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Eco-Friendly Materials and Technologies for Low-Energy Buildings: Innovative Methodologies and Case Studies

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "G: Energy and Buildings".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2021) | Viewed by 10913

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Marina Mistretta

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Guest Editor

Department of Heritage, Architecture, Urbanism (PAU), Via dell’Università, 25, University Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria, 89124 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Interests: ecodesign; energy; renewable energy technologies; life cycle assessment; net zero energy buildings

Dr. Maria Anna Cusenza

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Guest Editor

Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Palermo, 90133 Palermo, Italy
Interests: energy and buildings; life cycle assessment; circular economy; renewable fuels and technologies; energy storage systems

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Guest Editors are inviting submissions to a Special Issue of Energies on the subject area of “Eco-Friendly Materials and Technologies for Low-Energy Buildings: Innovative Methodologies and Case Studies”. The building sector is one of the major consumers of energy and natural resources, greenhouse gas sources, and producers of wastes. Thus, strategies towards a sustainable development require actions aimed at improving the energy and environmental performances of the building sector promoting the use of low-impact materials and technologies.

In this context, this Special Issue will explore different aspects of building materials and implemented technologies through the presentation of case studies or new methodological approaches’ development, in sight of sustainability.

Topics of interest for publication include but are not limited to:

• Eco-design for buildings;
• New and emerging building materials and technologies for low energy buildings;
• Advances in material and technology research and engineering;
• Solutions for improving energy performance of buildings;
• Circular economy strategies for building sustainability;
• Life cycle sustainability assessment of building materials and technologies;
• New approaches to sustainable building development;
• Bio-based building materials;
• New methodological procedures for assessing building and construction materials’ sustainability.

Prof. Dr. Marina Mistretta
Dr. Maria Anna Cusenza
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Eco-friendly materials;
Renewable Energy Technologies;
Sustainability;
Low-energy buildings;
Circular economy

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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21 pages, 5813 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Life Cycle Energy and Environmental Assessment of the Thermal Insulation Improvement in Residential Buildings

by Maria Anna Cusenza, Teresa Maria Gulotta, Marina Mistretta and Maurizio Cellura

Energies 2021, 14(12), 3452; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14123452 - 10 Jun 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2785

Abstract

The refurbishment of the building stock is a key strategy towards the achievement of the climate and energy goals of the European Union. This study aims at evaluating the energy and environmental impacts associated with retrofitting a residential apartment to improve its vertical envelope thermal insulation. Two insulation materials, stone wool and cellulose fibers, are compared. The life cycle assessment methodology is applied assuming 1 m² of retrofitted vertical envelope as functional unit. Moreover, to estimate the net energy and environmental benefits achievable in the retrofitted scenario compared with the non-retrofitted one, a second analysis is performed in which the system boundaries are expanded to include the building operational phase, and 1 m² of walkable floor per year is assumed as reference. The results show that the use of cellulose fibers involve lower impacts in most of the assessed categories compared to stone wool, except for abiotic resource depletion. In detail, the use of cellulose fibers allows to reduce the impact on climate change up to 20% and the consumption of primary energy up to 10%. The evaluation of the net energy and environmental benefits shows the effectiveness of the retrofit energy policies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Eco-Friendly Materials and Technologies for Low-Energy Buildings: Innovative Methodologies and Case Studies)

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23 pages, 6043 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design Optimisation Strategies for Solid Rammed Earth Walls in Mediterranean Climates

by Giada Giuffrida, Maurizio Detommaso, Francesco Nocera and Rosa Caponetto

Energies 2021, 14(2), 325; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14020325 - 08 Jan 2021

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2370

Abstract

The renewed attention paid to raw earth construction in recent decades is linked to its undoubted sustainability, cost-effectiveness, and low embodied energy. In Italy, the use of raw earth as a construction material is limited by the lack of a technical reference standard and is penalised by the current energy legislation for its massive behaviour. Research experiences, especially transoceanic, on highly performative contemporary buildings made with natural materials show that raw earth can be used, together with different types of reinforcements, to create safe, earthquake-resistant, and thermally efficient buildings. On the basis of experimental data of an innovative fibre-reinforced rammed earth material, energy analyses are developed on a rammed earth building designed for a Mediterranean climate. The paper focuses on the influences that different design solutions, inspired by traditional bioclimatic strategies, and various optimised wall constructions have in the improvement of the energy performance of the abovementioned building. These considerations are furthermore compared with different design criteria aiming at minimising embodied carbon in base material choice, costs, and discomfort hours. Results have shown the effectiveness of using the combination of massive rammed earth walls, night cross ventilation, and overhangs for the reduction of energy demand for space cooling and the improvement of wellbeing. Finally, the parametric analysis of thermal insulation has highlighted the economic, environmental, and thermophysical optimal solutions for the rammed earth envelope. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Eco-Friendly Materials and Technologies for Low-Energy Buildings: Innovative Methodologies and Case Studies)

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15 pages, 6487 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Advanced Adsorbent Materials for Waste Energy Recovery

by Lucio Bonaccorsi, Antonio Fotia, Angela Malara and Patrizia Frontera

Energies 2020, 13(17), 4299; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13174299 - 19 Aug 2020

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 1842

Abstract

Nowadays, waste thermal energy represents a huge quantity of energy that, in most cases, is unfortunately dispersed rather than recovered. Although it is well known that its recovery could result in a considerable impact reduction of human activities on the environment, it is still a challenging issue. In view of this, absorption chillers and heat pumps, based on the use of porous materials capable of reversibly adsorbing and desorbing water vapor, can be considered among the preferred systems to recover waste thermal energy, especially at medium–low temperatures. This study deals with the preparation and performance of a new generation of advanced adsorbent materials specifically produced as coatings for water adsorption systems driven by low temperature heat sources (around 150 °C). The proposed coating consists of hybrid SAPO-34/polyacrilonitrile microfibers directly deposited on the surface to be coated by means of the electrospinning technique. Their zeolite morphology and concentrations, as well as their distribution over the polymeric microfibers, were key variables in achieving the best combination of adsorption properties and hydrothermal stability of the coating. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Eco-Friendly Materials and Technologies for Low-Energy Buildings: Innovative Methodologies and Case Studies)

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Review

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19 pages, 562 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Review of Key Performance Indicators for Building Flexibility Quantification to Support the Clean Energy Transition

by Girolama Airò Farulla, Giovanni Tumminia, Francesco Sergi, Davide Aloisio, Maurizio Cellura, Vincenzo Antonucci and Marco Ferraro

Energies 2021, 14(18), 5676; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14185676 - 09 Sep 2021

Cited by 25 | Viewed by 3063

Abstract

The transition to a sustainable society and a carbon-neutral economy by 2050 requires extensive deployment of renewable energy sources that, due to the aleatority and non-programmability of most of them, may seriously affect the stability of existing power grids. In this context, buildings are increasingly being seen as a potential source of energy flexibility for the power grid. In literature, key performance indicators, allowing different aspects of the load management, are used to investigate buildings’ energy flexibility. The paper reviews existing indicators developed in the context of theoretical, experimental and numerical studies on flexible buildings, outlining the current status and the potential future perspective. Moreover, the paper briefly reviews the range of grid services that flexible buildings can provide to support the reliability of the electric power system which is potentially challenged by the increasing interconnection of distributed variable renewable generation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Eco-Friendly Materials and Technologies for Low-Energy Buildings: Innovative Methodologies and Case Studies)

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