19th INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON WASTE MANAGEMENT,
RESOURCE RECOVERY AND SUSTAINABLE LANDFILLING / 9-13 OCTOBER 2023

The new role of thermochemical treatments in a sustainable solid waste management system: process and technological aspects

FRIDAY 23 JUNE 2023 / 10:00 - 12:30 (GMT+2)
Umberto Arena
, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli” (IT)






The webinar will address basic concepts of thermochemical treatments of municipal and industrial solid wastes and will analyse the expected new role that conventional and innovative Waste-to-Energy/Resources units can play in a sustainable waste management system.

The first part of the webinar will be dedicated to the process aspects, starting from a taxonomy of thermochemical treatments based on diverse criteria. The differences between combustion, gasification and pyrolysis will be analysed and discussed, with a specific attention to some innovative processes able to produce chemicals and fuels and strongly limit the carbon dioxide emissions.

The second part will describe the main technologies that can be adopted for these treatments, with a particular focus on those for advanced gasification and pyrolysis. An evaluation of their decarbonisation potential and current technology readiness level will be also provided.




TOPICS THAT WILL BE COVERED:

1. The new role of thermochemical treatments in a modern waste management system


2. Thermochemical treatments: process aspects

  • Combustion, Gasification and Pyrolysis of solid wastes
  • Operating and process performance parameters


3. Thermal treatments: technological aspects

  • Moving grate furnaces; Fluidized bed reactors; Rotary kilns
  • Moving bed reactors; Fluidized bed reactors; Plasma reactors
  • Syngas cleaning and conditioning sections


4. Some promising advanced thermochemical technologies.

 


 

Umberto Arena, Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, is full professor of “Solid waste management” and "Industrial Pollution Control Engineering" at the University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli". He is co-Editor-in-Chief of the Waste Management journal (Elsevier) since January 2018, and Associate Editor of the same journal from 2012 to 2017, with specific competence in thermal treatments and LCA studies for integrated waste management. He has been guest professor/visiting scientist in some universities and research centres, such as Tongji University of Shanghai (China), Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, Kuwait Institute of Scientific Research of Kuwait City, and keynote lecturer in several international schools. He is member of the Managing Board of the International Waste Working Group, and, in the same association, the leader of the Task Group on Thermal Treatments. He is team leader of national and international projects about processes and technologies for resource (materials and energy) recovery from biomass and waste, waste management planning, and life cycle assessment of waste management schemes. He is also a consultant of public institutions, industrial companies, and research centres on similar topics. He is author of more than 110 scientific papers published in primary international scientific journals and wrote chapters in multi-authored books dedicated to fluidized bed reactors, with specific attention to gasification and pyrolysis of different kind of solid wastes.