali-activated mortars and concretes seem to be a reasonable alternative to natural hydraulic lime-based and/or traditional Portland cement-based mixtures for rehabilitation or restoration of ancient masonry buildings and existing concretes structures. Finally, a new sustainability index was developed taking into account the environmental impact, the performances and the durability of mixtures. In particular, in the environmental impact section, the natural raw materials consumption, the greenhouse gas emissions and the energy consumption have been considered. Furthermore, depending on the applications and the environments, design parameters and properties related to durability have been assigned to each mixture. less

The positioning of PV panels for maximum energy extraction is a well-known problem. This problem is particularly important within an islanded microgrid system since the change of the PV panel positioning directly influenced the remaining microgrid system components. This problem can also be coupled with the microgrid sizing problem. Different optimization approaches exist in the literature. In this paper, we investigate the effect of different optimization approaches in a microgrid system in the case when a simple battery degradation model is used. It was shown that the battery degradation model significantly influences the optimal parameters of the system and investment cost savings up to 4.3% can be achieved, compared to the selection of convectional optimum PV positioning values.

In this work, detailed photoelectrochemical characterization (LSV, MS, EIS, and OCP) of the TiO2-SnS2/GO-RGO composite was conducted. Materials with different wt% of SnS2 (5-40%) and GO-RGO wt% up to 0, 1% were solvothermal synthesized, characterized, and submitted for photocatalytic H2 generation. Results have shown that composition between TiO2 and SnS2 reduces charge recombination up to 10 wt% of SnS2. Materials with lower recombination rate were then combined with GO-RGO, whose incorporation in the composites with 5 wt% of SnS2 reduces charge recombination, while GO-RGO incorporation in the composites with 10 wt% does not significantly affect on charge recombination rate. Obtained results are a key factor for the selection of suitable materials for further photocatalytic H2 generation.

The present work is aimed at the scale up of CrioPurA, a chelating material that is used in water treatment for the removal of toxic metals such as chromium, boron, and arsenic, with higher efficiencies than current competitors. The advancement of the TRL (Technology Readiness Level) of the proof-of-concept material to levels 5-6 concerns the study of environmental sustainability in relation to the economy of production, and the possible alternative methods of use. The scaling up was carried out on the synthesis of 4-vinyl-benzyl chloride with N-methyl-D-glucamine, a reaction that leads to the formation of the monomer 4-vinyl-benzyl-N-methyl-D-glucamine (VbNMDG). The synthesis of the monomer, used for the cryo-polymerization of the filtering material, has been modified to allow greater environmental sustainability and cost-effectiveness of the process. Specifically, methanol, used as a solvent for monomer synthesis, was recycled with a 10% loss. Furthermore, on a laboratory scale1,2, the purification of the monomer takes place by crystallization from CHCl3. During the scale-up, this step was advantageously eliminated. The subsequent polymerization process was therefore reviewed in terms of stoichiometric ratios of the reactants, to achieve reaction yields and chemical-physical properties like those tested for the proof of concept 1, 2. The scale-up process was carried out gradually, going through three intermediate steps, up to 1 kg of production, obtaining an 80% yield. Finally, CrioPurA was tested in a demonstrator purposely made to allow flow tests up to a flow rate of 300 liters/hour by varying the load of polluted water. The product obtained by applying the new protocol was also analyzed at different pH values, comparing the data obtained with those of the main competitors on the market. The advancement of the TRL of the CrioPurA material has allowed the design of alternative and more sustainable synthetic roads both in economic and environmental terms. The material has been successfully tested both in batch and flow, at different pH values and using polluting loads of organic nature.

Presentation of the ClimateScan work package to the participants of ClimateCafe in Groningen for the IMPETUS project

Statoil's history since 2001 has been turbulent and transformative. The company's partial privatization in 2001 attuned its management more to investors than to the state. An unprecedented rise in oil prices between 2004 and 2014 and the merger with Norsk Hydro's oil and gas division in 2007 buoyed the company's rapid internationalization, transforming it from a Norwegian company into a global one. And the impending climate crisis forced the company to consider a world without oil and gas, transforming it into an energy company under a new name, Equinor.Navigating these turbulent global events, Statoil met with success and failure. Major strategic shifts into unconventional oil and gas and offshore wind proved particularly vexing, exposing a recurring tension in Statoil's governance between public expectations and capital market demands. On the one hand, Statoil's management felt the pressure from investors to become a global oil and gas company. On the other, management had to navigate public demands to become a greener company. Out of that conundrum emerged Equinor as a somewhat more global and greener company than Statoil was in 2001 but still with deep roots in Norway and in oil and gas.