Papers by Giorgio Passerini
Air Pollution 2018 is the 26th Annual Meeting in the successful series of international conferenc... more Air Pollution 2018 is the 26th Annual Meeting in the successful series of international conferences organised by the Wessex Institute and the University of Naples Parthenope, concerned with advances in Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Air Pollution.The series started in Monterrey (1993) and continued in Barcelona (1994), Halkidiki (1995), Toulouse (1996), Bologna (1997), Genova (1998), San Francisco (1999), Cambridge (2000),Ancona (2001), Segovia (2002), Catania (2003), Rhodes (2004), Cordoba (2005), New Forest(2006), Algarve (2007), Skiathos (2008), Tallinn (2009), Kos (2010), Malta (2011), A Coruna (2012), Siena (2013), Split (2014),Valencia (2015), Crete (2016) and most recently convened in Cadiz in 2017 for a well-attended and stimulating meeting discussing a wide range of air pollution topics.This important conference brings together contributions from scientists from around the world to present recent work on various aspects of air pollution phenomena. The meetings have discussed and considered many important air pollution issues and the international nature of the attendees has ensured that the conference findings and conclusions enjoy a wide and rapid dissemination amongst the air pollution science and policy communities. Air pollution sources and impacts remain one of the most challenging problems facing the international community and the series has demonstrated the wide spread nature of the air pollution phenomena and has contributed to the evolving understanding of the science and policy contexts of air pollution management.The conference continues to meet the demands of a discerning conference audience through the quality of the science and policy presented at the meetings, the publication formats and the interesting conference venues. This series has discussed important air pollution issues at an international, national and local level and by virtue of the international composition of the delegates has brought to the discussion a unique suite of perspectives. Notable in each of the conferences in this series has been the opportunity to foster scientific exchange between participants. Each meeting has provided a further opportunity for identifying new areas of air pollution sciencedemanding collaborative investigation.The conference series has consistently acknowledged that science remains the key to identifying the nature and scale of air pollution sources and impacts and reaffirmed that science is essentialin the formulation of policy relevant information for regulatory decision-making. The conferenceseries also acknowledged, at a very early stage, that science alone will not improve a pollutedatmosphere. The scientific knowledge derived from well-designed studies needs to be allied with further technical and economic studies in order to ensure cost effective and efficient mitigation. Inturn, the science, technology and economic outcomes are necessary but not sufficient. Increasingly,the conference series has recognised that the outcome of such research need to be contextualisedwithin well formulated communication strategies that help policy makers and citizens to understandand appreciate the risks and rewards arising from air pollution management. Consequently,the series has enjoyed a wide range of high quality presentations that develop the fundamentalscience of air pollution and an equally impressive range of presentations that places these newdevelopments within the frame of mitigation and management of air pollution. The peer reviewednature of the conference volumes enables policy makers to use the new findings with confidenceto formulate sustainable decisions and to build public acceptance and understanding of the natureand scale of the air pollution problem.The 26th meeting in 2018 takes place at a time when the problems of air pollution are manifestingthemselves across the world. The science to explain air pollution phenomena at different spatialand temporal scales has continued to advance throughout the life of this series. The impactsof air pollution on health, ecosystems and the built environment are better understood as is thecontribution of different sources to observed phenomena. However, recent public concern in manyparts of the world about the scale and consequence of air pollution exposure has not been matchedby effective air quality management interventions.Effective policy and regulatory instruments have been designed but implementation andenforcement has rarely been followed through with the full force of the law. This maybe becausepoliticians are concerned about the effect of such policies and regulations on the electorate.Whatever the reason for inaction, concern about air pollution continues to increase in many partsof the world particularly in major cities. Recent decisions by Paris, Mexico, Athens, Madrid andRome progressively to restrict certain vehicle types within the city may be the beginning of a morecoherent municipal response to such issues. However,…
Neural Networks (NN) have become a fi.mdamental tool among data-handling procedures and even more... more Neural Networks (NN) have become a fi.mdamental tool among data-handling procedures and even more concerning environmental data. In this work we present an application of neural networks to air quality data prediction. Both primary pollutants (mainly S02, CO) and photochemical pollutants (particularly ozone) have been considered but the focus has been set on statistical correlation between precursors and secondary pollutants. After a preliminary study of the phenomena, the work consisted in the following steps: NN architecture choice (we considered Multi-layer Perception Networks, recurrent networks and Self Organizing Networks), NN set-up, and input handling. Ozone precursors (e.g. NOX)and meteorological variables have been considered (solar radiation, wind velocity and temperature), noticing that only non-linear relationships were present. We performed an input correlation analysis and we considered normalisation processes and post-training analysis. For the NN training we selecte...
