Elza Bontempi
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Eco-Materials
Municipal solid waste stabilization
Elza Bontempi was the scientific responsible of COSMOS and COSMOS-RICE projects, devoted to stabilization of fly ash and realization of demonstration plant, to prove the process industrial feasibility.
COSMOS inert was proposed for re-utilisation as secondary raw material, in several matrices, then preserving natural resources and RAW MATERIALS.
COSMOS project video
A paper published on 2016 analysed data about publication from 1999 to 2015 (realized by 90 countries) on waste-to-energy incineration.
It shows that China is the most productive country with
558 articles, followed by the Japan (404) and USA (283).
However, Italy ranked the
first in terms of h-index (40), indicating that it had a
high level of influence in the field.
Main publications concerning fly ash stabilization:
Guarienti, M., Cardozo, S.M., Borgese, L., Lira, G.R., Depero, L.E., Bontempi, E., Presta, M. COSMOS-rice technology abrogates the biotoxic effects of municipal solid waste incinerator residues (2016) Environmental Pollution, 214, pp. 713-721. DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2016.04.053 Benassi, L., Bosio, A., Dalipi, R., Borgese, L., Rodella, N., Pasquali, M., Depero, L.E., Bergese, P., Bontempi, E. Comparison between rice husk ash grown in different regions for stabilizing fly ash from a solid waste incinerator (2015) Journal of Environmental Management, 159, pp. 128-134. Cited 3 times. DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2015.05.015 Ponsot, I., Bernardo, E., Bontempi, E., Depero, L., Detsch, R., Chinnam, R.K., Boccaccini, A.R. Recycling of pre-stabilized municipal waste incinerator fly ash and soda-lime glass into sintered glass-ceramics (2015) Journal of Cleaner Production, 89, pp. 224-230. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.10.091 Benassi, L., Franchi, F., Catina, D., Cioffi, F., Rodella, N., Borgese, L., Pasquali, M., Depero, L.E., Bontempi, E. Rice husk ash to stabilize heavy metals contained in municipal solid waste incineration fly ash: First results by applying new pre-treatment technology (2015) Materials, 8 (10), pp. 6868-6879. DOI: 10.3390/ma8105346 Bilo, F., Moscoso, S., Borgese, L., Delbarba, M.V., Zacco, A., Bosio, A., Federici, S., Guarienti, M., Presta, M., Bontempi, E., Depero, L.E. Total reflection X-Ray fluorescence spectroscopy to study Pb and Zn accumulation in zebrafish embryos (2015) X-Ray Spectrometry, 44 (3), pp. 124-128. DOI: 10.1002/xrs.2588 Bosio, A., Zacco, A., Borgese, L., Rodella, N., Colombi, P., Benassi, L., Depero, L.E., Bontempi, E. A sustainable technology for Pb and Zn stabilization based on the use of only waste materials: A green chemistry approach to avoid chemicals and promote CO2 sequestration (2014) Chemical Engineering Journal, 253, pp. 377-384. DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2014.04.080 Guarienti, M., Gianoncelli, A., Bontempi, E., Moscoso Cardozo, S., Borgese, L., Zizioli, D., Mitola, S., Depero, L.E., Presta, M. Biosafe inertization of municipal solid waste incinerator residues by COSMOS technology (2014) Journal of Hazardous Materials, 279, pp. 311-321. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2014.07.017 Rodella, N., Bosio, A., Dalipi, R., Zacco, A., Borgese, L., Depero, L.E., Bontempi, E. Waste silica sources as heavy metal stabilizers for municipal solid waste incineration fly ash (2014) Arabian Journal of Chemistry, . Article in Press. DOI: 10.1016/j.arabjc.2014.04.006 Zacco, A., Borgese, L., Gianoncelli, A., Struis, R.P.W.J., Depero, L.E., Bontempi, E. Review of fly ash inertisation treatments and recycling (2014) Environmental Chemistry Letters, 12 (1), pp. 153-175. DOI: 10.1007/s10311-014-0454-6 Bosio, A., Rodella, N., Depero, L.E., Bontempi, E. Rice husk ash based composites, obtained by toxic fly ash inertization, and their applications as adsorbents (2014) Chemical Engineering Transactions, 37, pp. 631-636. DOI: 10.3303/CET1437106 Besco, S., Bosio, A., Brisotto, M., Depero, L.E., Lorenzetti, A., Bontempi, E., Bonora, R., Modesti, M. Structural and mechanical characterization of sustainable composites based on recycled and stabilized fly ash (2014) Materials, 7 (8), pp. 5920-5933. DOI: 10.3390/ma7085920 Rodella, N., Bosio, A., Zacco, A., Borgese, L., Pasquali, M., Dalipi, R., Depero, L.E., Patel, V., Bingham, P.A., Bontempi, E. Arsenic stabilization in coal fly ash through the employment of waste materials (2014) Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, 2 (3), pp. 1352-1357. DOI: 10.1016/j.jece.2014.05.011 Bosio, A., Gianoncelli, A., Zacco, A., Borgese, L., Rodella, N., Zanotti, D., Depero, L.E., Siviero, G., Cinosi, A., Bingham, P.A., Bontempi, E. A new nanotechnology of fly ash inertization based on the use of silica gel extracted from rice husk ash and microwave treatment (2014) Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part N: Journal of Nanoengineering and Nanosystems, 228 (1), pp. 27-32.
