Research projects

Politecnico di Milano is the proponent of the Digital Energy Storage Park (DES-Park) project under the PNRR measure «Infrastrutture dell’Innovazione», with reference to the public call from Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca n. 3265 for “Concessione di finanziamenti destinati alla realizzazione o ammodernamento di Infrastrutture Tecnologiche di Innovazione” within the framework of Investment 3.1 “Fondo per la realizzazione di un sistema integrato di infrastrutture di ricerca e innovazione”, Mission 4 (“Istruzione e ricerca”) – Component 2 (“Dalla ricerca all’impresa”) of the Italian Recovery Plan (Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza - PNRR). The measure supports technological innovation infrastructures promoting interactions between Industry and Academia, to deploy the Country's economic growth potential.
The DES-Park project aims at setting up a technological center to investigate systems (medium-to-large scale) for accumulation and use of renewable energy, focusing on the main energy storage technologies (e.g., hydrogen, e-fuels, batteries, thermal storage, thermodynamic storage) and their interactions with the network through advanced digital solutions for monitoring, simulation, optimization and diagnostics. Therefore, DES-Park will provide a tangible contribution to the energy transition, enhancing the maturity of energy storage and digital energy management systems, fostering their commercialization.

Politecnico di Milano has opened a new public call dedicated to industrial operators interested in taking part to the public selection procedure (dialogo competitive) for DES-Park. The procedure aims at identifying companies interested in setting up and managing the new infrastructure together with public entities (Politecnico di Milano and Universities involved in DES-Park Project).

Please, submit your application to the public call by Politecnico di Milano using the following link www.polimi.it/imprese/partecipa-a-una-gara/b-g-17922 (Deadline: 15th of December, 2023 at 3.00 pm Italy time, inquiries to be submitted by the 5th of December, 2023).

Plenary Meeting Agenda - 30/11/2023 (in Italian language)

DES-Park Project Proposal - Overview (in Italian language)

Minutes of the plenary meeting – 07/07/2023 (in Italian language)

The research programme includes the census of disused areas and buildings in the province of Piacenza for the definition of regional regeneration scenarios; the quantitative assessment of accessibility to basic services for the inhabitants of the Apennine areas, in order to propose measures to improve their usability, as a condition for ensuring social inclusion and coping with the processes of depopulation of the Apennine territories, and the definition of measures to improve their usability; the definition of parametric coefficients to estimate the traffic generated and attracted by manufacturing, commercial, tertiary and large services activities; the survey and inspection of 3 bridges in the province of Piacenza.

The research programme provides support to the technicians of the Province of Piacenza, by means of analysis services, evaluation, with the drafting of graphic works of specialist support - for the survey of the former Pontieri laboratory area and the study of its possible use as a school campus.

The research programme provides support to the technicians of the Province of Piacenza, in identifying a methodology to analyse the preservative state of the infrastructures owned by the province through drone surveys. It also provides support to the technicians of the Authority, in creating information bases necessary for the creation of the new Vast Area Regional Plan (Piano Territoriale di Area Vasta - PTAV).

The project was funded by the Fondazione di Piacenza e Vigevano, and focuses on agriculture as a key element of social, economic and political structures. The theme, generally speaking, is affected by a plurality of components: technological developments profoundly modernise agricultural practices; new sensitivities push production towards renewed frontiers; and together with cultivation, the figures involved in the processes are also significantly modified. The research study addresses the theme from a precise point of view, aiming to investigate the capacity of contemporary agriculture to be a decisive factor in the construction of contemporary landscapes, as demonstrated by the numerous case studies selected at an international level. 

Presentation of the project

The PhD programme focuses on the study of refrigerant mixtures with reduced environmental impact (R410A fluid replacement), for applications in small heat pumps. The research programme is divided into 3 phases:

• pre-screening of pure fluids and selection of mixtures of potential interest through a modelling approach, with simulation of heat pump performance;
• execution of experimental VLE measurements through VLE test bench available at the LEAP Laboratory in Piacenza, and calibration of accurate thermodynamic models for the selected mixtures;
• execution of tests of the complete system at the test bench of the Energy Department of the Politecnico di Milano.

The PhD programme, conducted at the MUSP Laboratory in Piacenza, focusses on one of the main objectives of the "Strategic Research Agenda for Agricultural Engineering and Technologies" of the European platform Manufuture, namely the environmental and energetic sustainability of crops. In particular, current ploughing and sowing techniques involve the use of agricultural means with high emission levels, for which no alternative solutions seem to be available. The research study is aimed at overcoming these limits by studying a combined waterjet soil ploughing system, immediately followed by the planting of seeds.