Maria Cristina Lavagnolo, mariacristina.lavagnolo@unipd.it
Roberto Raga, roberto.raga@unipd.it
Alberto Pivato, alberto.pivato@unipd.it

Research areas:
The research group in Environmental Engineering has strong international and interdisciplinary inclination, with main focus on the development of strategies and technologies for health and environmental protection through sustainable and integrated management of solid, liquid and air emissions.
Main research themes:

• closing the material cycles by means of proper analysis of final disposal systems;
• application of circular economy principles to raw and secondary materials;
• development of technologies for the Urban Mining;
• developmemt of specific strategies for solid and liquid waste management in developing countries;
• chemical, physical and ecotoxicological characterization of waste by means of innovative parameters;
• development of low-technology systems for high-efficiency waste management (i.e. semi-aerobic landfills);
• application to waste and wastewater treatment of blue economy principles (phytoremediation, energy crops, use of Black Soldier Fly);
• development of decentralized and integrated waste and wastewater treatment systems (Aquanova system for solid waste and wastewater; thermocompost in rural areas);
• Remediation of landfills and contaminated sites (in situ aeration, landfill mining among others);
• biorefineries: renewable energy production from biomass and related modelling; residues valorization (compost, digestate); production of biomaterials (PHB, PLA and others);
• management of emerging contaminant in leachate;
• performance assessment of wastewater treatment plants in view of the integrated water cycle;
• technical support in legal disputes from environmental issues.

Keywords: Circular economy; Waste, water and air treatment; Remediation of landfills and contaminated sites; Sustainability; Environmental and health security