A Neuro-Fuzzy system is structurally analogous to a neural network and can be seen as a network w... more A Neuro-Fuzzy system is structurally analogous to a neural network and can be seen as a network whose nodes act according to fuzzy rules. By means of a learning algorithm, it is possible to define, within the input space, a set of regions of “vague” or “non-certain” classification, each one associated to a fuzzy rule. Neuro-Fuzzy networks, for their intrinsic capability of handling never-processed data, are able to follow certain dynamics that are non-linear such as those of Ozone trends. The aim of our work was to analyze the behaviour of Neuro-Fuzzy models applied to Ozone forecasting. In order to explore the features of the new architecture, several tests have been carried out varying the model complexity both in membership-function number and in the membership function types. For this preliminary study, few Ozone-correlated data (namely Nitrogen Dioxide concentration, solar-radiation intensity and wind speed) represented input data sets. Further tests have been carried out to ob...
Surface ozone concentrations are determined by complex interactions between precursors and are tr... more Surface ozone concentrations are determined by complex interactions between precursors and are triggered by meteorological conditions. Ozone concentrations are, in fact, strongly linked to meteorological conditions in the boundary layer and to land-sea breezes at coastal sites. The related relationships are typically complex and nonlinear and might be better captured by dynamical models, namely Neural Networks and Transfer Function models. Aim of our work is the identification of proper Transfer Function models and the estimation of their parameters. Here we present an outline of the methodology that was used to develop the air pollution forecast model for a complex coastal valley. We also investigate the potential for using Neural Networks, namely Multi-Layer Perceptron networks, to forecast ozone pollution, as compared to the multivariate parametric air pollution forecast model and multi-linear regression equations (the most commonly used to forecast Ozone concentrations). Transfe...
In this work we present a new software tool we developed, aiming to collect and systematise our a... more In this work we present a new software tool we developed, aiming to collect and systematise our advances on statistic filling of time-series gaps. Starting from considering our air quality data sets, collected by a poor monitoring network, we found the necessity of solving ambiguity and nonhomogeneity problems due to inconstant sample number as well as data fragmentation among time series.Considering literature protocols, we tried to define a gap classification based on its time lapse. Problems have been found for gaps larger than 4 hours since they are not generally discussed. In order to approach this aspect we tried applications of spatial algorithms (such as nearest neighbour or smooth-fill) and neural networks which seemed to give excellent results for gaps wider than 8 hours. On this preliminary study we achieved a classification based upon three branches: small gaps (up to 4 hours); medium gaps (5-8 hours) and large gaps (9-50 hours).Once a gap has been recognised, a filling ...
Sustainability
The aim of this paper is to analyse the variations in the habits and the modes of transport of tr... more The aim of this paper is to analyse the variations in the habits and the modes of transport of travellers departing from airports and ports during the COVID-19 outbreak. In the second year of the pandemic (i.e., from August to October 2021), travellers were invited to take part in an anonymous online survey at the terminal buildings of nine Italian and Croatian airports and ports located in the Adriatic region. Around 73% of respondents used public transport when travelling in the pre-COVID-19 period, whereas the corresponding share of respondents in the COVID-19 period was less than 50% and approximately 56% in the post-COVID-19 future. The main reason for not travelling by public transport was related to personal or sanitary reasons in the time of COVID-19. During the pandemic, around 39% of travellers preferred their own vehicle to public transport for moving to/from the airports and ports because of safety and sanitary reasons. With the pandemic, health was the main reason behin...
