Environmental Engineering for Sustainable Development

Definitions and fundamental concepts Primary and secondary raw materials. Ore Mining and Urban Mining. Comparison between mineral processing and waste processing. The main types of waste produced in urban areas. From linear economy to circular economy. Circular use rate of raw materials. Efficient use of resources and SDG12 Extraction and consumption of raw materials on a global and regional scale. Environmental impacts of mining activities. Correlation between raw material consumption, waste production, population growth and urbanization. The concept of decoupling: doing better with less. Transition toard resource efficiency. SDG12 and relationship with the other objectives of 2030 Agenda. Critical Raw Materials Definition and description of the critical raw materials identified by the European Union. Leading world producers. Problems related to their criticality and reasons for their strategic importance in relation to the most advanced technological sectors, including that of renewable energy and sustainable mobility. Problems related to the recycling of critical raw materials from waste from electrical and electronic equipment (e.g. smartphones). Examples of recycling-oriented characterization using innovative methodologies. The recycling chain Waste production at global and European scale. The hierarchy in waste management. Urban waste treatment methods. Recycling rates of urban waste and packaging waste and targets set by the European Union. Description of the main operations of a recycling plant: disassembly, comminution, screening, separation. Focus on the most innovative separation methods: “sensor based sorting”. Plastic recycling Production and consumption of plastics by polymer and by sector, production of plastic waste and methods of treatment. The plastic recycling chain: description of the main operations in a plastic recycling process, from waste to secondary raw material. Examples of innovative methods for plastic recycling.

No specific prerequisite is required, the course can be followed by students enrolled in all Sapienza degree courses.

- Book: Scienze della Sosteniblità, A cura di: S. Serranti, Autori: F.CIoffi, L. De Santoli, A. Lalli, F. Manes, L. Persia e S. Serranti, Zanichelli Editore, 224 pp. ISBN: 8808499855 - Lesson Slides - Documents, reports and publications provided by the teacher

Students are invited to register in the classroom through which all the communications and the sharing of teaching material will take place. Instructions for classroom registration will be provided on the teacher's notice board.

The evaluation will be carried out through a written test consisting of 3 open questions on the contents of the 6 modules covered in this course. The test will last an hour and a half.

Frontal lessons