Francesco Rovense

About the research project «Highly-Flexible and Dispatchable Polygeneration using Concentrated Solar Technologies»

Research Line: Dynamic modelling of highly-efficient polygeneration systems

Mentor: Prof. Javier Dufour Andía (URJC), Dr. José González-Aguilar (IMDEA Energy), Dr. Manuel Romero Álvarez (IMDEA Energy)

Abstract

The awareness of the serious climate changes led to a transition towards a sustainable energy system. European Commission promoted this transformation through several acts. The Renewable Energy Directive aims the decarbonisation of the energy economy and the share increasing of renewable energy, in the Union’s gross final consumption of energy, for 2020 and beyond. The Strategic Energy Technology, sets that up to 15% of the electricity in the European Union, will be generated by solar energy in 2020. Concentrated Solar Power has a huge potential to generate electricity in Southern Europe and they may play a key role for the interconnection with South-Mediterranean countries in a future integration of green energy markets. In this context, the project proposes the development of a dynamic tool and a multidisciplinary analysis of an original polygeneration system; it makes use of solar driven hybrid micro-gas turbines engine, heat storage systems and an innovative working fluid mass flow regulation system, which allows to enhance its flexibility and dispatchability, in order to fulfil power and thermal demand variations. The research will be aiming on an application scenario analysis, a Life Cycle Assessment, and the impact of the fluctuation in the solar resource on the performance of renewable energy systems, in order to provide the primary energy for different contest.

About Francesco Rovense

Francesco Rovense obtained the master degree in Energy Engineering with great honour at the department of mechanical, energy and management engineering of the University of Calabria (Italy). He attended the XXX cycle of the PhD course in Civil and Industrial Engineering of the University of Calabria, where defended in July 2018 his thesis titled “Study of an unfired closed Joule-Brayton cycle in a concentrating solar tower plant with a mass flow rate control system” obtaining the excellent classification and European PhD mention. Francesco was post-doc in his department, working on the numerical modelling and experimental validation of a Spark Ignition Internal Combustion Engine cooling system. In 2019 he joined in the High Temperature Processes Units at IMDEA Energy as post-doc researcher fellow, working in the EU funded Next-CSP project in power plant dynamic modelling task. Currently, Francesco is developing his research project, related to a Highly-Flexible and Dispatchable Polygeneration system using Concentrated Solar Technologies, as a GET-COFUND Marie Curie Fellow, in a joint collaboration between University Rey Juan Carlos and IMDEA Energy (High-Temperature Processes Unit).