The present paper aims to investigate the environmental impacts of a real municipal solid waste management facility operating in Italy including two power units, i.e., a combined heat and power system and an internal combustion engine, fed by the biogas produced from anaerobic digestion and waste disposal in sanitary landfill. The Life Cycle Assessment study is carried out in Simapro 9.1.1.7 and, in addition to the base case scenario, the implementation of additional renewable energy and circular economy solutions is evaluated. More precisely a PV plant on the roof of the anaerobic digesters section and the use of plastic and paper residues in a gasification process for additional heat and power production are considered. The main outcomes of the simulations demonstrate the following: (i) the benefits in terms of energy and fuel savings provided by the two power units; (ii) the environmental impact reduction due to the compost obtained from the anaerobic digestion of the organic waste as potential fertilizer; (iii) a potential power capacity of 2 MW through the gasification of the plastic and paper residues. With reference to the latter, despite bringing an increase of the carbon emissions (+48%) compared to the base case, it could contribute to reach higher environmental standards for MSW composting facilities.

Renewable energy communities (RECs) have been gaining momentum around the world, as a way to promote sustainable development and combat climate change. These communities are typically composed of individuals, businesses, and organizations that come together to invest in and promote the use of renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, and hydraulic power. This article focuses on the benefits that renewable energy communities bring to a territory through the diffusion of renewable energy systems, tackling different issues like local depopulation, increasing energy prices, and a lack of jobs, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving air quality. The novelty of this article lies in the results from the first-of-its-kind national call within the Next Appennino program, part of the National Complementary plan, aimed at the formation and proliferation of RECs in the area severed by the 2009 and 2016 earthquakes in Italy, as a way to add social, environmental, and sustainable value to the reconstruction of this territory. The data refer to the municipality of Castelraimondo and Unione Montana dei Monti Azzurri (a consortium of mountain municipalities), both located in the Marche region. Analysis of the consumer and prosumer energy needs, as well as the quantification of the exploitable production from the new renewable generators installed, showed that a total of 6.134 GWh/year can be shared by the community.

In the last decade, growing awareness about CO₂ emissions is supporting the authorities in a more sustainable society. The proposed solutions embrace different topics, such as renewable energy implementation, lower waste production, and carbon capture and storage technologies (CCS). The latter is based upon the best available knowledge about the thermophysical properties of CO₂, which are not always satisfactory for its complete characterization. In this work, it is investigated the interaction of the CO₂ in solid phase (dry-ice) with sandy soil, a phenomenon that can potentially occur following pipeline ruptures. An experimental setup and a numerical model have been developed to measure and validate the temperature profiles beneath the dry-ice bank at steady-state conditions. The model has been validated with the experimental data by defining a suitable range of the thermal conductivity at the solid phase (0.25–0.30 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹) that led to the best match (deviation of 7.81%). Finally, the overall heat transfer coefficient (85.56–86.35 W m⁻² K⁻¹) has been numerically calculated.