Layered dry envelope insulated with sheep wool-lime mix

This poster describes the results of a research aimed to design and assess a new layered envelope component that might be implemented on buildings of the Mediterranean area, in order to improve the energy efficiency and the environmental sustainability. These goals have been achieved by means of the use of local and natural building materials or arising from renewable resources. In particular, thermal insulating has been realize utilizing a mix of natural and mineral materials, obtaining a biocomposite with comparable building physics and mechanical properties to commonly used building materials. Among natural materials, the sheep wool was chosen since it is, on the hand, a waste to exploit and, on the other hand, it has a good behavior towards heat, moisture and indoor air pollution. Several sample have been realized mixing sheep wool, at different granulometry, with lime in different weight percentages. For each sample, thermal tests have been performed by means of a heat flow meter. The U value, Yie, mass and time lag have been evaluated for the whole designed system according to the Italian standards. In order to compare the environmental impact of the designed system with a similar commercial product, a Life Cycle Assessment has been carried out. Finally, thermal performance of the envelope system was evaluated by simulating its use in the retrofit of the old structure of a factory both in wall and in floor elements. The results was good in terms of energy balances of the building, while LCA results are contradictory, being one of the main issue the lack of data for local materials not directly investigated by authors

Synthetic environmental appraisal of waste management system: an application to the Sicilian region

This paper addresses the problem of synthetically evaluating the environmental performances of urban solid waste systems. This, in fact, represents a crucial point in the management process of complex systems that local administrations are called to cope with, in order to provide decisions about policy options that involve different issues characterising the quality of life of people. Suitable methods of evaluation are clearly required for this aim. This work introduces the dashboard of sustainability and the ecological footprint approaches as aggregate indicators of the performances of solid waste management systems. The methods have been selected due to their intrinsic simplicities, provided that the required data are available, although the first one can be defined as a political tool, while the second one can be defined as a technical tool. An application of both methods to the situation of Sicily is proposed here

Towards the energy optimization and decarbonization of urban settings: proposal of a strategy at Neighbourhood Level to Foster Nearly Zero and Positive Energy Districts

Optimizing energy management in urban contexts has been one of the biggest challenges of the last decades for both the scientific community and international governments to pursue carbon neutrality, enhance energy security and promote energy equity and accessibility. In this regard, particular emphasis has been given by the EU and its member States on improving the energy performance of built environments by reducing building energy consumption (implementing adequate retrofit interventions) and fostering the integration of renewable energy sources (RES) to achieve the conditions of Nearly Zero and Positive Energy Districts. To this aim, the most recent energy-environmental initiatives promote as an effective solution the joining of energy users into groups/units (e.g., Energy Communities, consortia, etc.) which usually include buildings located in portions of territory, i.e. districts that share and collaborate in the management of energy supply and consumption. The case study presented in this paper intends to provide a contribution to this matter by using a modeling/simulation-based approach involving the evaluation of different scenarios of energy efficiency measures, i.e. building envelope retrofit interventions, RES integration and their combination, in a historic existing neighborhood. The analysis aims at identifying which are the most effective strategies to implement at district level in a typical Southern Italy building context

Towards Nearly Zero Energy and Environmentally Sustainable Agritourisms: The Eectiveness of the Application of the European Ecolabel Brand

Tourism represents an important economic driver in Italy, being responsible for approximately 13.2% of the total GDP (a value higher than the reference European average) and for nearly 10% of the regional GDP. Among the touristic sectors, the agritourist ones show a persistent growth, experiencing in 2019 a 6.7 point percentage improvement compared to the 2017 figures. Given this situation, the transition towards a low-carbon path, aecting the building sector for some time, should also involve agritourist buildings, through the release of EU directives, member state laws, and technical rules. On the other hand, agritourism sites could be awarded the Community EU Ecolabel. Unfortunately, awarding theEUenvironmental excellence brand implies the availability of several data on building energy behavior that should then be managed by complex evaluation tools. To overcome this issue, the use of the simplified ARERA (Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy Networks and Environment) technical datasheets, issued to assess environmental improvements consequent to energy eciency interventions in the urban residential building stock, is proposed. The application of this tool totally avoids using building computer-based simulation models, thus facilitating the preparation of the EU Ecolabel request documentation by agritourism owners. Being awarded the Community EU Ecolabel also implies approaching a net zero energy condition because of a lower energy consumption and a minor recourse to fossil fuels. For this purpose, an application of an easy graphical method, previously developed for residential and commercial buildings, which visually represents improvements achievable by a given agritourism when implementing energy eciency measures, is presented

Foster Carbon-Neutrality in the Built Environment: A Blockchain-Based Approach for the Energy Interaction Among Buildings

Decarbonizing urban environments and reducing their energy consumption is one of modern society biggest commitments. In this regard, both the scientific community and international governments have been giving special consideration on improving the energy-environmental performance of mostly single buildings; recently the focus has been shifting towards a broader Positive Energy District (PED)/ Energy Community (EC) vision, from small clustered group of buildings to neighborhoods up until urban settlements. In this respect, integrating the use of renewable energy resources (RES) and actively involving building users can have a significant environmental impact on local areas. Within this framework, this work discusses the possibility of employing an innovative blockchain-based approach for the energy interaction among buildings. The blockchain technology can, in fact, be useful in managing such scenarios since it would allow to, not only consider buildings occupants behaviors, but also take into account concernings regarding the need for transparency, engagement, environmental and human health benefits, as well as the stakeholders role in the interaction/integration between PEDs/ECs and local/national electricity systems

