Carbon Footprint of Surgical Masks Made in Taranto to Prevent {SARS}-{CoV}-2 Diffusion: A Preliminary Assessment

The international outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 infection has put pressure on governments to find immediate solutions to the shortage of surgical masks and other protective equipment. To allow textile manufacturers producing surgical masks to avoid usual restrictions imposed on personalprotective- equipment producers, the Italian government issued a ministerial decree that was followed by technical guidelines provided by several universities. Starting from a hypothetical composition and design, we calculated the carbon footprint of surgical masks manufactured following technical guidelines, with the city of Taranto hosting the production facility. Results show that the production of textile sheets composing the masks and their disposal were the main contributors to emissions, followed by packaging and transportation. A strategy of reuse based on laundry operation was modelled, and the balance between disposal strategy and reuse with the laundry operation (which has environmental issues due to detergents and water use) was in favor of the second option. To reduce the carbon footprint, a minimized textiles area (by smart shaping) and reuse strategies result in the best options. Further reduction may be achieved by building up a recycling chain of disposed masks, activated by municipalities

Improving recognition of odors in a waste management plant by using electronic noses with different technologies, gas chromatography\u2013mass spectrometry/olfactometry and dynamic olfactometry

Odor emissions from waste management plants have long been an environmental and economic issue, but only recently regional authorities in Italy are regulating this sector by imposing control and mitigation of the phenomenon. Electronic noses, initially developed as cheap, easy tools to detect volatiles, may have the required time-resolved coverage of the odor emission phenomenon in a cheap and feasible way with respect to chemical analysis of air. One crucial issue to resolve is to evaluate the discriminant capacity of a sensor array in-field and under working conditions. In this paper the authors have studied the responses of electronic noses of different technologies to odors emitted from a waste management plant, by integrating results obtained with dynamic olfactometry and gas chromatography\u2013mass spectrometry/olfactometry, in the aim to implement a monitoring system and improve cleaner production technologies. Three most impacting odor sources in the waste management plant were detected: biogas, a by-product of mechanical treatment of municipal solid wastes, with low organic fraction and a sludge pressed and dehydrated from treatment of urban wastewater. The most odor impacting source was the sludge and the major responsible of the odor impacts were aromatics (in particular 1,3,5-trimethyl benzene), aliphatic hydrocarbons, terpenes and sulphur volatiles (methyl disulphide, carbon disulphide, dimethyltrisulphide). Ten Metal Oxide Semiconductors and 32 polymer/black carbon (Nano Composite Array) sensors in two electronic noses, were tested for discrimination source capabilities. Results of linear discriminant analysis and cross validation give 86.7% successful recognition for Metal Oxide Semiconductors, 53.3% for Nano Composite Array and 93.3% for a selection of sensors belonging to both technologies chosen according to the selectivity towards the odor active molecules. The containment of odors could also be achieved by spraying a specific product and monitoring the process using selected sensors of the arrays. The results of the in-field work demonstrate strengths and weaknesses of different construction technologies in the e-noses arrays, to characterize and monitor in-site and in real time odor emissions from waste management plants

Implementation of the sustainable mobility: the case study of university of Foggia

Currently road safety, traffic congestion, acoustic and environmental pollution affecting urban areas around the world, represent the challenges to be faced for the implementation of sustainable mobility. To contrast a future increase of these issues it has been implemented the “sustainable mobility policy" in different Nations. In Italy in 1998 the Decree of the Ministry of the Environment has established the figure of Mobility Manager (MM) to implement sustainable mobility in the urban areas and in particular in companies (private and public) with more than 300 employees (or with a total of 800 workers distributed in several branch). One of the tool that can be used by MM is the “plan of employee’s movement from home to work place and return” (Piano Spostamento Casa Lavoro -PSCL). Although in 2004 the University of Foggia has appointed the MM to date no PSCL has been edited. In this context, the aim of this study is to propose a PSCL describing how the employees of University of Foggia reach the workplace and to suggest alternative sustainable transportation typologies. In particular, to evaluate the effectiveness of the actions identified to improve the mobility of workers, the carbon footprint (CF) methodology was applied. The study has been focused only on the main building of Foggia’s University (Athenaeum) that include the major part of workers. The research shows that: 1) university’s employees reach workplace principally by car (84%); 2) this transport contributes to the release of nearly 64 tons of CO2; 3) car pooling and/or public transport (urban and extra-urban) presents a sustainable solution to reduce GHG emissions; 4) if these sustainable transportations were implemented the emissions of GHG could be reduced by 56% (equal to 36 t of CO2)

