Key performance indicators of ‘good practices’ of energy efficiency in industry: application to real cases in Italy and in the European Union

With the publication of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) in 2012, energy savings in the Industry processes have gained more and more importance in the European Union (EU). Industry (with building and transport) is one of the three main sectors where Energy consumption and efficiency play a fundamental role, to accomplish the EU energy objectives. Many countries in EU have already adopted schemes and mechanisms to implement the Directive: however deep differences of approaches still remain among the Member States (MSs), especially with respect to the identification of the real benefits of measures and to the assessment of their efficiency and sustainability. As a consequence, a huge amount of the efficiency potential still remains untapped. This paper proposes some criteria for the evaluation of the applied Energy Efficiency measures, leading to the identification of Good Practices of Energy Efficiency. These criteria are taken from the ‘real world’ of industry, and are susceptible to be replicated in other contexts (e.g. different sectors or other countries). The proposed criteria have been developed in the EU H2020 project EU MERCI (nr 693845) and through a national research (part of the ‘Ricerca di Sistema’ national funding system) both coordinated by RSE. The starting point is the harmonization of data sets related to projects developed in different EU countries within local efficiency implementation schemes. The second step is the definition of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) reflecting the impact of measures against Energy, Environment and Economic aspects. The last step is the extraction of efficiency ‘Good Practices’ ranked according to the identified KPIs and other factors, including social elements. The real added value of this approach is that it is full based on tangibly implemented projects, in opposition to similar attempts, essentially theoretical. Ultimately, it offers a key of assessment of the effectiveness of efficiency measures implementing local and EU policies

ALMA Band 9 upgrade: a feasibility study

We present the results of a study on the feasibility of upgrading the existing ALMA Band 9 receivers (602-720 GHz). In the current configuration, each receiver is a dual channel heterodyne system capable of detecting orthogonally polarized signals through the use of a wire grid and a compact arrangement of mirrors. The main goals of the study are the upgrade of the mixer architecture from Double-Sideband (DSB) to Sideband-separating (2SB), the extension of the IF and RF bandwidth, and the analysis of the possibilities of improving the polarimetric performance. We demonstrate the performance of 2SB mixers both in the lab and on-sky with the SEPIA660 receiver at APEX, which shows image rejection ratios exceeding 20 dB and can perform successful observations of several spectral lines close to the band edges. The same architecture in ALMA Band 9 would lead to an increase in the effective spectral sensitivity and a gain of a factor two in observation time. We set up also an electromagnetic model of the optics to simulate the polarization performance of the receivers, which is currently limited by the cross-polar level and the beam squint, i.e. pointing mismatch between the two polarizations. We present the results of the simulations compared to the measurements and we conclude that the use of a polarizing grid is the main responsible of the limitations.Comment: to appear in Proc. of the mm Universe 2023 conference, Grenoble (France), June 2023, published by F. Mayet et al. (Eds), EPJ Web of conferences, EDP Science

Analytical capability of defocused μ-SORS in the chemical interrogation of thin turbid painted layers

© The Author(s) 2015. A recently developed micrometer-scale spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (m-SORS) method provides a new analytical capability for investigating non-destructively the chemical composition of sub-surface, micrometer-scale thickness, diffusely scattering layers at depths beyond the reach of conventional confocal Raman microscopy. Here, we demonstrate experimentally, for the first time, the capability of μ-SORS to determine whether two detected chemical components originate from two separate layers or whether the two components are mixed together in a single layer. Such information is important in a number of areas, including conservation of cultural heritage objects, and is not available, for highly turbid media, from conventional Raman microscopy, where axial (confocal) scanning is not possible due to an inability to facilitate direct imaging within the highly scattering sample. This application constitutes an additional capability for μ-SORS in addition to its basic capacity to determine the overall chemical make-up of layers in a turbid system

‘Good Practices’ to Improve Energy Efficiency in the Industrial Sector

Since the introduction of the International Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) directive and of the Best Available Techniques Reference (BREF) documents, the best available techniques (BATs) have become a reference both for policies and for companies to compare performance and to identify investment opportunities. Due to the environmental core of the IPPC and the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), energy efficiency (EE) BATs are not always detailed and often lack energy-performance indicators. The H2020 EU-MERCI project is aimed at fostering and facilitating the implementation of EE projects in the manufacturing industry sectors by selecting and disseminating technological and policy best practices. A set of EE ‘Good Practices’ (GPs) was developed considering both BREF indications and literature analysis, and as innovative approach the outcomes of EE obligation and support measures aimed at the industrial sector. This was implemented through an in-depth analysis of the existing schemes in four countries (Austria, Italy, Poland and UK) and a thorough activity to normalise and compare the data made available by the different schemes. The outcome is available through the European Industrial Energy Efficiency good Practices platform implemented by EU-MERCI Partners. On the platform, a database of EE projects implemented in industry under the existing schemes is available. The database is searchable by country, sector, supporting scheme, implementation year and company size. The complete list is also downloadable as Excel file. Besides, a library divided by sectors is available, in which it is possible to look for the available GPs (both BATs and projects implemented under the national schemes) for each phase of the manufacturing processes. Sectoral and national analyses are finally available. This article will illustrate the methodology used for the project and the main outcomes.This work has been funded partially by the Research Fund for Italian Electric System under the Contract Agreement between RSE and the Italian Ministry of Economic Development and partially by the European Commission under Grant Agreement No. 693845 (EU-MERCI project). The authors would like to thank the other project partners, especially AEA, KAPE, Carbon Trust, CRES and FIRE and the colleagues from RSE for the constant support

