Papers by Nicola Massarotti
Energy efficiency, Feb 19, 2024
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that food, beverage, and ... more Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that food, beverage, and tobacco sector is currently responsible for about 30% of total world energy consumption and approximately the same percentage of food is wasted during its industrial transformation. Improving the sustainability of food processing is fundamental to reduce the environmental impact of this sector as well as to lower the disposal cost of industrial waste. The objective of this work is to propose an efficient and technically feasible solution for the management and energy recovery of residual biomasses and industrial processing by-products, such as sewage sludge produced by industrial wastewater treatment. The above solution is developed for a real frozen food factory operating in Lazio region (Italy) introducing a sewage sludge dryer and a gasifier to produce syngas. The software Aspen Plus is adopted to numerically simulate the gasification process, using a literature validated model, while the dryer and the already present combined heat and power (CHP) plant are dynamically modelled in TRNSYS environment. The results demonstrate that the proposed solution is feasible and attractive from both an environmental and an economic perspective. The Simple Pay Back of the investment is less than 3 years, while the Net Present Value stands at about 2.4 M€. Furthermore, the CO 2 proposed system allows to save 179 t of equivalent CO 2 emissions compared to the current system.
International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow
Purpose This study aims to analyse the non-linear losses of a porous media (stack) composed by pa... more Purpose This study aims to analyse the non-linear losses of a porous media (stack) composed by parallel plates and inserted in a resonator tube in oscillatory flows by proposing numerical correlations between pressure gradient and velocity. Design/methodology/approach The numerical correlations origin from computational fluid dynamics simulations, conducted at the microscopic scale, in which three fluid channels representing the porous media are taken into account. More specifically, for a specific frequency and stack porosity, the oscillating pressure input is varied, and the velocity and the pressure-drop are post-processed in the frequency domain (Fast Fourier Transform analysis). Findings It emerges that the viscous component of pressure drop follows a quadratic trend with respect to velocity inside the stack, while the inertial component is linear also at high-velocity regimes. Furthermore, the non-linear coefficient b of the correlation ax + bx2 (related to the Forchheimer coe...
CRC Press eBooks, Jan 16, 2023
Advances in science, technology & innovation, Sep 19, 2019
The objective of this study is to assess the techno-economic potential of the proposed novel ener... more The objective of this study is to assess the techno-economic potential of the proposed novel energy system, which allows for negative emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2). The analyzed system comprises four main subsystems: a biomass-fired combined heat and power plant integrated with a CO2 capture and compression unit, a CO2 transport pipeline, a CO2-enhanced geothermal system, and a supercritical CO2 Brayton power cycle. For the purpose of the comprehensive technoeconomic assessment, the results for the reference biomass-fired combined heat and power plant without CO2 capture are also presented. Based on the proposed framework for energy and economic assessment, the energy efficiencies, the specific primary energy consumption of CO2 avoidance, the cost of CO2 avoidance, and negative CO2 emissions are evaluated based on the results of process simulations. In addition, an overview of the relevant elements of the whole system is provided, taking into account technological progress and technology readiness levels. The specific primary energy consumption per unit of CO2 avoided in the analyzed system is equal to 2.17 MJLHV/kg CO2 for biomass only (and 6.22 MJLHV/kg CO2 when geothermal energy is included) and 3.41 MJLHV/kg CO2 excluding the CO2 utilization in the enhanced geothermal system. Regarding the economic performance of the analyzed system, the levelized cost of electricity and heat are almost two times higher than those of the reference system (239.0 to 127.5 EUR/MWh and 9.4 to 5.0 EUR/GJ), which leads to negative values of the Net Present Value in all analyzed scenarios. The CO2 avoided cost and CO2 negative cost in the business as usual economic scenario are equal to 63.0 and 48.2 EUR/t CO2, respectively, and drop to 27.3 and 20 EUR/t CO2 in the technological development scenario. The analysis proves the economic feasibility of the proposed CO2 utilization and storage option in the enhanced geothermal system integrated with the sCO2 cycle when the cost of CO2 transport and storage is above 10 EUR/t CO2 (at a transport distance of 50 km). The technology readiness level of the proposed technology was assessed as TRL4 (technological development), mainly due to the early stage of the CO2-enhanced geothermal systems development.
