RIMINI (ITALPRESS) – Niccolò Cenzato of the University of Padua, Maria Chiara Riccella of the University of Salerno and Davide Sciretta of the University of Salerno are the three recent graduates winners of the second edition of the CONAI Call for Master’s Theses promoted with the technical support of ENEA, the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development.An integral part of a path both to enhance skills and training for young people and to disseminate knowledge related to the circular economy, the Call for Papers rewards for the second year three dissertations on topics related to the world of environmental sustainability and the protection of the Planet, such as strategies for promoting sustainability and circularity of products and packs, technological innovation in the areas of recycling and recovery of materials, decarbonization strategies of companies, and ecodesign.The certificates were awarded Nov. 6 in Rimini, during Ecomondo. “Collaboration with the academic world and the world of research is essential to give substance to a strategy for promoting and spreading the culture of recycling,” comments CONAI general manager Simona Fontana. “Environmental education, after all, is an integral part of the Consortium’s mission,” she adds: as early as 2022, synergy with universities and research institutions became part of our environmental policy. Each new thesis, like the ones we are awarding this year, represents an important piece in the construction of a more sustainable future: the transition to a truly circular model, in fact, is not only a strategic goal for the country, but a paradigm shift that calls for innovative ideas and a long-term vision. Young graduates are the bearers of that vision and energy that we need to empower an economic model that does not just manage resources, but knows how to regenerate and enhance them. “Niccolò Cenzato’s thesis, from the Chemical and Process Engineering degree program, is entitled Valorization of biopolymers waste trough chemical recycling. He studied an innovative chemical recycling process of PBAT (polybutylene adipate terephthalate), a fossil-derived, biodegradable and compostable biopolymer widely used in packaging production. In contrast to traditional composting, an alternative chemical recycling process has been explored to convert PBAT-containing waste into a blend of polyols, high value-added products. Compounds that find use in the production of rigid polyurethane foams, which are mainly used as insulation materials.Maria Chiara Riccella’s thesis, from the Bachelor of Science in Food Engineering, on the other hand, is entitled Improvement of Kraft paper performance by deposition of biodegradable coatings for food packaging applications. She investigated how to improve the functional properties of Kraft paper by depositing polymeric and biodegradable aqueous coating solutions at various concentrations for food packaging applications. Preliminary results suggest that the applied coatings offer good barrier properties, reducing water absorption and improving resistance to the passage of air, water vapor and oxygen, while supporting sustainability and a circular model.The thesis of Davide Sciretta, a graduate student in management engineering, is titled Application of the point-in-time pricing scheme for municipal waste in the municipality of Martina Franca. It takes the form of a feasibility study of a punctual pricing scheme for the management of municipal solid waste in the municipality of Martina Franca.Propaedeutic to the study was a weighing campaign of the waste produced by citizens of the municipality, carried out by volunteers from Legambiente. Thanks to the data thus collected, it was possible to estimate, among other things, the actual annual production in tons of the different fractions of waste that can be conferred by domestic and non-domestic users, highlighting how the current TARI system based on the “Normalized Method” overestimates the production by domestic users, resulting in undue imputation of excessive costs. The study also implemented an algorithm to impute to each utility its annual cost.More than forty scientific papers written in universities throughout Italy, summarizing the best theses and contributions among those that participated in the first and second editions of the call, were then included in a new scientific publication: ENEA-CONAI Master Thesis Award 2023 and 2024. Proceedings of the selected thesis, available on the ENEA website. Works that examine all aspects of circularity for a collection that aims not only to enhance the creative capacity of young people, but also to be an observatory of ideas and possible solutions.
– Conai press office photo –
(ITALPRESS).
