CRS4 Energy and Chemical Processes Department

Core Competence

Parallel molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo methods, membrane modeling, transport in porous media, kinetics of fuel combustion, reactor modeling, geometric and volumetric modeling, solid free form fabrication.

History

The Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia (CRS4) is an interdisciplinary applied research center based in Pula (CA), Italy. The Energy and Chemical Processes Department is a relatively new Department which has been created in the year 2000. At that time, it was recognized that activities linked to the energy and, more specifically, to the improvement of clean and renewable energy technologies were of extreme relevance from both the view point of basic understanding, and material and device development. During the years, the Department was able to acquire important projects in the field, and to gain international visibility.

Staff

The Department is directed by Bruno D'Aguanno, and is currently composed of seventeen full-staff researchers and by one consultant. Regurarly, the staff also includes stagists and PhD students (from two to three a year).

Rooms and Locations

CRS4 is in the building 1 of the "POLARIS" Science and Technology Park, located in the Pula city, which is about 40Km West of Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy (see here for directions).

Financing

Most of the infrastructure and activities of the group are being financed by industrial and government projects.

Current Structure and Important Partners

The Energy and Chemical Processes Department is one of the seven Departments that structure CRS4 research and development activities. It cooperates with all other research groups at CRS4 on multidisciplinary research projects. Our Department is divided into four research areas:

Most of the Department's research activities are carried out in the context of large national and international projects. For more details please see the CRS4 Scientific Report.

Current Research

CRS4 develops and applies innovative solutions across a broad range of important areas by leveraging its key strengths in several scientific and technological disciplines. These areas encompass large-scale computational problems that require application of advanced simulation techniques supported by High Performance Computing and the timely integration of newly emerging Information and Communications Technology. The focus is on problems stemming from natural, social and industrial environments. The aim is the development and analysis of appropriate mathematical models, their numerical solution by advanced algorithms and innovative software tools for programming and visualization, as well as the validation and assessment of results based on benchmark problems. The research goal of CRS4 Energy and Chemical Processes Department is to develop powerful interactive simulation tools to help the design and the testing of new materials, devices, and system simulators in the broad technological field connected with the spreadout and more efficient use of clean and renewable energy sources. Active projects include Fuel Cell modeling for automotive and stationary applications, modeling of self-propagating high-temperature synthesis processes, modeling of solar pond for heat storage, development of real-time simulators to manage and control power plants in dynamic conditions. For a more extended and detailed view of our projects and publications see the pages on our activities.

Important Recent Project Participations

Ongoing externally funded research projects

Recently completed externally funded research projects

Important Industrial Partners

STMicroelectronics, Italy; Centro Ricerche FIAT, Italy; Ansaldo, Italy; ENEL (Polo Termico), Italy; Scilla, Italy.