The UPO multidisciplinary approach to circular & bio economy

Transcription

1 The UPO multidisciplinary approach to circular & bio economy Università del Piemonte Orientale Enrico Boccaleri

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3 Ranking: 10 position in the survey by Sole 24 Ore, 15 position in VQR ( )

4 Health & medical Science (NO) Food & Drug Science (NO) Bio(techno)logy (AL/VC/NO) Chemistry Material Science ICT (AL/VC) Economics (NO/AL) Law and Society (AL/NO) Humanities (VC/AL)

5 functional nanomaterials, sustainable materials, process optimisation, molecular modelling, environment chemistry Food & Drug Science (NO) Bio(techno)logy (AL/VC/NO) drug discovery and delivery, modulation of biologic processes, active pharmaceutical principles, food quality and safety, bioactive species from byproducts, ingredient & food design. Chemistry Material Science (AL/VC) botanics, molecular biology, ecotoxicology, -omic techniques (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics), bioinformatics

6 Enzyme engineering Natural & synthetic principles Food & Drug Science (NO) Bio(techno)logy (AL/VC/NO) Functional materials for drug delivery Chemistry Material Science (AL/VC) Materials from biomasses Phytomining

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8 Clinical nutrition Nutraceutics Pre/Probiotics Autioimmune disease center Food safety Regulations Food and natural historical biodiversity Sustainable Development models Cultural heritage science

9 Bio as source Bio as the mean Bio as the destination of products Circular & Bio Economy Bending linear processes to circular Finding open circles in production processes Favouring recursive circularity Economy as saving Economy as sustainability Economy as business and development

10 Resource ALL-ROUND VALUE UP! Sustainable transformation Output exploitation Environmental impact Economic impact Green Chemistry Biotechnology Food & Drug Processing Characterisation Toxicology Applications Environmental science Ecology LCA Savings/Opprtunities (G)local economics Economic geography & Logistics LCCA

11 Handling food waste. Chicken eggshell is an aviculture by-product Wastes are produced during egg yolk and glair extraction its disposal has been listed worldwide as one of the worst environmental issue Facts and figures: 150,000 tons of this material disposed in landfills each year (US market) Hourly throughput of wet eggshell around kg/h is typically produced kg/h of desiccated clean eggshell (SME) x4 throughput over four lines in large scale production plants more than 3 tons/hour of clean eggshell Italian market: 13 billion eggs produced every year, whose about 40% is employed in egg processing, which lead to the presence of more than tons eggshell per year

12 Current use: Landfilling (associated cost: 0.25 /Kg, plus the drying step before shipment); ingredient for fertilizers or for feedstock for animals different from chickens (selling price: 15 /ton, minus plus the drying step before shipment) Limitations/opportunities: The eggshell constitutes the 11 % of the total weight of the egg and is composed by calcium carbonate (94 %), calcium phosphate (1 %), organic matter (4 %) such as as type X collagen, sulphated polysaccharides, and other proteins, and magnesium carbonate (1 %) According European standards, in most countries eggshell cannot be used as chicken feedstock, since it contains some protein residuals, which would lead to cannibalism.

13 State of the art: ITTO Use of eggshells as additives composite materials The key aspect Using eggshell as an available, inexpensive and light-weight feedstock for a potential source of different products, organic fractions and raw materials A new approach Extracting nutrients and materials from eggshell with sustainable methods, avoiding also the use of raw non-renewable materials and the landfilling of by-products Bio-based products Valuable organic fractions (proteins, saccharides, collagen) Pure calcium carbonate, used as filler Calcium-hydroxyapatite (HA Ca 10 (PO 4 ) 6 (OH) 2 )), to be used as biomaterial Heavy metal sorbents for wastewater treatment Functional metal oxides

14 Materials from biomasses Wheat and Rice are the main crops worldwide and Piedmont is a relevant producer in EU Facts and figures: W & R leftover: - up to 5 t/ha straw on the field - 1 t/ha of husk for rice during processing. Production directly linked to the cereal demand not in competition with food chain Annual worldwide production: - about 600 million tons wheat straw - a similar amount for rice straw - more than 100 mil tons of rice husk

15 Current use Only about 20% of rice straw is used in valuable chains, most of the material returned to soil, mixed in manure, burned directly in the fields or in specific plants for power and heat generation Limitations/opportunities: - no profitable use of the total amount of surplus biomass by current farming procedures - burying or laying in paddy fields harmful for the environment (greenhouse gas release) - Burning destroys the organic biobased fraction and require control of the emissions due to the high silicate content

16 The key aspect Main hinders are due to high levels of silica contained in these biomasses (5-10% wt. dry mass in rice straw, 2-5% in wheat, 10-20% in rice husk and wheat awns) A new approach The silica content of straw and husk can become a benefit, as cereal residues can be raw material to produce several high added value inorganic and organic materials for a wide range of applications New products/value chains. 1. High purity (> 95%) inorganics of natural origin 2. Fibrous organic materials 3. Organic liquid fractions for biorefinery/biofuel processing 4. Fertilisers with mineral components and organic humic fraction State of the art: IT A process to extract inorganics from cereal biomass via mild treatment

17 Materials from waste materials Cement and concrete are unsubstitutable materials for infrastructure development The production of them is based on non renewable mineral resources and environmentally demanding processes The demolition of buildings is currently only partially involved in the formulation of new materials Facts and figures: In Europe, about 180 million tons of concrete demolition waste (CDW) are produced every year, corresponding annually to 500 kg for each citizen: this amount represents around 31% of all the waste produced in the European Union.

18 Current use: Process from CDW to new binders is not relevantly exploited. Recycling of concrete aggregates (RCA) is practiced in Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands. In Germany only the coarser part of the recycled concrete can be used in the production of new concrete Limitations/opportunities: The way towards a total recovery of concrete demolition waste (CDW) is a challenge requiring technological and scientific efforts to upcycle waste materials to substitute aggregates and fraction of binder

19 The key aspect There are demonstrated possibilities to: - Separate and selectively collect non-hydrated and hydrated fractions - Employ selected fractions into new cement burning processes A new approach. The cement production process and the formulation of concrete can move from a linear cradle to grave process to a circular cradle to cradle process A series of low-impact products. Recovered fractions for cement burning Recovered fractions for new cement formulations (i.e. geopolymers) Recycled aggregates with controlled and stable performances State of the art: EP Cementitious products obtainable from disposed concrete

20 All this is: a part of WHAT WE DO a perspective on WHAT WE CAN DO an assessment on HOW WE CAN DO it Further details on: ricerca@uniupo.it Thank you for your kind attention