Ivano Vassura

Automotive shredder residue (ASR) characterization for a valuable management

Car fluff is the waste produced after end-of-life-vehicles (ELVs) shredding and metal recovery. It is made of plastics, rubber, glass, textiles and residual metals and it accounts for almost one-third of a vehicle mass. Due to the approaching of Directive 2000/53/EC recycling targets, 85% recycling rate and 95% recovery rate in 2015, the implementation of automotive shredder residue (ASR) sorting and recycling technologies appears strategic. The present work deals with the characterization of the shredder residue coming from an industrial plant, representative of the Italian situation, as for annual fluxes and technologies involved. The aim of this study is to characterize ASR in order to study and develop a cost effective and environmentally sustainable recycling system. Results show that almost half of the residue is made of fines and the remaining part is mainly composed of polymers. Fine fraction is the most contaminated by mineral oils and heavy metals. This fraction produces also up to 40% ashes and its LHV is lower than the plastic-rich one. Foam rubber represents around half of the polymers share in car fluff. Moreover, some chemical-physical parameters exceed the limits of some parameters fixed by law to be considered refuse derived fuel (RDF). As a consequence, ASR needs to be pre-treated in order to follow the energy recovery route.

End-of-Life Vehicles management: Italian material and energy recovery efficiency

Each European Member State must comply with Directive 2000/53/EC recycling and recovery targets by 2015, set to 85% and 95%, respectively. This paper reports a shredder campaign trial developed and performed in Italy at the beginning of 2008. It turns out to be the first assessment about the critical aspects belonging to the Italian End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs) reverse supply chain involving 18 dismantling plants, a shredder plant and 630 ELV representatives of different categories of vehicles treated in Italy during 2006. This trial aims at improving the experimental knowledge related to ELVs added waste, pre-treatment, part reuse, recycling and final metal separation and car fluff disposal. Finally, the study also focuses on the calculation of the effective Italian ELV recycling rate, which results equal to 80.8%, and auto shredder residue (ASR) characterization. According to the results obtained in this work, ASR still contains up to 8% of metals and 40% of polymers that could be recovered. Moreover, physical-chemical analysis showed a Lower Heat Value of almost 20,000 kJ/kg and revealed the presence of pollutants such as heavy metals, mineral oils, PCBs and hydrocarbons.

Environmental impacts of waste incineration in a regional system (Emilia Romagna, Italy) evaluated from a life cycle perspective

The advisability of using incineration, among the other technologies in Municipal Solid Waste Management, is still a debated issue. However, technological evolution in the field of waste incineration plants has strongly decreased their environmental impacts in the last years. A description of a regional situation in Northern Italy (Emilia Romagna Region) is here presented, to assess the impacts of incinerators by the application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology and to stress the most impacting steps in incineration process. The management of solid residues and heavy metal emission resulted the most important environmental concerns. Furthermore, a tentative comparison with the environmental impact of landfill disposal, for the same amount of waste, pointed out that incineration process must be considered environmentally preferable.

Source apportionment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in a coastal lagoon by molecular and isotopic characterisation

Abstract The origin of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contamination in sediments of a coastal lagoon of the Adriatic Sea (Pialassa, Baiona, Ravenna, Italy) has been investigated. Concentrations, molecular distributions and stable carbon isotopic ratios ( δ 13 C) of PAHs extracted from core sediments and soils have been determined by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence and diode array detection (DAD), by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and isotopic ratio mass spectrometry (GC–IRMS). The total concentrations of PAHs in core sediments are highly variable, ranging from 30 to 112,000 ng/g and exhibit depth profiles similar to those registered for mercury and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). PVC was manufactured in the nearby industry from acetylene, in turn produced by partial combustion/pyrolysis of methane, the process considered responsible for PAH emission into the lagoon. In accordance, the molecular pattern of PAHs found in sediments is similar to that reported for the interior of fuel rich premixed flames of methane, being characterised by the dominance of pyrene, cyclopenta[ cd ]pyrene, benzo[ ghi ]fluoranthene, fluoranthene and by the presence of several five-membered ring PAHs, including high levels of 4 H -cyclopenta[ def ]phenanthrene and minor amounts of dicyclopentapyrenes. The extremely low δ 13 C values of sedimentary PAHs (from −62‰ to −36‰) confirm that local biogenic methane is their major source. The distribution of the isotopic signatures suggests PAHs were introduced into the lagoon by direct discharge into the water body rather than by atmospheric fallout. The uncommon molecular and isotopic distribution of these PAHs is proposed as fingerprinting specific for pyrolysis of biogenic methane useful to source apportionment.

DISTRIBUTION OF MERCURY AND OTHER HEAVY METALS IN CORE SEDIMENTS OF THE NORTHERN ADRIATIC SEA

Seven sediment cores were collected along a transect about20 km off from the mouth of the Po River, in the northernAdriatic Sea (Italy). Cores were characterised by differentdepositional sequences associated with late Pleistocene-Holocene lowstand (LST), transgressive (TST) and highstand (HST) system tracts. Sediment samples were analysed for mercury, copper, nickel, chromium, manganese and iron, aswell as for total organic matter. Metal distributiongenerally showed vertical and spatial variability ascribed tograin size effects with no significant anthropogenicperturbation. Conversely, mercury showed vertical profilescharacterised by surface enrichment, with concentrations inthe upper layer (50–230 ng g-1) exceeding 3–11 times the background value of 20 ng g-1 determined in bottomcores. Surface maxima were attributed to anthropogenic mercurydelivered mainly by the Po River.