Spectrofluorometry of Essential Oils: Bergamot Oil

Bergamot (Citrus bergamia, Risso et Poiteau) cultivation started in Italy at the beginning of the 18th century. Italian bergamot production is limited in a narrow strip of the Calabrian coast, along the Ionian and the Thyrrenian seas. Bergamot is cultivated for the essential oil representing an important raw material for cosmetic and food industry. Among non-volatile fraction components of the bergamot essential oil there are coumarins, whose fluorescence was widely investigated in the past. Because of their structural diversity and diverse occurrence, these oxygenated heterocyclic compounds have an important role in the identification of the quality and genuineness of the bergamot essential oil. This review reports spectrofluorometric properties of bergamot essential oil. From excitation-emission matrix (EEM) analysis of bergamot essential oil solutions in ethanol characteristic emissions of citropten, linalyl acetate and that of chlorophills have been detected. One citropten emission has been used in quantitative determination while none of linalyl acetate. Quantitative fluorometric determination of citropten gives the sum of both citropten and 7-methoxy-5-geranyloxy-coumarin concentration

Caratterizzazione Anemologica della II Facolta’ di Economia di Taranto e Valutazione delle Potenzialita’ del Microeolico Urbano

Within the framework of EU, security of energy supply, reducing energy costs for firms and citizens and the diffusion of alternative sources of energy are priority goals to improve environmental protection and sustainable development. In this light, the urban wind technology represents a new approach for the exploitation of this renewable resource, that is currently expanding but it represents still a niche market. This technology, for the differences in approach from the classical wind technology, requires a special analysis to characterize low speed winds and an improved research design to maximize energy yield at low wind speed. In the present work the analysis of wind resource in the site of the II Faculty of Economics, University of Bari, Taranto, Aldo Moro was carried out. By processing the data collected from a unit located on the roof of the Faculty we were able to identify the main regimes of wind and prevalent directions, theoretical energy yeld on the basis of technical data of urban wind turbines currently on the market. The results show that to maximize energy yield is necessary to take into account a variety of factors including: the technology used, the rated power, the characteristics of the power curve. The best performance is obtained from turbines that can produce high power at low wind regimes, regardless of power rating, a winning design feature but not yet widely available in today's market as manufacturers have concentrated their efforts in the manufacture of turbines not specifically created for urban use

Relevant Aspects for Commodity Science and Economics of the Policies for Reclamation of Urban Wastewater in the Apulia Region (Italy)

In Italy, urban wastewaters subjected to an advanced tertiary treatment, can be reused for irrigation, civil and industrial uses according to the Ministerial Decree n.185/2003. Regional authorities of Apulia (Italy), in order to contrast the chronic water scarcity and the groundwater overexploitation with consequent sea water intrusion, promulgated the “Water Resources Protection and Management Master Plan” in which the reuse of treated wastewater, especially in agriculture, plays a relevant role. In the Apulia region there are 186 urban wastewater treatment plants 14 of which are currently eligible for reuse and 26 need additional improvements because of from the technological, infrastructural, logistic and economic standpoints, they cannot be involved in the wastewater reuse. One of the major drawbacks is the lack of an advanced tertiary treatment line, in particular in the disinfection unit, needed to reach the quality parameters for water reclamation. Among utilizable disinfection techniques, chemical ones suffer the disinfection by-product formation with consequential adverse health effects, whereas physical ones the high electrical energy requirements, with the associated environmental burdens due to the generation of electricity from nonrenewables, as the case of Italy. The adaptation costs of the existing plants for reclamation depend on the size and construction characteristics, in particular on the destination (in surface water bodies or soil) of the treated wastewater for which they were originally designed. Moreover reclamation costs depend also on the total annual volume of the reclaimed water delivered, thus indicating the importance of the scale economies that stakeholders have to take into account in planning the adaptation of an existing urban wastewater treatment plant for water reclamation

