NRRP intervention area: Mission 4 – Education and Research
Component: 2 - From research to business
Investment: 1.3 - Extended partnerships with universities, research centres, businesses and research project funding
Duration: 36 months, ending on 28/02/2025
Total project funding: €114,700,000
Proposer: Politecnico di Bari
Supporting new generations of energy technologies, researchers and research infrastructures
The objectives pursued by the NEST project are to:
- develop new technologies for clean energy production and new generations of energy technologies, through research into hydrogen, new power electronic converter architectures and storage technologies for energy from sustainable sources
- generate new knowledge of energy storage, providing institutions and local authorities with the necessary expertise to simplify the bureaucratic authorisation process for production plants
- support the training of a new generation of researchers specialised in energy transition issues by fostering the emergence of start-ups and innovative enterprises.
Project structure and participation
Foundation Composition
Universities and research institutes
- Politecnico di Bari
- Politecnico di Milano
- Politecnico di Torino
- Alma Mater Università di Bologna
- Università degli Studi di Genova
- Università di Pisa
- Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"
- Università degli Studi di Cagliari
- Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II"
- Università degli Studi di Padova
- Università degli Studi di Palermo
- Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - CNR - National Research Council)
- Agenzia Nazionale per le Nuove Tecnologie, l’Energia e lo Sviluppo Economico Sostenibile - ENEA (National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development)
Private actors
- Eurac Research - EURAC
- Fondazione Bruno Kessler - FBK
- Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology – IIT)
- Arco FC s.r.l.
- Engineering Ingegneria informatica S.p.a.
- Exprivia S.p.a.
- IDEA75 S.r.l.
- Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A.
- Iren S.p.a.
- Istituto di Ricerca Ingenia S.r.l.
- Nuovo Pignone Tecnologie S.r.l.
- Snam S.p.a.
Areas of action
The activities fall into 9 areas:
- Spoke 1 – Solar energy: PV, CSP, CST (leader: Università degli Studi di Palermo)
- Spoke 2 - Harvesting of offshore renewables and energy (leader: Politecnico di Bari)
- Spoke 3 - Bioenergy and new fuels for sustainability (leader: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - CNR )
- Spoke 4 - Clean hydrogen and end uses (leader: Università degli Studi di Genova)
- Spoke 5 – Energy conversion (leader: Politecnico di Milano)
- Spoke 6 - Energy storage (leader: Politecnico di Torino)
- Spoke 7 - Smart sector integration (leader: Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II")
- Spoke 8 - End-use optimisation, sustainability and resilience in the energy supply chain (leader: Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza")
- Spoke 9 - Advanced energy-sustainable materials (leader: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - CNR (National Research Council)
The University of Bologna participates in spokes 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9.
Project team
University of Bologna team
Scientific Coordinator
Prof. Michele Bianchi
Teaching and research staff
- Catia Arbizzani
- Francesco Basile
- Sarah Bonvicini
- Federico Boscherini
- Paola Ceroni
- Valerio Cozzani
- Andrea De Pascale
- Cristina Femoni
- Maurizio Fiorini
- Cesare Franchini
- Massimo Marcaccio
- Federica Mariani
- Francesco Melino
- Antonio Morandi
- Carlo Alberto Nucci
- Luca Pasquini
- Cesare Saccani
- Ernesto Salzano
- Leonardo Sandrolini
- Serena Silvi
- Marco Sumini
- Tommaso Tabanelli
- Angelo Tani
- Luca Zarri
- Walter Zegada Lizarazu
Staff hired with project funds
Researchers
- Jacopo De Maron
- Luisa Stella Dolci
- Alessandro Guzzini
- Stefano Lilla
- Arianna Menichetti
- Saverio Ottaviano
- Federica Ricci
- Cleo Thomas Gabriel Vilela Menegaz Teixeira Pires
Research fellows
- Mariam Maisuradze
- Davide Scampamorte
PhD students
- Emiliano Guerra
- Darin Joseph
- Maria Giovanna Sessa
- Dario Verna
Departments involved
- Department of Chemistry "Giacomo Ciamician" - CHIM
- Department of Industrial Chemistry "Toso Montanari" - CHIMIND
- Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering "Guglielmo Marconi" - DEI
- Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering – DICAM
- Department of Physics and Astronomy "Augusto Righi" – DIFA
- Department of Industrial Engineering - DIN
- Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences – DISTAL
With this project, the University of Bologna has:
- conducted studies on the development of sustainable electrodes and electrolytes to replace the normally highly polluting components in all batteries
- developed new methods, processes and innovative thermodynamic cycles for increasing the use of renewable resources in the production of electricity and heat
- made a synthesis of carbonaceous materials from waste and organic materials
- investigated new solutions for hydrogen storage, which is crucial for the development of sustainable energy technologies, avoiding contamination through the use of a controlled environment called a dry box.
- developed a model to optimise the relationship between electric vehicle charging systems and the national grid, facilitating the transition to more sustainable mobility.
- combined machine learning techniques with experimental data to improve the understanding and efficiency of lithium-ion batteries, promoting the development of more efficient and reliable technologies.
What activities are in progress?
Assistant professors at the University of Bologna are working on:
- the development of technologies for the production, use and storage of hydrogen, as alternatives to conventional processes
- the development of new devices and technologies to produce electricity and heat. These include: Rankine cycles, which make it possible to exploit low-temperature waste heat from industrial processes or power generation plants, turning it into usable electricity; heat pumps, which have huge applicability in domestic and industrial heating, allowing heat to be extracted from the outside environment, even at very low temperatures, and transferred inside buildings to heat rooms or for industrial purposes; storage systems, which use phase-changing materials to store energy efficiently, particularly useful for the integration of intermittent energy sources, such as solar and wind power
- the development of online platforms providing real-time information on energy consumption, production and grid status, to be made available to citizens so that they can monitor and manage their energy consumption efficiently and reduce consumption
- the sustainable development of new metal hydrides: these materials can be used to convert energy in more efficient and cleaner ways. It is also being studied how these materials behave while being used to generate energy, both in the laboratory and in real-life situations. This allows us to better understand their performance and continuously improve production processes
- the preparation of an experimental test bench for impedance measurements on lithium-ion batteries. This type of battery is crucial for electric vehicles, and a better understanding of impedance can lead to the development of lighter, more powerful and longer-range batteries, making electric vehicles more cost-effective and competitive with traditional fuel-powered vehicles.
- spectroscopic studies by means of X-ray techniques (e.g. XAS and XPS) on new materials: the aim is to identify alternative materials that have a lower impact on the environment, are more efficient and last longer
