University of Trento

🎓 #University;

Keywords: HTC, Process Water, Sewage Sludge, Laboratory, MSW, Agroindustrial Residues, Adsorption, Solid Fuel, Soil Applications, Modeling; Process Design; Bioplastics; Circular Bioeconomy

🔗 https://www.unitn.it/en

📧 Luca Fiori – luca.fiori@unitn.it

🔬 Group Overview

The “Green Processes Engineering” (GPEG) group deals with hydrothermal processes, and HTC in particular, under the guidance of Prof. Luca Fiori, head of the Biomass Laboratory (https://www.dicam.unitn.it/en/94/biomass-lab). We have been working with hydrothermal processes since 2010, starting with HTG and then, since 2013, dealing with HTC but also thermal hydrolysis and, to some extent, HTL. We deal with hydrothermal processes tout court and their insertion into more complex systems that include biochemical processes (anaerobic digestion and composting) and thermochemical processes (pyrolysis and chemical or physical activation). We valorize residual biomass and organic waste for energy and material recovery. In short, we focus on the circular bioeconomy in terms of process engineering and biorefinery.
The GPEG operates at the Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of Trento.

⚙️ We have extensive experience in the treatment of municipal organic waste (OFMSW, sewage sludge, bioplastics), agro-industrial waste (grape, olive, and apple pomace, etc.), and livestock waste (manure). We recover bioenergy (biogas, solid fuel) and materials: we produce carbon materials with adsorption capacity for environmental remediation, advanced carbon materials for technological applications (carbon electrodes, etc.), carbon materials enriched in nutrients (P, N) for use in agriculture, platform chemicals for the green chemistry. We self-designed and built HTC reactors of various capacities: from the lab-scale 50 mL reactor to the 2 L bench-scale reactor. We also built a solar-powered HTC reactor, directly coupled to a parabolic dish solar concentrator. We are also equipped with a tubular reactor for pyrolysis and chemical activation, anaerobic digestion systems for measuring the biochemical methane potential (BMP), self-built composting systems (40 L), solvent extraction systems capable of operating both at atmospheric pressure and with subcritical pressurized water (up to 100 bar) and supercritical CO2 (up to 600 bar).