In this paper are investigated the effects of local meteorology on surface ozone concentrations o... more In this paper are investigated the effects of local meteorology on surface ozone concentrations on an hourly basis for a period of at least one year in a complex coastal area where land-sea breezes influence ozone concentrations. Because ozone formation is a non-linear process, feed-forward back propagation neural network was developed to model hourly ozone concentrations from meteorological and NoX data. This method can weight relationships that are difficult to subjectively quantify and allows non-linear relationships between variables. The use of additional meteorological and nitrogen oxides dioxide (NO and N02) time series as a potential inputs of the forecasting process is also considered.
Air quality dispersion models of new generation are becoming widely used for regulatory air quali... more Air quality dispersion models of new generation are becoming widely used for regulatory air quality modelling. An important feature of these models is the use of boundary layer and surface energy flux parameterizations to provide turbulence parameters for estimating diffusion rates. These models are, in fact, based on the principles of the ‘new generation’ meteorology, which employs continuous variables to characterise atmospheric conditions, rather than a fixed number of categories used by traditional Gaussian models. In this paper a new generation model, namely AERMOD, was applied over a complex coastal area that comprises valleys, hills, urban zones, and an industrial zone.
GPS-MET is a meteorological analysis tool based on the Global Positioning System network of satel... more GPS-MET is a meteorological analysis tool based on the Global Positioning System network of satellites. In the troposphere, GPS-MET data can be used to describe the vertical profiles of main meteorological variables. Data from a GPS occultation measurement system can lead to significant improvements in air pollution studies since, basically, meteorological pre-processors of dispersion models must be initialised with temperature, moisture, mixing height, and wind data. Amongst these, the mixing height, namely the thickness of the boundary layer, is one of the most important parameters governing the dispersion of atmospheric pollutant The aim of this paper is to describe the methods which can be used to evaluate PBL parameters from GPS-MET data.
Atmospheric Research, 2021
Abstract This work represents an initial step toward the coupled ocean-atmosphere-aerosols modeli... more Abstract This work represents an initial step toward the coupled ocean-atmosphere-aerosols modeling of severe storms in the Mediterranean basin. This is realized extending the classical Charnock formulation of surface roughness over sea and consequently the determination of air-sea momentum fluxes in numerical models. To improve the forecast of severe Mediterranean storm systems, like the so-called Medicanes, it is essential to consider the wave-state and sea spray effects on the sea surface roughness explicitly. This is implemented in the present work by coupling the third-generation WAVEWATCH III model (WWIII) and the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with chemistry (WRF-Chem) model configured with the Georgia Tech/Goddard Global Ozone Chemistry Aerosol Radiation and Transport (GOCART) aerosol package. The communication between the two models is realized through an offline coupling scheme, which utilizes a regridding algorithm between the numerical domains of the two models. In this context, the wave peak frequency is passed from WWIII to WRF-Chem model permitting the calculation of the wave-age and the sea spray source functions as well as the modification of the overseas drag coefficients. Two different surface roughness parameterizations are tested and compared with ERA5 reanalysis data from the ECMWF - Copernicus Climate Change Service. A single case study is performed considering the cyclone Rolf that occurred between 5 and 9 November 2011 in the western Mediterranean basin. It is considered one of the longest-lasting and most intense tropical-like cyclones in the Mediterranean with more than 48-h occurrence of tropical-like features and a wind speed peak reaching 30 m s−1 in its mature phase. The role of sea spray is evaluated considering two basic strategies, namely the limited-saturation layer approach and the “sea spray force” on the momentum balance. It is demonstrated that (i) the formulation based on the limited-saturation layer approach is better suited for describing the drag in the cyclonic region, where velocities are highest and consequently there is a very high concentration of sea-spray spume droplets; (ii) the momentum drag level-off at the highest wind speed. Our results give a contribution on the understanding of the air-sea flux parameterizations for a range of wind speed above 25–35 m s−1, indicating that sea-spray generation should be accounted for in coupled numerical models for ocean and atmosphere.
