Ricerc@Sapienza

An integrated model of a two-step process for the ex situ bioremediation of xenobiotic contaminated soil has been formulated. The process is characterized by an initial extraction step of the organic contaminants from the polluted soil by contact with inexpensive and commercially-available polymer beads, followed by release and biodegradation of the xenobiotics, with parallel polymer bioregeneration, in a Two-Phase Partitioning Bioreactor (TPPB). The regenerated polymer is cyclically reused in the extraction step, so reflecting the robust and otherwise-inert properties of such polymers.

Aim: Biodiversity monitoring and conservation are extremely complex, and surrogate taxa may represent proxies to test methods and solutions. However, cross-taxon correlations in species diversity (i.e., cross-taxon congruence) may vary widely with spatial scale. Our goal is to assess how cross-taxon congruence varies with spatial scale in European temperate forests. We expect that congruence in species diversity increases when shifting from fine to coarse spatial scales, with differences between species richness and composition, and across pairs of taxonomic groups.

Few Internet of Things (IoT) systems monitoring energy consumption in buildings have focused on the educational community. IoT in the educational domain can jump-start a process of sustainability awareness and behavioral change towards energy savings, as well as provide tangible financial savings. We present a real-world multi-site IoT deployment, comprising 19 school buildings, aiming at enabling IoT-based energy awareness and sustainability lectures, promoting energy-saving behaviors supported by IoT data.

This paper investigates municipal solid waste management future scenarios of La Paz, developing big city of Bolivia, for improving the selective collection of recyclable materials. The objective of the paper is to suggest a multidimensional approach, both quantitative and qualitative, for planning sustainable waste management systems in areas with no data availability. The research assessed six different long-term management plans, considering all recycling settings feasible for La Paz.

Extra virgin olive-oil (EVO) production is an important economic activity for several countries, especially in the Mediterranean area such as Spain, Italy, Greece and Tunisia. The two major by-products from olive oil production, solid-liquid Olive Pomace (OP) and the Olive Mill Waste Waters (OMWW), are still mainly disposed on soil, in spite of the existence of legislation which already limits this practice.

Transport infrastructures are lifelines: They provide transportation of people and goods, in ordinary and emergency conditions, thus they should be resilient to increasing natural disasters and hazards. This work presents several technologies adopted around the world to adapt and defend transport infrastructures against effects of climate change. Three main climate change challenges have been examined: Air temperatures variability and extremization, water bombs, and sea level rise.