PhD student Gianluca Natrella talks about it
di Martina D'Onofrio
June 14, 2021 - A master's degree course in chemical engineering for sustainable development: the main path is the objectives of the 2030 agenda set by the United Nations. To name just a few such as the sixth (clean water and sanitation), the seventh (clean and affordable energy) or the thirteenth (climate action), it is useful to underline that thechemical engineer moves in a space of design and construction of processes and plants aimed at the use of natural resources, respecting the integrity of the environmental heritage.
The themes of sustainable development,circular economy and product innovation in fact characterize the training - between frontal and laboratory teaching or in the company - of the master's degree course in which students can choose a curriculum dedicated to sustainable process engineering or one dedicated to industry for circular economy with a focus on biotech, food and pharmaceutical production. The processes studied concern practically all industrial systems such as those for the production of water, energy, food, medicines, cosmetics, plastics, innovative materials, fuels.
To tell it is Gianluca Natrella, graduated in Chemical Engineering for Sustainable Development at the age of 24 and is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Genoa: "I am conducting a study on the production of hydrogen starting from the electrolysis of water, continuing my research collaboration within the laboratories of the Campus Bio-Medico". The PhD student is engaged in a plant engineering project aimed at exploit excess electricity produced from renewable sources, i.e. from systems that accumulate an excess of energy at certain times of the day, to generate hydrogen and therefore additional clean energy. On the other hand, hydrogen had already been at the center of his master's degree thesis developed with NextChem - Maire Tecnimont for Energy Transition: a study for the abatement of carbon dioxide emissions in the steam reforming process through an amine absorption unit. The collected CO2 was transformed into a solid component that can be stored and allocated, which can also be used in the cement industry. In a real process of circularity.
