The building sector is considered strategic to reach new scenarios for a low-carbon society. Beside this awareness, in the current trend there is not a real change to achieve targets set in terms of emissions containment defined by international agreements. Through an econometric model based on Choice Experiments, the present study aims to understand the individuals’ perceptions towards energy retrofit...

In the future, we will experience a continuously increasing energy demand mostly due to the continuous growth of the world population. Today we use fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) in order to cover the society’s basic needs. This involves significant CO2 emissions that contribute to the climate change by contributing to the increase of the global temperature. A great number of countries through international...

Aerogels are emerging as one of the most intriguing and promising groups of microporous materials, characterized by impressive properties such as low density, high surface area, high porosity and tunable surface chemistry. Fostering unique thermal and acoustic insulation features, for several decades they mainly received attention from the aerospace and building sectors. More recently, new great opportunities...

In mature oilfields, decommissioned oil and gas wells with depths reaching approximately 5000-6000 metres represent good candidate structures for geothermal heat exploitation, as they can provide useful access to subsurface geothermal energy resources. Comprehending the possibility to economically harness geothermal energy by means of coaxial WBHEs is bound to the main features of the physical model,...

Geothermal Energy, being a clean and sustainable source of energy, is gaining importance worldwide due to various reasons. Geothermal power can be generated throughout the year on twenty four hour basis as it’s not much dependent on ambient temperature and weather conditions. Recently there is an increased interest in exploitation of low enthalpy geothermal resources for other applications such as geothermal space heating...

The availability and accessibility of new technologies is also transforming the world of underground construction sites, where applications developed in the mining industry are rapidly spreading.

Many of these have positive repercussions for safety and...

A global overview of the technologies that can be applied for modern tunnelling construction taking into account the OS&H aspects is shortly presented in the paper.

Zandobbio Marble is a crystalline dolomite produced in an open pit quarry near Bergamo, Nord Italy. This ornamental stone was already used during the Roman age. For many years the quarry was inactive, until 2006 when it was re-opened. Local law on quarries requires the elaboration of an exploitation plan: its objective, and in general the objective of the environmental assessment, is to identify areas...

The interaction between tunnels and underground water is a complex topic and it is of great relevance taking into account the environment, the protection of drinkable water and the interference with tunnel construction method. Due to the great importance of the topic, in the following are presented and discussed the most relevant technologies for water management in tunnelling with a specific attention...

The paper provides an overview of the several scientific and technical issues and challenges to be addressed for underground storage of carbon dioxide, hydrogen and mixtures of hydrogen and natural gas. The experience gained on underground energy systems and materials is complemented by new competences to adequately respond to the new needs raised by transition from fossil fuels to renewables. The experimental...

The aim of this paper is to analyze the factors affecting hydrogen as well as Carbon Capture and Storage Technologies (“CCS”) policies with refer to countries’ upstream capacity of hydrocarbon activities. By using a panel data of 79 countries in 20 years, the interactive model will take into consideration Oil Reserves in relationship with Fossil Fuel Consumption, Blue or Green hydrogen...

The storage of natural gas in underground geological formations (UGS) has been widely adopted to guarantee a real-time response to the market requests as well as to ensure National “strategic” reserves. In the recent past, the UGS and related technologies have been approached with increasing interest also in terms of CO2 sequestration and of large-scale storage of chemical energy, with the...