International Journal of Thermophysics, 1999
Azeotropic and quasi-azeotropic mixtures of organic compounds could become the most effective can... more Azeotropic and quasi-azeotropic mixtures of organic compounds could become the most effective candidates as replacement fluids in refrigeration devices and heat pumps. Following the development of effective prediction formulas for several families of pure organic compounds, in this paper the evaluation of transport properties of liquid mixtures is approached from a rather different point of view. Azeotropic and near-azeotropic mixtures
Energies, 2021
The work of traditional cyclones is based on the separation of solid particles using only the cen... more The work of traditional cyclones is based on the separation of solid particles using only the centrifugal forces. Therefore, they do not demonstrate high gas-cleaning efficiency, particularly in the cases where gas flows are polluted with fine solid particles (about 20 µm in diameter). The key feature of a new-generation multi-channel cyclone separator’s structure is that its symmetrical upgraded curved elements, with openings cut with their plates bent outwards, make channels for the continuous movement of the gas flows from the inflow opening to the central axis. The smoke flue of the vertical gas outflow is located near the cover of the separating chamber. The present work is aimed at studying the applicability of two various viscosity models and their modified versions to simulate aerodynamic processes in an innovative design for a multi-channel cyclone separator with a single inflow, using the computational fluid dynamics. The research results obtained in the numerical simulati...
Proccedings of 10th International Conference "Environmental Engineering", 2017
Incinerators produce energy burning virtually everything including waste, but emit pollutants suc... more Incinerators produce energy burning virtually everything including waste, but emit pollutants such as heavy metals and carbon monoxide (CO). These substances can be uptaken by trees through their roots, leaves or stems. To evaluate the quantity of heavy metals uptaken, and to validate the methodology, we studied an incinerator and its area of influence. In order to catalogue the impact of the incinerator on the environment, sampling sites were grouped into seven categories according to the prevailing wind direction. The selected tree species was Populus Alba and heavy metals considered were antimony (Sb), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), copper (Cu), vanadium (V), and zinc (Zn). In a first stage, the metals concentrations were compared with literature data. Metals with higher concentrations were chromium (Cr) and lead (Pb). Metal concentrations of polluted zones were then compared, with control site. Sample points near the incinerator s...
Natural gases produced by the Earth's ecosystem include a wide range of volatile compounds such a... more Natural gases produced by the Earth's ecosystem include a wide range of volatile compounds such as isoprene, monoterpene, nitric oxide, carbon monoxide, and other non-methane volatile organic compounds: the so-called biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs). BVOCs are highly reactive and thus can impact air quality and aerosol radiative forcing. BVOC emission fluxes have been consistently included in global and regional chemical transport models (e.g., Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature, MEGAN). However, present climate models still have large uncertainties in estimating biogenic trace gases. These uncertainties result from several factors, including uncertainties in emission activity factors that are controlled by environmental conditions, specification of vegetation type, and plant emission factors. This work concerns the evaluation and test of a set of updates made to MEGAN, a model for estimating fluxes of biogenic compounds between terrestrial ecosystem and the atmosphere, which is embedded into the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with chemistry (WRF-Chem version 3.9). Two different test cases are presented, the first covering Europe, and the second for a domain in the Southeast United States. Our study considers four simulations for each update made to MEGAN, (i) a control run with no changes to MEGAN; (ii) a simulation with the emission activity factors modified following MEGAN version 2.10; (iii) a simulation considering the changes to the plant functional type emission factor; (iv) a simulation with the isoprene emission factor calculated within the MEGAN module (the emission factor of isoprene is obtained from the input database directly in WRF-Chem). For the Europe domain region, a sensitivity study on BVOC emissions was performed for a high-ozone episode in August 2015. The updated MEGAN model led to significant increases, by factors of 2 or more, of the estimated BVOC emissions. The comparison of WRF-Chem results for the European domain with experimental data from the Airbase web-portal (European air quality database) showed that the temporal and spatial distribution of ozone are well represented. However, comparing the updated MEGAN simulations with the control run, ozone concentration bias increased substantially. Results from the U.S. domain are compared with the Nitrogen, Oxidants, Mercury and Aerosol Distributions, Sources and Sinks (NOMADSS) field campaign data (June 2013), which allows for direct comparison of isoprene mixing ratios with observations. The comparison between the modeled data and aircraft observations shows that isoprene mixing ratios agree well with measured isoprene for the M2.04 simulation but are overpredicted considerably by the M2.10 simulation.
