BASALTO (2016-2018)
BASALTO project:
NUOVI MATERIALI BASATI SU ALGINATI PER LA RIMOZIONE DEL PARTICOLATO AERODISPERSO
Working group: UdR INSTM Brescia, UdR INSTM Trieste, UdR INSTM Bologna, XearPro
This project proposes a new solution for air particulate matter entrapment, based on a new porous hybrid material derived from silica fume and alginate. In particular it was been shown that it is possible to use it to remouve PM. It can be also employed as a filter.
The solution is:
economic sustainable innovative well-designed
This project was financed by INSTM and Regione Lombardia
A new material for air particulate matter entrapment was proposed
Kickoff meeting of the project was on 3 November 2016.
See the basic idea of BASALTO project (also in English).
All the research activity was unpublished before the patent deposition request.
This activity allowed to deposit in January 2018 a PCT request.
The first two papers about results were recently approuved.
The first paper about the material "A new porous hybrid material derived from silica fume and alginate for sustainable pollutants reduction" has been approuved as "open access" article by Frontiers in Chemistry at the end of February 2018. The article achieved a milestone of more than 1700 total views one month after publication online of the full paper. The article was mentioned by several media:
Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Results
National Agency for Science and Technology Information of Vietnam
The second paper about new porous material (A. Zanoletti, F. Bilo, L.E. Depero, D. Zappa, E. Bontempi, The first sustainable material designed for air particulate matter capture: An introduction to Azure Chemistry, Journal of Environmental Management) shows that it can remove till to 2407 (± 581) μg/cm2 of air particulate matter particles, with dimensions lower than 1 μm (ultrafine particles). This value corresponds to about 24 (± 6) g/cm2, i.e. about two orders of magnitude more than the amount of PM that can be trapped by leaves!
Another important paper was pubished on October 2018: SUNSPACE, A Porous Material to Reduce Air Particulate Matter (PM)
News about this research acttivity was published on Science for Environment Policy, that is a free news and information service published by Directorate-General Environment, European Commission. See here the news.
The project was also awarded by a special recognition at the presence of Italian President (ITALIADECIDE). The project researchers were invited (12th February 2018) to the Camera dei Deputati in Rome for the prize. See the news about the prize.
The project was awarded by another prize: the OSCAR MASI prize, from the Italian Association of Industrial Research (AIRI) on 24 May 2018. See the news about the prize and the Video Interview.
Material before (white) and after (dark grey) adsorption to PM
See some published results:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fchem.2018.00534/full
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fchem.2018.00060/full
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210670719318037
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/22/8086/pdf
The project also obtained:
- the ITWIN prize (on 9 November 2019)
ITWIIN is an association of women innovators and inventors aiming to help other women with ideas and innovations to achieve their aspirations, improve self-esteem and motivation, and broaden their horizons and experiences. The Association aims to bring together different skills and experiences of women from all over Italy and Europe in different areas including: intellectual property rights, trademarks and patents, industrial and academic research, technology transfer.
See https://www.itwiin.org/it/albo/albo-2018.html
- the GAETANO MARZOTTO 2018 prize (22 November 2018)