DOI: 10.1177/1740349913490683 Besco, S., Brisotto, M., Gianoncelli, A., Depero, L.E., Bontempi, E., Lorenzetti, A., Modesti, M. Processing and properties of polypropylene-based composites containing inertized fly ash from municipal solid waste incineration (2013) Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 130 (6), pp. 4157-4164. DOI: 10.1002/app.39692 Bosio, A., Rodella, N., Gianoncelli, A., Zacco, A., Borgese, L., Depero, L.E., Bingham, P.A., Bontempi, E. A new method to inertize incinerator toxic fly ash with silica from rice husk ash (2013) Environmental Chemistry Letters, 11 (4), pp. 329-333. DOI: 10.1007/s10311-013-0411-9 Struis, R.P.W.J., Pasquali, M., Borgese, L., Gianoncelli, A., Gelfi, M., Colombi, P., Thiaudière, D., Depero, L.E., Rizzo, G., Bontempi, E. Inertisation of heavy metals in municipal solid waste incineration fly ash by means of colloidal silica-a synchrotron X-ray diffraction and absorption study (2013) RSC Advances, 3 (34), pp. 14339-14351. DOI: 10.1039/c3ra41792a Zacco, A., Gianoncelli, A., Ardesi, R., Sacrato, S., Guerini, L., Bontempi, E., Tomasoni, G., Alberti, M., Depero, L.E. Use of colloidal silica to obtain a new inert from municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI) fly ash: First results about reuse (2012) Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 14 (2), pp. 291-297. DOI: 10.1007/s10098-011-0401-1 Bontempi, E., Zacco, A., Borgese, L., Gianoncelli, A., Ardesi, R., Depero, L.E. A new method for municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI) fly ash inertization, based on colloidal silica (2010) Journal of Environmental Monitoring, 12 (11), pp. 2093-2099. DOI: 10.1039/c0em00168f
Coal fly ash (CFA) reuse
Fly ashes are recovered as sustainable materials as a possible adsorbent for anionic surfactant (Embodied energy as key parameter for sustainable materials selection: the case of reusing coal fly ash for removing anionic surfactants. Journal of Cleaner Production 2016).
Activated carbons are frequently used in water purification. However, in view of its high production costs and the complexity of its regeneration, the research of low cost adsorbents is today quite desirable. Research activity in this field moves toward the substitution of activated carbon with low cost materials.
To evaluate the environmental sustainability of a specific material, the CO2 footprint is generally the main parameter considered. Moreover, the embodied energy analysis is an efficacious and potent method to employ. Producing materials from ores and feedstock requires energy. It is defined the “embodied energy” and includes direct and indirect energy consumed during the production process of 1 Kg kg of a specific material.
