Search results for "circularity"
showing 5 items of 15 documents
Influence of Operational Strategies for the Recovery of Magnesium Hydroxide from Brines at a Pilot Scale
2022
The continuous depletion of minerals caused by land mining and the increase in their demand have pushed the development of novel sustainable technological processes for mineral recovery from unconventional sources. In this context, magnesium (Mg) has gained considerable attention for its peculiar properties and high relevance of its compounds, such as magnesium hydroxide, Mg(OH)2. In the present work, the influence of several operating conditions on the Mg(OH)2 precipitation process was thoroughly investigated by adopting a novel multiple feed-plug flow reactor. The influence of (i) initial Mg2+ concentrations in the feed stream; (ii) brine and alkaline flow rates; and (iii) the product rec…
The rediscovery of nature: the lost innocence of the digital world
2022
L’impatto della nostra impronta ecologica legata al tasso di crescita incontrollato della tecnologia digitale sta portando ad un aggravamento degli squilibri ambientali esistenti. Il digitale e i new media che fino a ieri ci apparivano una terra promessa dell’emancipazione umana, oggi rilevano enormi effetti inquinanti sulla biosfera che devono essere obbligatoriamente evidenziati. Nel contributo si intende sottoporre a indagine le cause della “perduta innocenza” del mondo digitale anche attraverso una ricostruzione analitica sui fenomeni che sino a poco tempo fa venivano percepiti come veicoli immateriali, assolutamente non invasivi per l’ambiente e dalle straordinarie potenzialità di prog…
A simulation tool for ion exchange membrane crystallization of magnesium hydroxide from waste brine
2021
Abstract Increasing attention is nowadays paid to the management and valorisation of industrial waste brines aiming also at the recovery of raw materials. Magnesium has been listed as a Critical Raw Material by EU, prompting researchers to investigate novel routes for its recovery. Within this framework, a novel Crystallizer with Ion Exchange Membrane (CrIEM), is proposed as an innovative way to recover magnesium from industrial waste brines exploiting low-cost alkaline reactants. In the present work, a novel mathematical model of the CrIEM process is proposed to provide a useful tool for its design in different working conditions. Batch and feed & bleed continuous configurations have been …
A Top-Down Approach Based on the Circularity Potential to Increase the Use of Reclaimed Asphalt
2023
Resource depletion and climate change, amongst others, are increasingly worrying environmental challenges for which the road engineering sector is a major contributor. Globally, viable solutions that comply with the principles of circular economy (CE) are being investigated that can replace conventional asphalt mixtures in a post-fossil fuel society. The use of reclaimed asphalt (RA) is a widely used and well-established method to reduce the environmental and economic impacts of asphalt mixtures while increasing their circularity. However, RA’s market supply and demand have not yet been systematically analyzed and established. Moreover, the actual circularity potential and the opportu…
Increasing the Circularity of asphalt mixtures: Integrated Sustainability and Circularity Assessment as a progress monitoring tool towards more Circu…
2021
Sustainability and Circular Economy (CE) are two concepts that lately have been profoundly linked to each other. The road engineering industry has gradually been adapting practices that are considered both circular and sustainable. However, not all of these practices entirely consider the whole life environmental and circularity assessment and implications of asphalt mixtures.; which in turn leads to doubtfully circular and sustainable approaches. For this reason in this thesis, after analysing the ways that National Road Authorities implement and communicate CE through questionnaires and web searches, a Material Circularity Index quantifying framework, based on the proposed methodology of …