THEMATIC AREAS

• Socio-economic and environmental impact of energy technologies.
• Sustainable technologies for electricity production and storage.
• Technologies for the transformation and storage of thermal energy from renewables.

WORK EXPERIENCE

• Since 08/01/2001, he is permanent researcher at the CNR-ITAE Institute, in Messina. His research activity was initially devoted to the development of mathematical models for fuel cells and thermally-driven adsorption machines. Recently, he focused on the study of fossil fuels depletion, and the use of hydrogen derived from renewable energy sources.
• From 16/11/1994 to 07/01/2001, he was a fixed-term researcher (art. 23, art. 36) at the CNR-ITAE Institute, and performed research activity to develop mathematical models for fuel cells.
• From 20/07/1993 to 31/12/1993, he had a contract of collaboration from CNR-ITAE, for the “Development of a mathematical simulation model to study the influence of geometric parameters of a porous shield on the diffusion of gases in the anodic compartment of a molten carbonate fuel cell”, in the framework of an EEC contract (JOU2-CT92-0134).
• From 01/01/1992 to 31/12/1992, as a winner of a research fellow awarded by Ansaldo-CRIS (Innovative Researches Consortium for South Italy, Naples), he performed his research activity at CNR-ITAE, on the topic “Catalytic oxidation of fuels for energy uses”.
• From 01/12/1989 to 30/11/1991, as a winner of a research fellow awarded by the Italian National Research Council (CNR), he performed his research activity at CNR-ITAE, on the topic “Development of mathematical models for phosphoric acid fuel cells”.

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

• The main research topics are:
  • Mathematical models for fuel cells
  • Mathematical models for thermally-driven adsorption machines
  • Depletion of fossil fuels
  • Use of hydrogen derived from renewable sources.
• Main results include some models that provide a rigorous mathematical description for the polarizations of polymeric fuel cells; and models for description of heat and mass transfer in consolidated porous beds of adsorption machines.
• He also proposed an original variant of the Hubbert curve, to estimate the peak productions of oil, natural gas and coal.
• He carried out some techno-economic evaluations on the impact of green hydrogen and hydrogen economy.
• He performed a study on energy communities in Italy.
• He published 35 articles in peer-reviewed international journals, and 65 contributions in conference proceedings. Total citations 2988, h-index 28.