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).
Collaborations
- Department of Chemistry, "La Sapienza" University of Rome
- Department of Civil Engineering, Chemistry, Environment and Materials, University of Bologna [ITA]
- Department of Biotechnology, University of Verona [ITA]
- Department of Chemical Engineering/Analytical Chemistry, University of Barcelona
- National Research Council (Istituto di Ricerca sulle Acque), IRSA-CNR [ITA]
- Veritas S.p.A. [ITA]
- Contarina S.p.A. [ITA]
- Alto Trevigiano Servizi S.p.A, [ITA]
- AnoxKaldnes A.B.
- Cheers srl [ITA]
- Unitech srl [ITA]
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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
- COST Action FullReco4Us
- 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, finanziato da 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 , 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)