Lorenzo Albanese

Hydrogen Peroxide: A Key Chemical for Today's Sustainable Development.

The global utilization of hydrogen peroxide, a green oxidant that decomposes in water and oxygen, has gone from 0.5u2005million tonnes per year three decades ago to 4.5u2005million tonnes per year in 2014, and is still climbing. With the aim of expanding the utilization of this eminent green chemical across different industrial and civil sectors, the production and use of hydrogen peroxide as a green industrial oxidant is reviewed herein to provide an overview of the explosive growth of its industrial use over the last three decades and of the state of the art in its industrial manufacture, with important details of what determines the viability of the direct production from oxygen and hydrogen compared with the traditional auto-oxidation process.

Effect of different extraction methods on fiber quality of nettle (Urtica dioica L.)

Chemical extraction, water retting, microbiological and enzymatic methods were applied on entire nettle stalks and/or unretted decorticated fiber of a selected fiber nettle clone. Morphological and mechanical properties and chemical composition were then determined on fiber samples. The first interesting result concerned the good degree of separation between fibers and shives obtained by mechanical scutching applied on stalks stored for 1 year, probably resulting from natural retting processes occurring during the storage. Microbiological retting (anaerobic plus aerobic bacteria) of entire stalks and/or unretted decorticated fiber produced fibers with a higher quality than water retting. Both enzymes used (Viscozyme ® L and Pectinex® Ultra SP-L), improved fiber quality if EDTA was added. The enzyme vat retting gave good results on both water-retted fibers and unretted decorticated fibers, while the spray enzyme treated fibers usually displayed thicker diameter, lower cellulose content and, for Viscozyme ® L, lower strength values, without differences between the two storage methods used after enzyme application.

LED Street Lighting: A Looking Ahead Perspective

Abstract Provided that LED street lighting is guided by quality principles, outdoor illumination using light-emitting diodes will have a significant global impact helping to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, save relevant amounts of electricity and enhance the quality of life in cities as well as in remote areas. This study summarizes recent findings providing guidelines for further progress in this crucially important technology on the common pathway to sustainable development.

Guidelines for Integrating Solar Energy in Sicily’s Buildings

Abstract Wise utilization of today’s new solar energy technologies provides buildings with new aesthetic value which is no longer in conflict with efficiency in solar energy conversion. We outline the criteria for incorporating solar photovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal (ST) technologies in the building design in Sicily’s built environment. Better education in solar energy and in solar architecture of architects and civil engineers, as well as better communication efforts of solar energy companies, will be instrumental to afford the long-awaited local and global boom in the adoption of building-integrated PVs.

Hydrodynamic cavitation as an energy efficient process to increase biochar surface area and porosity: a case study

The effectivity of biochar as soil amendment is depending by its physical and chemical characteristics that are related to the type and the features of the thermal production process, such as peak temperature, heating rate, holding time, as well as from the used feedstocks. The textural characteristics of biochar in term of surface area, pore size and pore volume distribution, important for the physicochemical properties of the material, are critically dependent on the production process and the feedstock type. In this study, based on a single biochar type and a single experiment, for the first time controlled hydrodynamic cavitation was proven as a fast and effective way to enhance the biochar surface area by as much as 120%, while preserving or improving the respective chemical composition, showing far higher efficiency than the conventional increase of the peak pyrolysis temperature. Abbreviations AS almond shell BET Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method BJH Barret, Joyner, and Halenda method HC hydrodynamic cavitation OTP olive-tree pruning OS olive stone PW pine wood TP slow thermal pyrolysis

Gluten-Free Beer via Hydrodynamic Cavitation Assisted Brewing of Barley Malts

We provide evidence that novel brewing technology based on controlled hydrodynamic cavitation greatly reduces gluten concentration in wort and finished beer. We advance the hypothesis that the degradation of proline, the most recalcitrant among gluten constituents, leads to gluten concentration reduction in the unfermented as well as in the fermenting wort and later during maturation. These findings are significant as the new cavitation-assisted technology could provide coeliac patients and gluten-intolerant people with gluten-free beer of high quality, offering an alternative to existing methods to lower the gluten concentration, which are detrimental to flavor and taste.