Abstract. Azeotropic and quasi-azeotropic mixtures of organic compounds are becoming the most eff... more Abstract. Azeotropic and quasi-azeotropic mixtures of organic compounds are becoming the most effective candidates as replacement fluids. Heat and mass transfer phenomena in organic compound mixtures have been theoretically studied from several different points of view. Despite these efforts, theoretical models are frequently inaccurate while empirical methods are usually more accurate but they are often specialised and tuned to cover a small number of compounds and/or a limited temperature range. Based on the development of effective prediction formulas for several families of pure organic compounds, the problem of the evaluation of mixture dynamic viscosity is approached from a rather different point of view. Azeotropic mixtures are treated as pure compounds rather than a combination of several pure substances, and a single, specialised formula for the evaluation of saturated liquid dynamic viscosity is developed. The prediction method requires the knowledge of few equilibrium pro...
The First Outstanding 50 Years of “Università Politecnica delle Marche”, 2019
The paper reviews some of the latest researches and future trends in the field of technologies to... more The paper reviews some of the latest researches and future trends in the field of technologies to support sustainable, comfortable and healthy citizens life in the cities of tomorrow. A specific focus is on advanced methods to guarantee comfort and energy efficiency in the built environment, together with the support to the ageing people in their homes. Innovative sensing systems are presented to monitor both the environment conditions and people in a non-intrusive way, thus allowing the implementation of efficient management strategies and new social services. The review presents real case studies properly equipped with comfort measurement systems, sensor networks including physiological parameters or with specific HVAC and construction components to assess the effects on energy consumptions and comfort levels of different control strategies and configurations. In addition, distributed generation technologies installed at final users together with their increasing awareness in energy consumption patterns, result in the “prosumer”: a citizen that simultaneously acts as an aware energy consumer and producer. Based on the achieved outcomes, a discussion about the most promising research lines for citizen-oriented technologies in the cities of tomorrow is finally presented.
Proceedings of the 20th Conference for Junior Researchers „Science – Future of Lithuania“, 2017
The present review aims at investigating the influence of the type of feedstock and the productio... more The present review aims at investigating the influence of the type of feedstock and the production temperature on the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) content of biochar (BC) from slow pyrolysis. To collect data from the literature, peer reviewed articles in English published in 2007–2016 were considered. The different types of BC were classified depending on the fractions of cellulose and lignin and the type of feedstock. A linear regression (R-squared = 0.5) of the mean values of DOC content (g/kg) of BC was calculated in the range of 350–800 °C with slope (–0.005) and intercept (4.1) significant at p <0.05. Irrespective of the type of feedstock, slow pyrolysis with temperatures above 500 °C would be a proper choice for limiting the mean DOC content of BC to values in the range of 0.28–1.01 g/kg.
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Papers by Giorgio Passerini