. Suggestions To Rome City Council To Avoid Pollution

Transcription

1 . Suggestions To Rome City Council To Avoid Pollution Ugo V. Rocca RESIT Srl Abstract The pollution in urban areas, like in Rome, is linked with fuel burning for heating homes and for local transportation by thermal motors means. In order to avoid that pollution it is mandatory to avoid fuel burning in the city. The main source of pollution in the city is fuel burning, with pollutant emissions, in both cases of urban heating and local transport means. In November, when pollution by transport means is added to pollution by urban heating in many cities, like in Rome, the City Council suggests a massive reduction of private cars transport through alternate number plate use order, a completely useless practice. The suggestion also of Government Authorities to change fuel from petroleun to gas, maintaining the fuel burning in the city, is useless too, without real structural change and without important results. Many pollutants are originated in the burning phase by the air ; nitrogen composites, NOx, for example, are produced when high temperature is reached during the combustion, independent of the specific fuel utilized. To avoid pollution in the city we have to avoid fuel combustion in the city. The first slide demonstrates that solution. It is a very old slide utilized more than 30 years ago to support the suggestion. The most utilized fuel, for example in Rome, is gas in diffused burning points. Gas may be utilized in a power plant out of the city in order to produce energy, thermal energy and/or electric energy, and then energy may be utilized in the city for urban heating and for transport means. This way it is possible to eliminate pollution in the city by fuel burning. In Italy there are many historical cities and it s important to preserve monuments and buildings from chemical deterioration due to pollutants. Public health also is to be safeguarded. The actual situation for example in Rome is not acceptable. There are at least 1,5 million burning points for urban heating and about 2 million fuel burning cars in the city. The availability of public local transport is poor : subway network in Rome is not sufficient, only two lines are available and a third line is under construction. Public local transport is based essentially on bus transport and also the number of public cars, taxis, is poor in comparison with other cities. On the contrary, too many private cars presence is tolerated by Authorities, convinced that it is normal to park cars in the streets night and day. As far as urban heating, it is often realized by diffused fuel burning, very often burning imported 1

2 gas coming from km away, without taking into consideration the pollution, safety issues, danger in local distribution and in managing gas in the houses. Authorities present that solution like a green solution, not evaluating the problems of a gas extraction, transportation for km, distribution and final combustion, problems that require constant monitoring by a dedicated independent safety organization not present actually in Italy, for the most important and diffused energy vector in the country. Greenhouse effect is strongly depending on precombustion phases of gas utilization, whereas very often only final combustion is considered for the pollution evaluation. As far as leakage problems it is to be considered that a molecule of gas CH4 is considered equivalent to molecules of CO2 for greenhouse effect. The possible recourse to renewable energies faces opposition from the economic interest of importation of too great quantities of fossil energy sources. The large opportunity of utilization of surface geothermal heat available in Italy, see slide, is not considered as due. Rome is located on an important geothermal area but that heat is not utilized in order to save fuel importation and fuel burning. Heat pumps may be utilized for better exploitation of geothermal heat. The network of gas distribution in Rome is about km long, leakage and blowups happen statistically overall in November/december when heating systems restart after a long stop time. For safety reasons, some organizations like Assoedilizia suggests suppling electric heating systems to elderly people. Accidents happen also in locations and flats not supplied by gas, as a consequence of gas leakage in to the sewerage systems (the two networks, gas and sewerage, are very often parallel along the street) and so bathrooms may be reached at ground level of the buildings, with danger of explosions, also in absence of contracts for gas supply. It is clear that a network of hot water pipelines is safer for the city and also more indicated to avoid pollution. In the city of Rome the district heating is already active in one zone, Torrino district. Some problems arise in cities with warm average temperature, like in Rome, where the heating season is not so long as in cities located in North Italy, for supply of sanitary water in the summer season. The suggestion may be to supply sanitary water through electric systems (also with heat pumps) or to encourage the summer air conditioning by heat supplied by heating network (absorption systems). To supply only sanitary water by district heating may be not cost effective. The extension of district heating in some districts in Rome, like EUR or Roma Nord, it would be interesting and easy and would eliminate pollution problems. As far as public transport in the city, it is important to reduce the number of private cars, to increase the taxi numbers and public transport means, possibly electric means, in order to eliminate the pollution problems. A suggestion may be to build a subway from Villaggio Olimpico to Testaccio district, along the left side of the river Tiber, in the bank of the river, an earthwork built less than 100 years ago, following the suggestion of Gen. Garibaldi, as member of the Italian Parliament. It is clear that severe opposition may arise to change in both transport and urban heating strategies. Petrol Companies and Insurance Companies may 2

3 object to reduce pollution through change in transport strategies with electrification of public transport means, such as tram, trolleybus and subway. Electric transport implementation means that less petrol will be required by private cars and also car insurance revenue will decrease (40 Million cars in Italy, Euro as average car insurance revenue means about 50 billion Euro each year, a vesy significant amount). The enormous network of car maintenance industry, body car shops, electric and mechanical shops, tyre and components suppliers, may resist to switch from thermal motor cars to public electrified transport means. Time is needed and many difficulties will arise in both changes, in transport means and in urban heating systems. Probably the network of installation bodies could be not really adverse in the case of district heating, they may not be involved in significant financial loss. In any case, it is necessary to modify the structure of transport and urban heating for eliminating pollution and also to avoid the Rome streets permanently occupied by parked cars. 3

4 Suggestion To Rome City Council To Avoid Pollution Ing. Ugo V. Rocca RESIT SRL

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6 CURRENT SITUATION FUTURE SOLUTION?

