A liquid phantom for investigating light propagation through layered diffusive media is described. The diffusive medium is an aqueous suspension of calibrated scatterers and absorbers. A thin membrane separates layers with different optical properties. Experiments showed that a material with scattering properties should be used for the membrane to avoid the perturbation due to the guided propagation that occurs through a transparent layer. Examples of measurements on a three-layered medium are reported both in the cw and in the time domain.

This paper presents a novel concept, the Hybrid Power Pack (HPP), which consists of a hybridization\ud kit for transforming small city cars, powered by an original diesel engine, into a parallel hybrid\ud vehicle. The study was jointly conducted by the University of Rome “Sapienza” and the Enea\ud Casaccia research center. The idea is to design a hybrid powertrain that can be installed in a typical\ud microcar, which means that all systems and components will be influenced by the limited space\ud available in the motor compartment of the vehicle. In this paper the details of the mechanical and\ud electrical realization of the powertrain will be discussed and the simulation of a small city car\ud equipped with HPP will be presented and the results discussed and analyzed. The hybrid system\ud also includes the battery pack which is composed of twenty-four Li-ion cells made by EIG, connected\ud in series. The storage system is controlled as regards the voltage and temperature by a\ud Battery Management System (BMS). All the above components are connected and managed by a\ud control unit. The HPP presented in this paper obtains a reduction in fuel consumption higher than\ud 20%. The solution presented with the HPP with its management strategy and the addition of the\ud “plug-in function” makes the hybrid vehicle suitable in terms of performance and consumption in\ud every driving conditions. The ideal strategy behind the “plug-in function” could represent a guideline\ud for further achievements and experimentations, because it offers a simple hardware layout\ud and a real reduction in fuel consumption

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Bio-methane as fuel in a natural gas engine is a viable solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The present paper illustrates the results of the first set of measurements carried out in the BiomethER project (EULIFE). BiomethER aimed to design and build two innovative bio-methane production plants, located in Emilia Romagna region (Italy), fed by different feedstock: the first one with sewage sludge and the other with landfill waste. Biogas extracted by the anaerobic digester was cleaned and upgraded to biomethane for road vehicles application. To verify the compatibility of biomethane in conventional compressed natural gas engine (CNG) vehicles, three passenger cars have been tested with two gases: conventional natural gas and bio-methane coming by BiomethER sewage sludge plant. Test concerned dynamic performances and exhaust emissions and was operated on the chassis dynamometer facility, in ENEA Casaccia Research Centre. Preliminary results showed no appreciable deviation was noticeable for fuel consumption and CO2 emissions between the two fuels, acceleration and maximum power were almost the same for the three vehicles tested. The WTW evaluation of GHG emissions for the biomethane resulted in up to 79% lower in comparison with natural gas provided by the Italian pipeline.

The lead-acid battery of an electric minibus has been replaced with a smaller size lithium-ion battery system consisting of standard 12 V modules and a hierarchical battery management system. The minibus has experimentally been tested to show that the reduced battery capacity, which also cuts costs, does not affect the daily operational mission. This is assuming that the driving phases are alternated with fast charging periods. Experiments show that fast charging of 8 min guarantees up to 1 h of operation.