ALMA Band 9 upgrade: A feasibility study

We present the results of a study on the feasibility of upgrading the existing ALMA Band 9 receivers (602-720 GHz). In the current configuration, each receiver is a dual channel heterodyne system capable of detecting orthogonally polarized signals through the use of a wire grid and a compact arrangement of mirrors. The main goals of the study are the upgrade of the mixer architecture from Double-Sideband (DSB) to Sideband-separating (2SB), the extension of the IF and RF bandwidth, and the analysis of the possibilities of improving the polarimetric performance. We demonstrate the performance of 2SB mixers both in the lab and on-sky with the SEPIA660 receiver at APEX, which shows image rejection ratios exceeding 20 dB and can perform successful observations of several spectral lines close to the band edges. The same architecture in ALMA Band 9 would lead to an increase in the effective spectral sensitivity and a gain of a factor two in observation time. We set up also an electromagnetic model of the optics to simulate the polarization performance of the receivers, which is currently limited by the cross-polar level and the beam squint, i.e. pointing mismatch between the two polarizations. We present the results of the simulations compared to the measurements and we conclude that the use of a polarizing grid is the main responsible of the limitations

Effect of the ingestion in the WRF model of different Sentinel-derived and GNSS-derived products: analysis of the forecasts of a high impact weather event

This paper presents the first experimental results of a study on the ingestion in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, of Sentinel satellites and Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) derived products. The experiments concern a flash-floodevent occurred in Tuscany (Central Italy) in September 2017. The rationale is that numerical weather prediction (NWP) models are presently able to produce forecasts with a km scale  spatial resolution, but the poor knowledge of the initial state of the atmosphere may imply an inaccurate simulation of the weather phenomena. Hence, to fully exploit the advances in numerical weather modelling, it is necessary to feed them with high spatiotemporal resolution information over the surface boundary and the atmospheric column. In this context, the Copernicus Sentinel satellites represent an important source of data, because they can provide a set of high-resolution observations of physical variables (e.g. soil moisture, land/sea surface temperature, wind speed) used in NWP models runs. The possible availability of a spatially dense network of GNSS stations is also exploited to assimilate water vapour content. Results show that the assimilation of Sentinel-1 derived wind field and GNSS-derivedwater vapour data produce the most positive effects on the performance of the forecast

Sustainable but not spontaneous: Co-operatives and the solidarity funds in Italy

This paper aims to highlight the role of solidarity funds in the development and support of national co-operative movements. Those are financial institutions specialized in supporting the start-up and growth of co-operatives. By adopting a case study approach, our analysis shows that solidarity funds emerged globally with similar objectives. Our international comparison focuses on Italy but includes France, the United Kingdom and Québec as a specific Canadian province with a French institutional environment. Despite their crucial importance, there is limited available research on this subject. To this end, our paper has policy implications; we need to consider establishing such institutions in countries where co-operatives are lagging behind as traditional financial institutions are often unable to finance co-operatives because of their property rights regime

Excess path delays from sentinel interferometry to improve weather forecasts

A synthetic aperture radar can offer not only an accurate monitoring of the earth surface deformation, but also information on the troposphere, such as the total path delay or the columnar water vapor at high horizontal resolution. This can be achieved by proper interferometric processing and postprocessing of the radar interferograms. The fine and unprecedented horizontal resolution of the tropospheric products can offer otherwise unattainable information to be assimilated into numerical weather prediction models, which are progressively increasing their resolving capabilities. A number of tricks on the most effective processing approaches, as well as a novel method to pass from multipass differential interferometry products to absolute tropospheric columnar quantities are discussed. The proposed products and methods are assessed using real Sentinel-1 data. The experiment aims at evaluating the accuracy of the derived information and its impact on the weather prediction skill for two meteorological events in Italy. The main perspective of the study is linked to the possibility of exploiting interferometric products from a geosynchronous platform, thus complementing the inherent high resolution of SAR sensors with the required frequent revisit needed for meteorological applications