University of Campania

ITA | ENG

Project
"Recovery of Organic Waste through Hydropyrolysis" aims to produce strategic, economic and environmental advantages for industries interested in the efficient recovery of organic waste of agro-industrial and urban origin. The study focuses on the thermal hydropyrolysis process of solid waste from anaerobic digestion. This waste accounts for 65% of the fed waste and contains organic carbon about 29% of which can be recovered instead of oxidized. The high degree of innovation of the project is given by the following:

• recovery of waste material from an anaerobic process resulting in a material with good added value and lower industrial costs;
• the waste product of hydrothermal carbonization can be recycled for the carbonization itself, thus allowing a “circular” process, with waste minimization and increased revenues.

Financial Resources
The project was funded by the NOP Research and Innovation 2014-2020 within the Action Innovative Industrial Doctorates, Cycle XXXIII – Academic Year 2017-2018. For the implementation of this initiative, the University of Campania, “Luigi Vanvitelli” received a budget of 85.743,06 euro and established a three-year doctoral scholarship in Environment, Design and Innovation. 

Impact
The project is expected to have a positive impact on the Italian waste treatment industry which tends to prefer unskilled labour and inefficient traditional processes. The doctoral student will be able to transfer a high level of expertise to the production system, in line with the growing demand for eco-friendly processes that require fewer resources and with the need to provide the community with cheaper and more environmentally friendly services. The doctoral student will acquire process, technical and analytical expertise regarding comparative technologies related to the process studied and will be able to perform technology audits and draw up feasibility studies in the field of biomass treatment, taking into consideration all the thermochemical treatment options that are currently being investigated in the research sector.
The project includes a 12-month placement at the company C.E.A. (Centro energie alternative) S.p.A. in Caivano, and a 6-month placement at Western Engineering - Spencer Engineering Building, Western University, Ontario, Canada.

 

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08/06/2021