OBJECTIVES• To improve and make green i. extraction techniques of bioactive and valuable compounds; ii. thermal-chemical pre-treatments for conversion into fuels and/or precursors of green chemicals• To provide the basis for math modelling and process engineering design, e.g., rate equations of conversion reactions; mathematical correlations between process performance indexes, reactor configuration and operating conditionsACTIVITIES1.REASONED SELECTION OF FEEDSTOCKSAmong Italian food processing residues like winery wastes, spent coffee powder, citrus residues.2.VALORISATION FOR THE ENERGY SECTORTorrefaction: thermochemical treatment (typically < 50 °C/min up to 200-300 °C) in an inert environment for a residence time of 10 to 120 min. A low-BTU gas (torgas) is produced in addition to the torrefied solid.HydroThermal Carbonization: thermochemical treatment to be set up with a new lab-scale facility.Pelletization: torrefied solids, by themselves or in mixture with other residual biomass, will be set up with a new lab-scale pelletizer.3.ENGINEERING SEPARATION This focuses screening and optimization at lab scale of separation methodologies, which are suitable to be upgraded according to a process engineering approach.4.MATH MODELING AND TECHNICAL-ECONOMIC-ENVIRONMENTAL (TEE) ANALYSIS This yields process optimization and automatic control, economic assessment and environmental impact of the investigated value chains, using the biorefinery cascade approach and LCA.

Chemical EngineerEnvironment EngineerFood TechnologistMastering of differential calculus and empirical modeling.Basic acquantaince of chemical lab equipment and process instrumentation.

Lab of Biomass Conversion at Department of Industrial Engineering (DIIn). Staff and integrated expertise on process engineering (flowsheeting, equipment sizing, investment and operating costs), control engineering (math modeling, dynamic simulation, advanced control, digitalization and automation), renewable energy from biomass and wastes, sustainability and circular economy (resource conservation, recovery and separation of compounds, supply chain management, waste minimization, LCA, climate change).A start-up consulting company has already expressed interest: eLoop SrlV. A. Gramsci 17b 80122 NapoliP.IVA 08922291219eloop@pec.itinfo@eloop.consultinghttp://www.eloop.consulting