Indicators of waste management efficiency related to different territorial conditions

The amount of waste produced and the control of separate collection are crucial issues for the planning of a territorial Integrated Waste Management System, enabling the allocation of each sorted waste fraction to the proper treatment and recycling processes. The present study focuses on assessing indicators of different waste management systems in areas characterized by different territorial conditions. The investigated case study concerns the municipalities of Emilia Romagna (northern Italy), which present a rather uniform socioeconomic situation, but a variety of geographic, urban and waste management characteristics. A survey of waste generation and collection rates was carried out, and correlated with the different territorial conditions, classifying the municipalities according to altitude and population density. The best environmental performances, in terms of high separate collection rate, were found on average in rural areas in the plain, while the lowest waste generation was associated with rural hill towns.

The Lagoon of Ravenna (Italy): Characterisation of mercury-contaminated sediments

Abstract Between 1958 and 1973, the wetland called Pialassa Baiona near Ravenna (Italy) had been heavily polluted by industrial effluents, among which mercury represented the most hazardous contaminant. Three sediment cores representative of a channel and a pond in the southern area, close to the discharge point, were analysed. Up to 244 μg/g (dry weight) of mercury were observed in the top 0–20 cm layer. Among various parameters under study, good correlation was found between mercury and redox properties of the sediment, sulphur and organic matter. Styrene/butadiene based polymers, produced by the same industrial area since 1958, were found to be an important component of organic matter. Despite the analogy with the Minamata case, mercury appears to be efficiently trapped by the sediment, probably in the form of sulphide and/or bound to the organic matter and, so far, it has not represented a hazard for public health as confirmed by the lack of epidemiological effects in Ravenna area due to exposure to mercury.

Life cycle inventory improvement in the pharmaceutical sector: assessment of the sustainability combining PMI and LCA tools

Pharmaceutical chemicals are complex, high value added products that typically impose significantly greater impacts on the environment per kilogram compared to basic chemicals. A variety of green metrics have been developed to guide the design of chemistries and processes that are more sustainable. Among these, Process Mass Intensity (PMI) was selected by the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable as the key parameter to express sustainability. However, researchers were concerned that these metrics could miss relevant factors that would be addressed by a more comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Lack of inventory data for many chemicals poses a significant barrier to more extensive implementation of LCA for pharmaceuticals. A cradle-to-gate LCA of Viagra™ is used to present a practical approach to construct inventories using patent and literature data. Details of the improved inventory data were presented for four chemicals to illustrate the methodology and highlight the importance of considering out-sourced processing of reagents used in pharmaceutical synthesis. A more comprehensive impact assessment was conducted using ReCiPe v1.11 at both midpoint and endpoint levels. A comparison of two synthesis routes rated them well against results from the simpler green metrics. An area for future work is to address the lack of characterization factors for toxicity and other impact categories for many chemicals.

Chemical characterisation of spent rechargeable batteries

A chemical characterisation of used batteries can give useful information to implement suitable recycling techniques and to estimate the flux of the different materials recovered. This work is aimed to provide quantitative data about the composition of mixed batteries (in particular, Ni-Cd, Ni-MH and Li-ion batteries) collected in a Northern Italian town in order to evaluate the feasibility of recovery processes applied to the selected material. The higher concentration of metals in the <3mm fraction suggested that significant quantities of valuable elements could be recovered: in particular, for a kg of the <3mm fraction deriving from disassembled batteries, about 390 g Ni and 330 g Cd can be recovered from Ni-Cd, 630 g Ni, 80 g Co from Ni-MH and 250 g Co, 110 g Ni, 120 g Cu from Li-ion ones. Leaching tests applied to the same fractions, to assess possible contaminant releases, resulted in low metal content in aqueous solutions (except for Al and Fe, the concentrations of all metals remained below 1mg/kg). Even so, great care is required in all handling activities due to the high pH values of leachate solutions.

Butadiene from biomass, a life cycle perspective to address sustainability in the chemical industry

In the past few decades, innovative approaches such as Green Chemistry and Green Engineering have come out in order to set the basic principles for a more sustainable chemical industry. However, researchers also need a more scientific and quantitative tool to address the sustainability behind the application of those principles. Therefore, a multi-criteria approach based on life cycle thinking was proposed to investigate the production of 1,3-butadiene. Five indicators were selected to address sustainability: the Cumulative Energy Demand, the carbon footprint, the water depletion, a midpoint-oriented analysis method and an economic index. The use of renewable feedstock was evaluated in comparison with the traditional fossil-based route from naphtha. Two alternative pathways which use bio-ethanol were considered – the Lebedev and Ostromisslensky processes – evaluating the possibility to locate the plant in three different regions (the EU, Brazil and the US). Detailed analysis reveals how the use of bio-based feedstock leads to a significantly lower consumption of fossil sources, despite the higher exploitation of renewable resources leading to larger water withdrawals. Moreover, the assessment of the global warming potential reveals how bio-routes are far from able to be considered carbon-neutral. In addition, the ReCiPe single-score was used, showing greater sustainability of the Lebedev process compared with the traditional way. On the other hand, the two-step pathways (Ostromisslensky) result in the worst scores. An economic evaluation was also applied. The index reveals how the direct conversion into 1,3-butadiene seems more suitable than the two-step method, particularly in the case of production in the US.