B027043 - Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Energy Resources

Italian

This course deals with some topics of strategic importance for the citizen of today and tomorrow and for those who study or work in the Economic and Social Sciences, in the context of environmental awareness and renewable resources. The course provides a broad background on environmental issues from an ecological perspective, focusing in particular on: impacts of anthropogenic activities (water, air and soil pollution), local and global changes in the natural environment and climate.

Slides of the lectures and scientific articles provided by the teacher.

The keywords resources and environment, together with the particular and difficult historical period we are living through, can be considered a good starting point for a high-education action to increase today the knowledge and the environmental awareness of the decision makers, of the technicians and of the citizens of tomorrow.
The conceptual tools the characterize who studies and works in Economy, Social Sciences, Politics and Laws may not include those knowledge contents, related to Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Ecology and Environmental Science and Technology that build up the core of this course and a great and lasting distance, because of communication problems and reciprocal misunderstanding, may arise between the economist, the policy and decision maker, the social and the human scientist and those who study the current environmental issues. The integration between these two worlds of knowledge, between Science and Humanities, is critically low although can be evaluated as instrumental and strategic to face a near future of environmental, demographic, social and economical crisis. For this reason the first aim of this course is to give a contribution to build up a set of operative knowledge and information to increase the evaluation capability of the attenders and their degree of critical reflectiveness and autonomy of judgement, to make more fruitful and bilateral the communication with the specialist, the engineer, the technician, the researcher and the scientist who work in those field that are becoming more and more strategic for the future of the humankind and his only home-planet.

A good knowledge and understanding of written English.
An operative knowledge of a personal connected computer and of the usual software products for navigation, word processing, calculus and presentation.

Traditional classes, experts seminars, workgroup for simulation, problem solving, discussion, guided research.

UEsami della sessione estiva saranno effettuati online (invito su Meet).

The exam for attending students consists in the drafting of a project work and its presentation at the end of the course (team work, max 3 participants). The final grade is calculated according to this criterion: quality of the project work (70%), appropriateness of exposure (15%), participation and interaction during the lessons (15%).

The exam for non-attending students consists of an oral exam on the topics of the course; the exam lasts 15-20 minutes and is made up of 3 questions, each corresponding to 1/3 of the final grade.
Students who attend at least two thirds of the total lessons (online or in the classroom) are considered to be attending.

The following program is to be considered a draft, with any changes in the sequence and content of the arguments.

Lecture 1 - Syllabus and type of assessment: Presentation of the course: main topics and training objectives. Presentation of the type of assessment for attending and non-attending students. Presentation of the studying material and detailed description of the program.
Lecture 2 - Introduction - The concepts of green economy, sustainability and green chemistry are introduced.
Lecture 3 - OZONE: Ozone and its role in the stratosphere. The problem of the thinning of the ozone layer. ODS compounds (Ozone Depleting Substances). The Montreal Protocol. Vehicular traffic and photochemical smog: ozone in the troposphere.
Lecture 4 - AIR POLLUTION - IMPACTS in the ATMOSPHERE: composition of air and atmospheric pollution. Acid rain. Fine powders, particolates and aerosols.
Lecture 5 - FOSSIL FUELS AND CLIMATE CHANGE (Part I): Greenhouse effect and main gases involved. Use of energy from fossil fuels, CO2 emissions.
Lecture 6 - FOSSIL FUELS AND CLIMATE CHANGE (Part II): Oil refining. Characteristics and emissions of the fracking technique for shale gas recovery. Economic and environmental implications.
Lecture 7 - HYDROSPHERE AND WATER POLLUTION - classification of water pollutants. Operation diagram of a water purification plant.
Lecture 8 - HYDROSPHERE: water emergency and water reuse. Methods of desalination of marine waters. Plants for the purification of waste water. Constructed wetlands (NBS).
Lecture 9 - SOIL POLLUTION: the main environmental contaminants (nitrogen and phosphorus, PAHs, environmental estrogens, PCBs, heavy metals, pesticides) FIRST PART.
Lecture 10 - SOIL POLLUTION: the main environmental contaminants (nitrogen and phosphorus, PAH, environmental estrogens, PCBs, heavy metals, pesticides) SECOND PART.
Lecture 11 - RENEWABLE ENERGIES: solar and wind.
Lecture 12 - RENEWABLE ENERGIES: hydroelectric, geothermal.
Lecture 13 - RENEWABLE ENERGIES: biomass and biofuels.
Lecture 14 - RENEWABLE ENERGIES: hydrogen and electricity.
Lecture 15 – WASTE MANAGEMENT: waste classification, management and circular economy.
Lecture 16 - Circular economy «not only waste» (Seminar)
Lecture 17 - WASTE: Biorefinery, a future perspective of technological innovation.
Lectures 18-20 - Seminars (topics to be confirmed)
Lectures 21-24 - Presentation and discussion of PROJECT WORKS made by working group of students.

SDGs: 3, 6 7, 9, 11, 12, 13.