X-RAY REFLECTIVITY (XRR)
New thin film and multilayer structures have found more and more applications because of the great advances in the deposition techniques, such as molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), chemical vapour deposition (CVD) and chemical beam epitaxy (CBE). The accurate control of the thin film structure is essential to module efficient reproducible devices. Due to the strong influence of interfaces quality, layer thickness and density on the functional properties of single and multilayer films, a careful analysis of these parameters is mandatory. Among the available techniques for structural and morphological characterization, X-ray reflectivity (XRR) has recently found large applications in the analysis of thin layers. XRR can provide non-destructive information on density, thickness, and surface and interface roughness of the layer. Alike electromagnetic radiation in the visible at X-rays wavelengths the refractive index of the material is slightly less than one, and consequently it is possible to have total reflection of X-rays at the air/material interface. Above the critical angle of total external reflection, a dramatic drop of the reflected intensity is observed, along with oscillations (Kiessig fringes) in the signal. The spacing between the maxima of these oscillations are related to the samples thickness, while the value of the critical angle depends on the density. The surface or interface roughnesses mainly determines the signal of background. XRR is nowadays applied to a wide range of materials, from multilayers for optoelectronics to thin films for magnetic applications, from X-ray mirrors to polymeric thin films.
E Bontempi, “X-Ray Reflectivity for the characterization of thin films” in Recent Research Development in Chemical Physics, Transworld Research Network (ed.), 5 (2004) 461-488, ISBN 81-7895-155-X
In the frame of international VAMAS project and Co-NANOMET European project, activity of thin films nanometrology is under development.
Main publications concerning XRR:
Sartore, L., Barbaglio, M., Borgese, L., Bontempi, E. Polymer-grafted QCM chemical sensor and application to heavy metal ions real time detection (2011) Sensors and Actuators, B: Chemical, 155 (2), pp. 538-544. DOI: 10.1016/j.snb.2011.01.003 Colombi, P., Bontempi, E., Depero, L.E., Azuma, Y., Fujimoto, T. X-ray reflectivity and total reflection x-ray fluorescence study of surface oxide evolution in a GaAs/AlAs multilayer system (2009) Journal of Applied Physics, 105 (1), art. no. 014307, . DOI: 10.1063/1.3054336 Matyi, R.J., Depero, L.E., Bontempi, E., Colombi, P., Gibaud, A., Jergel, M., Krumrey, M., Lafford, T.A., Lamperti, A., Meduna, M., Van der Lee, A., Wiemer, C. The international VAMAS project on X-ray reflectivity measurements for evaluation of thin films and multilayers - Preliminary results from the second round-robin (2008) Thin Solid Films, 516 (22), pp. 7962-7966. DOI: 10.1016/j.tsf.2008.04.004 Colombi, P., Agnihotri, D.K., Asadchikov, V.E., Bontempi, E., Bowen, D.K., Chang, C.H., Depero, L.E., Farnworth, M., Fujimoto, T., Gibaud, A., Jergel, M., Krumrey, M., Lafford, T.A., Lamperti, A., Ma, T., Matyi, R.J., Meduna, M., Milita, S., Sakurai, K., Shabel'Nikov, L., Ulyanenkov, A., Van Der Lee, A., Wiemer, C. Reproducibility in X-ray reflectometry: Results from the first world-wide round-robin experiment (2008) Journal of Applied Crystallography, 41 (1), pp. 143-152. DOI: 10.1107/S0021889807051904 Colombi, P., Zanola, P., Bontempi, E., Depero, L.E. Modeling of glancing incidence X-ray for depth profiling of thin layers (2007) Spectrochimica Acta - Part B Atomic Spectroscopy, 62 (6-7 SPEC. ISS.), pp. 554-557. DOI: 10.1016/j.sab.2007.02.012 Bergese, P., Bontempi, E., Depero, L.E. A simple solution to systematic errors in density determination by X-ray reflectivity: The XRR-density evaluation (XRR-DE) method (2006) Applied Surface Science, 253 (1 SPEC. ISS.), pp. 28-32. DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2006.05.067 Colombi, P., Zanola, P., Bontempi, E., Roberti, R., Gelfi, M., Depero, L.E. Glancing-incidence X-ray diffraction for depth profiling of polycrystalline layers (2006) Journal of Applied Crystallography, 39 (2), pp. 176-179. DOI: 10.1107/S0021889805042779 Bontempi, E., Depero, L.E., Sangaletti, L., Giorgis, F., Pirri, C.F. X-ray reflectivity spectra of ultrathin films and nanometric multilayers: Experiment and simulation (2001) Journal of Materials Research, 16 (9), pp. 2556-2561.
