Department of
Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics

Environmental Engineering

The laboratory's research lines are focused on the following topics:

  • Study of biotechnological processes (microalgae-bacteria) for the purification of wastewater/anaerobic supernatants from the municipal and agro-industrial sector (winery) aimed at energy recovery (biodiesel) and added-values products (biostimulants, fertilizers, feeding supplement) in a view of circular economy;
  • Study and optimization of biological processes (dark-fermentation and anaerobic digestion) for the conversion of municipal organic waste into energy (bio-hydrogen, biogas, biomethane) and matter (fertilizers, chemical building-blocks, etc.);
  • Development of innovative anaerobic of moving bed bioreactor (MBBR) processes electrochemically assisted for the treatment of high-salinity industrial wastewater (tannery sector) for the production of biomethane and chemical building blocks;
  • Biotechnological processes utilizing aerobic mixed microbial cultures (MMC) for the treatment of civil and/or industrial wastewater and municipal solid waste, aimed at their disposal and their conversion of organic carbon into biodegradable polymers (e.g. polyhydroxyalkanoates).
Research group

Collaborators

  • Chiara Dell'Aquila (Research Fellow)
  • Narges Golabi (Research Fellow)
  • Marco Biasiolo (Postdoc)
  • Eva Carraro (Postdoc)
  • Navid Khorramian (Postdoc)
  • Francesca Mazzolini (PhD Student)
  • Aditi Parmar Chitharanjan (PhD Student)
  • Giulia Adele Tuci (PhD Student)

Collaborations

Publications

  • Lanfranchi, A.; Desmond-Le Quéméner, E.; Magdalena, J.A.; Cavinato, C.; Trably, E. Conversion of wine lees and waste activated sludge into caproate and heptanoate: Thermodynamic and microbiological insights in BIORESOURCE TECHNOLOGY, vol. 408 (ISSN 0960-8524). DOI 2024, Articolo su rivista - Scheda ARCA: 10278/5075261
  • Scarponi, P; Caminiti, V; Bravi, M; Izzo, F C; Cavinato, C Coupling anaerobic co-digestion of winery waste and waste activated sludge with a microalgae process: Optimization of a semi-continuous system in WASTE MANAGEMENT, vol. 174, pp. 300-309 (ISSN 0956-053X). DOI 2024, Articolo su rivista - Scheda ARCA: 10278/5077601
  • Cicci, A.; Scarponi, P.; Cavinato, C.; Bravi, M. Microalgae production in olive mill wastewater fractions and cattle digestate slurry: Bioremediation effects and suitability for energy and feed uses in SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT, vol. 932 (ISSN 0048-9697). DOI 2024, Articolo su rivista - Scheda ARCA: 10278/5077621
  • Lanfranchi, A; Chouaia, B; Tassinato, G; Cavinato, C Microbial Community of the Acidogenic Fermentation of Urban Waste: Effect of the Hydrodynamic Cavitation Pre-treatment in WASTE AND BIOMASS VALORIZATION, vol. n.d., pp. 1-11 (ISSN 1877-2641). DOI - URL correlato 2024, Articolo su rivista - Scheda ARCA: 10278/5030611
  • Gottardo, M; Dosta, J; Cavinato, C; Crognale, S; Tonanzi, B; Rossetti, S; Bolzonella, D; Pavan, P; Valentino, F Boosting butyrate and hydrogen production in acidogenic fermentation of food waste and sewage sludge mixture: a pilot scale demonstration in JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION, vol. 404, pp. 136919 (ISSN 0959-6526). DOI 2023, Articolo su rivista - Scheda ARCA: 10278/5022902
  • Lanfranchi A., Tassinato G., Valentino F., Martinez G.A., Jones E., Gioia C., Bertin L., Cavinato C., 2022; "Hydrodynamic cavitation pre-treatment of urban waste: Integration with acidogenic fermentation, PHAs synthesis and anaerobic digestion processes". Chemosphere, 301, 134624. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.134624
  • Valentino F.,  Munarin G., Biasiolo M., Cavinato C., Bolzonella D., Pavan P., 2021; “Enhancing volatile fatty acids (VFA) production from food waste in a two-phases pilot-scale anaerobic digestion process”. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, 9, 106062. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2021.106062
  • Scarponi P., Volpi Ghirardini A., Bravi M., Cavinato C., 2021; "Evaluation of Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus obliquus growth on pretreated organic solid waste digestate". Waste Management, 119, 235-241. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2020.09.047
  • Moretto G., Russo I., Bolzonella D., Pavan P., Majone M., Valentino F., 2020; "An urban biorefinery for food waste and biological sludge conversion into polyhydroxyalkanoates and biogas". Water Research, 170, 115371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2019.115371
  • Micolucci F., Gottardo M., Bolzonella D., Pavan P., Majone M., Valentino F., 2020; "Pilot-scale multi-purposes approach for volatile fatty acid production, hydrogen and methane from an automatic controlled anaerobic process". Journal of Cleaner Production, 277, 124297. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124297