Comparison Between Conventional and Vegetated Roof by Means of a Dynamic Simulation

Abstract In this paper, a dynamic simulation of a building located in the Campus University of Palermo, Italy, has been carried out. We considered two different scenarios; in the first one, the building as it is, with a conventional covering, while in the second one the roof was equipped with a green roof. The results of the two simulations have been compared, suggesting that such building component could contribute to the energy savings of the building. However, it has to be considered as part of other possible actions devoted to improve the energy efficiency of the whole building

The Landfilling of Municipal Solid Waste and the Sustainability of the Related Transportation Activities

The management of municipal solid waste is a crucial issue to address as we move toward the decarbonization of urban contexts. Not by chance, this sector plays a relevant role in the Covenant of Mayors program, whereby municipalities are called to design their own Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SECAPs). However, despite new regulations strongly pushing the recycling and reuse of materials contained in municipal waste, many cities still use large landfills. As part of the overall environmental pressure exerted by these urban systems, the transport of waste from collection points to landfills or treatment facilities must be considered in order to correctly assess the full environmental burden of waste management. To this aim, in this paper, the Ecological Footprint method is applied to the municipal solid waste management system of the city of Palermo (Sicily). The results show that the impacts produced by the means of transport used, both in the status quo and in the assumed enhanced scenario (with less municipal waste disposed to landfills in favor of recycling), are significant compared to those caused by the other segments of the waste management system. The concept of a “saved footprint” is also introduced here, in order to properly compare the two scenarios

Off-Line Methods for Determining Air Quality in Museums

This paper will examine three methodologies deployed in off-line research relating to air quality in museums. These methodologies made use of sensors based on the different chemical-physicalproperties of various materials (corrosiveness, hardness and absorption). Various field applications were applied to case studies, which were performed in two museums in Palermo, Italy: the Regional Gallery of Palazzo Abatellis and the Diocesan Museum. This review of methodologies and sensors examines which protocol should be put into practice in museums in monitoring the air quality of display spaces and the conservation of cultural artefacts

Environmental assessment of a new building envelope material derived from urban agriculture wastes: the case of the tomato plants stems

Purpose: Decarbonizing cities is one of today’s biggest challenges. In this regard, particular attention has been paid on improving the environmental performance of buildings. In this framework, this work consists in assessing the environmental impact of an innovative building envelope component derived from urban agriculture (UA) wastes. In fact, rooftop UA seems to be a possible solution to the rising food demand due to increasing urban demographic growth. Consequently, rooftop UA wastes need to be treated in sustainable ways. Methods: This study aims to determine the carbon footprint and embodied energy of a new infill wall material, derived from UA wastes produced by a building rooftop greenhouse tomato crop, and evaluate the potential biogenic carbon that such by-product could fix temporally until its end of life. After an initial description of the manufacturing process of the new material, its carbon footprint and embodied energy have been calculated by means of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology according to the ISO 14044 and the ISO 14067 guidelines adapted to the analyzed context. In particular, the inventory analysis is based on data collected from the production of samples of the new material at the laboratory scale. Results and discussion: The results of the LCA indicate that, when the biogenic carbon fixed in the UA wastes is considered, a negative carbon footprint of − 0.2 kg CO2 eq. per kg of material can be obtained. Hence, it can be assumed that from a life cycle perspective the material is able to fix carbon emissions instead of emitting them. Specifically, for the considered scenario, approximately 0.42 kg CO2 eq./m2 per year could be sequestered. However, the crop area required to produce enough waste to manufacture a unit of material is quite high. Therefore, future studies should focus on individuate solutions to reduce the density of the new component, and also different urban crops with higher waste production rates. Conclusions The outcomes of the study put in evidence the potential of the new proposed infill wall component in fixing carbon emissions from UA, allowing to also compensate those relating to the production and transportation stages of the component life cycle. Moreover, producing by-products with UA wastes, hence temporally storing the carbon fixed by crops, may contribute to reduce the carbon cycles speed conversely to traditional waste management solutions, other than lower new raw materials depletion

Composite building materials : thermal and mechanical performances of samples realized with hay and natural resins

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552Recent years have seen an increasing public interest in issues related to energy saving and environmental pollution reduction in the building sector. As a result, many directives have been issued, the most important being the Directive 2010/31/EU (EPBD Recast) on the energy performance of buildings, which requires that "Member States shall ensure that by 31 December 2020 all new buildings are nearly zero-energy buildings". This goal can be obtained not only by reducing energy demand for heating and cooling, but also, for example, by improving building envelope performances. In this work, a first analysis of the thermal and structural behaviour of a biocomposite material, constituted by a natural resin (rosin) and vegetal fibres (hay), has been performed, with particular attention to the share of fibres and the granulometry in the mixture. The biocomposite has shown both good insulation properties and mechanical resistance. However, the results show that further analyses should be performed on the optimisation of the samples' preparation process