GreenValve
Green Valve is an innovative regulation valve designed by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering for the regulation of water flow and the dissipated energy recovery. The energy dissipation has always been a problem for the water networks and central thermo-heating for which it is calculated an average energy loss amounts to 4.6 to 8 MWh / month, or, in other words, the equivalent of the average energy consumption of 20-40 families of 4 people. Recover this energy would provide a substantial savings and a lower environmental impact, in Energy Harvesting logic. The Green Valve technology consists of a particular turbine inserted inside of a conventional control valve (typically on-off) that allows to recover energy from the flow. The orientation and the turbine design are the main points of innovation.
The Green Valve technology it is simple, innovative and cost-effective. It has been presented in different international conferences attracting a wide interest. In particular, a Swiss company has recently signed a license agreement for the development and commercialisation of the Green Valve technology in the Swizz territory. The company is now collaborating with Politecnico researchers to install and test the Green Valve in a water supply system.