Case studies

  • Valorization of wine processing waste through integrated biological processes of anaerobic digestion and microalgae cultivation (102022000011675, 01/06/2022)
  • Valorization of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste as a carbon source in a combined anaerobic-aerobic processes for the microbial synthesis of biodegradable polymers (17247PTWO, P020105IT)
  • Development of an automatic control method based on recirculation of anaerobic digestate for a two-phases anaerobic process for the treatment of organic matrices and biofuels generation at high hydrogen concentration (IT102018000008006, P020474IT-01)
  • Method for increased productivity of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) in fed-batch aerobic processes from biomass derived from the municipal wastewater treatment (WO2014/108878, PCT/IB2014/058242)
  • Set up of aerobic process for enhancing polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) accumulation in mixed microbial culture from activated sludge (WO2016/020884, PCT/ IB2015/055993)

Equipment

  • Gas-chromatographs Agilent Technology 6890 NTM (liquid and gas phase analysis)
  • Speedwave XPERT - Berghof (solid phase analysis)
  • UV-vis spectrophotometers (liquid phase analysis)
  • UDK 129 Distillators Kjeldahl – Velp (liquid phase analysis)
  • Nautilus BMP systems (biomethane potential and hydrogen production quantification)
  • CSTR reactors for anaerobic processes (laboratory scale)
  • CSTR reactors for anaerobic processes (pilot-scale)
  • SBR reactors for aerobic processes (pilot-scale)
  • Photobioreactors (PBR closed systems) for microalgae and red bacteria, 1, 4, 10, 30, and 50 liters in capacity
  • Raceway pilot plant (open system)
  • Thermostat-controlled chamber (usable capacity 530 liters) equipped with orbital mixing systems and LED lights at different wavelengths

Research projects

  • COST Action PURPLE GAIN (https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA21146/)
  • COST Action  FullReco4Us (https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA20133/)
  • Agenzia Spaziale Italiana 2024-2027.  BioMOON Low Gravity Biorefinery Platform
  • POR-FSE 2020-2021- “Monitoring of CO2 utilization by photosyntetic microorganism”
  • European Space Agency 2021-2023 "Purple-B: Hydrogen production from immobilized cells in photo-bioreactors"
  • EU FP7 VALORGAS: Valorisation of food waste to biogas (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/241334/it), FP7-ENERGY, GA 241334
  • IT BRIC-INAIL: Process development in the frame of Industrial Biotechnology and health-safety aspects. 2015
  • EU H2020 RESURBIS (2017): Resources from urban bio-waste (http://www.resurbis.eu), GA 7303499
  • Advanced Waste Recovery Systems Eco-design (SARR 2018), POR FESR (2014-2020)
  • PPE recycling in a circular industrial supply chain (EcoDPI 2020), POR FESR (2014-2020)
  • MODSEN (MODel of Saving electric ENergy from organic waste fermentation) , MISE (Piano triennale 2019-2021 della Ricerca di sistema elettrico nazionale, 1.6 Efficienza energetica dei prodotti e dei processi industriali)

Last update: 22/09/2025