Wind characterization in Taranto city as a basis for innovative sustainable urban development

The city of Taranto, in the south-east of Italy, is experiencing a transition from one of the most polluted and industrialized area characterized by the presence of the largest integrated steelworks in Europe, to a center of attractions of investments in innovation on sustainability and tourism. Among sustainability projects, urban wind energy is emerging as a technology useful in diffusion of smart grids for energetic sustainable development and also an interesting growing niche market in which there could be new investment opportunities. Numerous projects aimed at developing wind energy production are under constructions and wind characteristics and power potential of various sites have been studied in many Mediterranean countries. The urban wind analysis may represent a new tool to complete local wind atlases including the built environment, to evaluate changes that weathering may cause in the physical and architectural state of buildings, and to analyze the dispersion of pollutants from sources to receptor sites. In this paper, an analysis of wind potential and characteristics in Taranto, Apulia, a north Jonian urban site in Italy, has been performed by using high time resolved (10 min) meteorological data collected over a time span of two years, in the aim to describe the numerical procedures adopted to perform fitting of wind speed data without using special software. This urban site, in the first year of investigation from May 1st, 2009 to April 30th, 2010, was subjected to main wind regimes that come mostly from N with 12.27% and SSW with 9.89% of total hours; the calm occurred with a frequency of 10.94%. In the second year, from May 1st, 2010 to April 30th, 2011, the winds also blown predominantly from N with 12.56% of the total annual hours, and SSW with 9.33%, while the calms reached 11.08%. Dispersion of pollutants emitted from various sources among cement factory, a quarry/landfill, a refinery and the steelworks, poses serious health risks to population mainly resident downwind the prevalent wind directions. Simply computed mean wind speeds had values of 1.84 (sd=0.26 m/s) in the first year and 1.90 m/s (sd=0.30 m/s) in the second year under investigation. Weibull’s k values, measuring the wind potential of the site, were higher during the spring-summer warmest months and lower during the autumn-winter; the lowest appeared in November 2009 (0.639) the highest in June 2010 (1.665). Mean yearly values of k were 1.210 (sd=0.18) in the first year and 1.065 (sd=0.24) in the second year of the study, the correlation between the monthly values of k in the years under consideration was R²=0.59 (p=0.043) indicating that although variations occurred, the wind potential remain partly unaltered from one year to the other examined. LCOE (Levelized Cost of Electricity) for the wind turbines chosen among the 35 ones listed in the “Catalogue of European Urban Wind Turbine Manufactures”, excluding those with rated power below 0.1 kW, ranged from 0.12 to 10.6 €/kWh and differs slightly in the two years examined. The values were competitive with some off-shore and on-shore installations, biogas and photovoltaic, but it does not consider pollution costs and subsidies. The proposed solution was economically viable, also by considering the possible integration in a hybrid photovoltaic-wind system, or fossil-based heat generator system supplemented by solar photovoltaic and wind energy

Modifications Induced by Industrial Roasting in Color and Physical Attributes of arabica and robusta Coffee Beans of Selected Origins

In the present work four different green coffees (two arabica from Brazil and Costa Rica and two robusta from Vietnam and India) were treated in a batch roasting plant, in order to have a better understanding of the different behavior of selected geographical origins during roasting in an industrial plant. By taking samples for analysis at regular intervals, volume, and color of the grains and grounds were measured after and before roasting. The experimental results provided knowledge of the differences in roasting degree of selected coffee origins and also allowed us to observe the changes in physical attributes with roasting time. The results obtained in the present study showed that some perceptible color differences in the final blends in grains of selected origins may appear to the consumer. Moreover volume increase results as consequence of increased internal pressure of grains during roasting conditions