Ricerc@Sapienza

Biodegradation of plant waste is a fundamental biological process of the circulation of organic substances in nature, which allows heterotrophic microorganisms to use a polymer organic substrate formed by photosynthetic macroorganisms. The ability to degradation high-molecular components of wood have various prokaryotes and fungi. The accumulation of a large amount of bark and pulp wastes from the paper and woodworking industry is the serious environmental problem despite the fack that enzyme systems which could utilize raw vegetable materials are widespread in nature.

The treatment of excavation by-products has been studied using Fenton and Heterogeneous Fenton processes, by the addition of zero-valent iron nanoparticles (nZVI) as catalyzer. This study demonstrated that both methods could significantly reduce the organic content of the liquid extract from excavated soils. Operating parameters, such as pH and catalyzer/oxidant (w/w) ratio, were varied to investigate their influence on the Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) removal efficiency.

Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) technology is currently the most widely used technique in mechanized tunnelling with Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) and particularly in urban en-vironments, because of several advantages, as the possibility to excavate in different geo-logical conditions and effectively controlling the induced effects on the pre-existing struc-tures. EPB technology requires the continuous injection of chemicals during the advance-ment: this may induce the accumulation of xenobiotic compounds in the excavated debris.

Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM) are currently the most widely used machines to perform tunnel excavation, particularly in urban areas. This technology involves the injection of chemicals as conditioning mixtures, which commonly raises concerns limiting the reuse of soils after excavation. This study deals with the prospect of a simplified, rapid and replicable methodology for the evaluation of the biodegradability of these conditioning mixtures.

For decades, human activities, industrialization, and agriculture have contaminated soils and water with several compounds, including potentially toxic metals and organic persistent xenobiotics. The co-occurrence of those toxicants poses challenging environmental problems, as complicated chemical interactions and synergies can arise and lead to severe and toxic effects on organisms.

The present study focused on 11-nor-9carboxy-Δ9-THC (THC-COOH) and Benzoylecgonine (BE), the most common metabolites of cannabis and cocaine, respectively, present in the domestic sewage entering the wastewater treatment plants. The aims of the study were: (1) to validate the analytical method of detection in wastewater and sludge; (2) to determine contribution of biodegradation and other processes to the removal in the biological reactor of the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and the response of biomass to different drug concentrations.

The wide diffusion of Emerging Organic Micropollutants (EOMs) in the environment is receiving increasing attention due to their potential toxicological effects on living organisms. So far, the Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) have not been designed with the purpose to remove these contaminants; therefore, they can represent the major source of release into the environment both through the effluent and the wasted sludge.