Environmental and Sanitary Engineering
Supervisors:
Paola Verlicchi, Prof. Luigi Masotti
The main research fields in the area of the Environmental and Sanitary Engineering refer to water and wastewater treatments and in particular
Wastewater treatment
- Treatment of concentrated wastewaters (landfill leachates, septic sludges, industrial wastewaters) – experimental investigations, sequence of treatments and simulations by software,
- Wastewater treatment plant upgrades for nutrients removal, treatment trains and simulations by software
- Chemical and physical disinfection of secondary effluents by peracetic acid, ozone and UV – experimental investigations on pilot plants
- Combined disinfection of secondary effluent (natural and chemical) – experimental investigations on pilot plants
- Constructed wetlands for polishing treatment of domestic and industrial wastewater – experimental investigations
- Study of the mechanisms of cloggings in subsurface horizontal flow beds.
- Hospital wastewaters: characterization (by measured and predicted concentration of micro-pollutants, namely pharmaceuticals, disinfectants, contrast media, surfactants and conventional macro-pollutants) and study of their treatability. Experimental investigations on pilot plants (MBR, CAS, constructed wetlands and their combinations)
- Best practices in the management and treatments of hospital effluents.
- Environmental risk assessment of treated hospital effluents.
- Removal of emerging contaminants in biological systems (conventional activated sludge systems, membrane biological reactors, constructed wetlands) – experimental investigations
- Odor removal in wastewater treatment plants.
- Technical and economical feasibility study for a project of reuse of reclaimed wastewater for irrigation purposes
- Occurrence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in untreated and treated sewage sludge.
- Environmental risk assessment posed by the presence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in different water environments, in treated sludge and in sludge-amended soil.
Small wastewater treatment plants:
- Determination of the most adequate treatment with reference to flow rate and environmental characteristics
- Guidelines for the design of small and medium wastewater treatment plant size (< 10000equivalent inhabitants)
- Construction and operational costs for wastewater treatment plants up to 10 000 equivalent inhabitants.
Water treatment:
- Microorganisms and micro-pollutants removal in pre-stockage basins of raw surface – experimental investigations,
- Biological removal of nitrogen compounds in water works- experimental investigations,
- Comparison among advanced disinfection system in drinkable waters,
- Effect of ozonation of raw surface water before pre-stockage in basins - experimental investigations,
- Effect of a pre ozonation step on coagulation processes,
- Occurrence of PPCPs in surface water and groundwater.
- PPCPs and ECDs removal in water works
- Evaluation of the best available technologies in removing persistent compounds (including pharmaceuticals) from water for drinkable purposes.
- Technical and economical feasibility study to enlarge the withdrawal of surface water at the water works of large water works by means of riverbank filtration. The case of the water works in Ferrara.