Journal of physics, Aug 1, 2020
In this paper the authors present a simplified 0D-3D approach for modelling operating conditions ... more In this paper the authors present a simplified 0D-3D approach for modelling operating conditions of a waste-to-energy plant This innovative methodology combines a 0D lumped parameters model, able to describe the processes of solid and gaseous combustion and the heat transfer within the first radiant channel, with a detailed 3D CFD simulation of the thermo-fluid-dynamic field within the plant combustion chamber. Besides, results from the 0D model allow the definition of input data and boundary conditions for detailed 3D CFD simulation of the thermo-fluid-dynamic field within the plant combustion chamber. In this way, the T2S temperature can be determined using a more efficient and complete methodology. The developed numerical tool, does not employ correlations based on empiric observations or on experimental data regressions and, being phenomenological, is generally applicable to any waste-to-energy plant, and is here applied for the characterization of different operating conditions of an Italian WTE. The analysis allows the verification of the constraints imposed by the European legislation on the temperature of the combustion products and the identification of any issues related to the plant operation. Input parameters are determined from measurements and the obtained numerical results are validated against experiments showing a good agreement.
Journal of Molecular Liquids, Dec 1, 2017
Abstract In this study consideration has been given to the two-dimensional, unsteady, laminar flo... more Abstract In this study consideration has been given to the two-dimensional, unsteady, laminar flow of an electrically conducting bio-fluid (blood) in a rectangular channel. In this model both magnetization and electrical conductivity of blood are taken into account. The viscosity of the fluid is also assumed to be a strong function of temperature. The coupled, nonlinear system of equations are transformed into the stream function-vorticity-temperature formulation. These equations along with the suitable boundary conditions are solved iteratively by using the upwind scheme along with successive over relaxation method. The numerical results obtained here are illustrated in terms of streamlines, vorticity function, velocity component and temperature function contours. The results show that the flow is effected to a great extent owing to the presence of the magnetic source. It is observed that the temperature values increases due to an increase in magnetic intensity for all the contours plotted in this study. It is also noticed that variable viscosity greatly influenced the flow field and generates a lot of vortices within the vicinity of the walls.
International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Jun 15, 2010
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, Feb 28, 2017
Energy, Nov 1, 2018
Waste management and energy production are becoming critical issues in geographically disadvantag... more Waste management and energy production are becoming critical issues in geographically disadvantaged areas, like small islands. For waste disposal the most common strategy is shipping to the mainland, due to the scarcity of land and local suitable treatments. Electricity generation is based on the importation of fossil fuels for local production, due to the lack of connections with continental energy networks. Both, waste shipping and fuels importation determine strong dependence on the mainland, as well as high economic and environmental cost for small islands. Therefore, using local renewable energy sources is extremely attracting. In this work, geothermal energy is considered for thermal drying of wastewater sludge and electricity supply of the whole wastewater treatment. The system is analysed for the case study of Pantelleria, a small island in Southern Italy, where sludge is currently dewatered to a final water content of 70-80%, and then shipped to mainland. The proposed system decreases wastewater sludge to be transported and disposed by 73.3%. Its profitability is demonstrated by several economic indicators, showing a Simple Payback time equal to 8.34 years and a Net Present Value of 502 k€. In addition, a sensitivity analysis for the main parameters affecting plant operation is carried out.
Energies, Jun 15, 2023
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
Building and Environment, May 1, 2023
Thermal science and engineering progress, Jun 1, 2021
Abstract In this paper, the proper generalized decomposition (PGD) is presented for the solution ... more Abstract In this paper, the proper generalized decomposition (PGD) is presented for the solution of the parametric heat equation for an actual geothermal application. The physical domain is composed by ten geothermal probes inserted in the ground. The temperature profile along the probes is imposed as a parametric Dirichlet condition. The soil properties are parameters difficult to estimate in real life applications, and a parametric analysis is often required. In order to analyse their influence on the geothermal system. Moreover, another problem in modelling geothermal systems is the construction of the 3D mesh near probes. By employing PGD techniques, it is possible to overcome the large computational costs, because PGD is an a priori model reduction method that allow reducing the numerical complexity of the problem through separation of variables and parameters. In addition, the standard PGD strategy fails to converge for the case analysed in this paper, therefore an alternative strategy based on residual minimization idea has been used. In the present work, the authors analyse the effects of the probes presence on the soil temperature, by means of the developed PGD model.
CRC Press eBooks, Aug 4, 2016
Uploads
Papers by Nicola Massarotti