Inaugural lecture: Adriano Sciacovelli

From Phase Change to Prolonged Storage of Energy: Engineering the Future of Heat

Thermal energy decarbonization is essential for climate neutrality, yet supply heating and cooling in industry, cities, and transport remains dominated by fossil systems and flexible storage of thermal energy is lacking. Long-duration storage of heat is a pressing challenge.

Adriano's vision is to develop next generation thermo-mechanical systems (TMES) that are compact, modular, and economically viable for prolonged storage and supply of zero carbon heating & cooling. By combining phase-change phenomena, thermo-fluid science, and optimization, we can overcome the limits conventional, unfit for purpose current energy storage concepts.

This lecture will outline pathways to scalable TMES devices that accelerate integration of renewable energy for heating and cooling.

Advances in TMES, latent heat storage, and reactions-bases storage will be presented, along with future directions for research. Particular attention will be given to links between phase change thermal phenomena, engineered structures for performance enhancement, and novel thermodynamic cycles concepts improving thermo-economic feasibility.

The lecture is followed by a reception from 4 pm to 5 pm, offering an opportunity to network and celebrate Adriano's professorship.

See more details here.

To confirm your attendance, kindly register here.