Browsing by Author "Scelsi, Enrico"

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    A Closed-Loop Biorefinery Approach for the Valorization of Winery Waste: The Production of Iron-Sulfonated Magnetic Biochar Catalysts and 5-Hydroxymethyl Furfural from Grape Pomace and Stalks
    (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), 2024-03) di Bitonto, Luigi; Scelsi, Enrico; Reynel-Ávila, Hilda Elizabeth; Mendoza-Castillo, Didilia Ileana; Bonilla-Petriciolet, Adrián; Hájek, Martin; Mustafa, Ahmad; Pastore, Carlo
    In this work, a closed-loop strategy for the management and valorization of winery waste was proposed. The exhausted pomace and grape stalks that are typically obtained from white wine industries were used as a source of simple sugars, namely, glucose and fructose, and of lignocellulosic feedstock for the preparation of selective catalysts for the 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) production from fructose. A novel synthetic procedure was developed for the synthesis of iron-sulfonated magnetic biochar catalysts (Fe-SMBCs). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), BET surface area, porous structure analysis and determination of total amount of acid sites were performed in order to characterize the physico-chemical properties of the synthesized systems. Then, these heterogeneous catalysts were successfully tested via the dehydration of simple sugars into 5-HMF by using methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) and gamma valerolactone (GVL) as co-solvents. The optimum 5-HMF yield of 40.9 ± 1.1%mol with a selectivity of 59.8 ± 2.6%mol was achieved by adopting the following optimized conditions: 0.1 g of catalyst, volume ratio of GVL to H2O = 2 to 1, 403 K, 6 h. In addition, the catalyst was easily recycled using an external magnetic field and used for at least five reaction cycles without significant loss of catalytic activity.
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    Enhancing biodiesel production from urban sewage sludge: A novel industrial configuration and optimization model
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2023-11) Bitonto, Luigi di; Scelsi, Enrico; Locaputo, Vito; Mustafa, Ahmad; Pastore, Carlo
    In this work, a novel industrial configuration for the lipid extraction from sewage sludge was proposed. In detail, respect to conventional scheme based on direct extraction of lipids from wet sedimented sewage sludge using hexane, a preliminary centrifugation of sewage sludge prior to the extraction process was introduced. Economic and energetic balances for both configurations were evaluated using Aspen Plus simulator, including the posttreatment of exhausted sewage sludge obtained after the process. By centrifuging sewage sludge prior to the extraction process, overall costs can be reduced (27 % less), while preserving the same extraction efficiency for lipid recovery (80 %). Initial capital investments, amounts of reactants and total energy demand were sensibly reduced to achieve BEP of extracted lipids of 784 € ton-1 (vs 1.291 € ton-1 for conventional route). Finally, the economic feasibility of biodiesel production from lipids obtained from centrifuged sludge was evaluated by applying direct esterification with methanol and AlCl3⋅6H2O BEP of biodiesel produced of 1.186 € ton-1 was obtained with NPV of 27.5 M€ and DPP of 2.5 years. These values, show that biodiesel production from sewage sludge could be profitable considering only the proposed approach, fully unlocking the potential of waste in coherence with circular economy principles.