7 TO AVOID POLLUTION IN THE CITY WE HAVE TO AVOID FUEL BURNING IN THE CITY FUEL CHANGE IS NOT SUFFICIENT, MANY POLLUTANTS ARE CONNECTED TO THE FUEL BURNING NOT TO THE TYPE OF FUEL UTILIZED WHAT WE NEED IN THE CITY IS HOT WATER HEATING FOR HOMES AND ELECTRIC ENERGY FOR TRANSPORT MEANS AND OTHER USES WE CAN HAVE ENERGY PRODUCTION TROUGH POWER PLANTS, LOCATED OUT OR IN PERIFERY OF THE CITY, SO AVOIDING CITY POLLUTION POWER PLANT OPERATING IN COGENERATION (BOTH THERMAL AND ELECTRIC ENERGY GENERATION) MAY SAVE UP TO 30% OF FUEL BURNING, IF COMPARED TO SEPARATE PRODUCTION, SO AVOIDING 30% BURNING AND POLLUTION.

8 Linee metropolitana Roma Subway network in Rome

9 Stralcio mezzi pubblici Roma A part of public transport in Rome

10 EXAMPLE: PUBLIC LOCAL TRANSPORT : POOR 7200 TAXI IN ROME 24 / INHABITANTS PARIS 79 / INHABITANTS LONDON 83 / INHABITANTS BARCELLONA 99 / INHABITANTS CARS IN ITALY (2017) : 38 MILLION CAR DENSITY IN ROME 72 / 100 INHABITANTS ITALY 608 / INHABITANTS GERMANY 539 FRANCE 512 SPAIN 476 GREAT BRITAIN 464 ACI 2015

11 GAS DISTRIBUTION NETWORK IN ROME NETWORK: KM OF WHICH KM INOX KM POLYETHYLENE 300 KM CAST IRON DELIVERY POINTS: GAS VOLUME: M 3 / YEAR LEAKAGE PROBABILITY? 1 4 % USUALLY 1% = M 3 / YEAR WITH POLLUTION, DANGER OF EXPLOSION, CO 2 EFFECT (1 MOLECULE CH 4 = 21 / 30 MOLECULE CO 2 ) TO BE CONSIDERED, IN ADDITION, THE LEAKAGE IN EXTRACTION AND TRANSPORTATION PHASES FROM RUSSIAN REGIONS, 5000 KM.

12 Caratterizzazione geotermica dell Italia Geothermic areas in Italy

13 SUGGESTION : URBAN HEATING - DISTRICT HEATING IMPLEMENTATION, STARTING IN EUR DISTRICT AND ROMA NORD DISTRICT (PROBABLY ONLY FOR HEATING NOT FOR SANITARY WATER); - RECOURSE TO GEOTHERMAL HEAT AVAILABLE IN SURFACE GEOTHERMIC AREAS; - IMPLEMENTATION OF SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS ON THE ROOFS, FOR HOUSES AND INDUSTRIAL LABORATORIES, WITH CITY LAW AND INCENTIVES FOR PUBLIC BUILDINGS; - ENCOURAGING ELECTRICAL HEATING FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE, FOR SAFETY REASONS.

14 SUGGESTION : URBAN TRAFFIC - ELECTRIC LOCAL PUBLIC TRANSPORT IMPLEMENTATION, SUBWAY, TRAM, TROLLEY BUS, ELECTRIC CARS FOR EXAMPLE: - BUILDING A SUBWAY ALONG THE LEFT SIDE OF THE RIVER FROM «VILLAGGIO OLIMPICO» TO «TESTACCIO», INSIDE THE WALL BANK, WHICH WAS BUILT LESS THAN 100 YEARS AGO, WOULD BE A SIMPLE EARTHWORK; - RECOURSE TO ELECTRICAL CARS, BOTH PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CARS, WITH RECHARGE POINT INSTALLATIONS IN THE CITY; - ENCOURAGING CARSHARING TRANSPORT AND CYCLES; - IMPLEMENTATION OF TAXI NUMBERS FROM UP TO LICENSES.

15 PROBLEMS AND DIFFICULTIES - FINANCIAL, OBTAINING AUTHORIZATIONS, TECHNICAL ASPECTS FOR DEVELOPMENT - OPPOSITION TO DECISIONS BY STRONG POWERS WITH ECONOMIC INTERESTS FOR EXAMPLE: URBAN TRAFFIC POSSIBILE OPPOSITION BY - CAR MANUFACTURERS - PETROL COMPANIES - INSURANCE COMPANIES (40MLN CARS IN ITALY BY 1250 /CAR = 50 MLD, A VERY SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT) - NETWORK OF CAR MAINTENCE INDUSTRY (CAR BODY AND MOTOR REPAIR SHOPS, TYRE, ELECTRICAL SHOPS) VERY NUMEROUS IN ITALY URBAN HEATING POSSIBLE OPPOSITION BY - PETROL COMPANIES AND IMPORTATION GAS COMPANIES - INSTALLATION BODIES ARE PROBABLY NOT REALLY ADVERSE TO CHANGE FROM GAS NETWORK TO HOT WATER DISTRIBUTION NETWORK INSTALLATION.