Bioresource and pollution control technology

The course is organized into 3 units.
- Life Cycle Assessment
This unit introduces the principles and methods of life cycle thinking and life-cycle assessment (LCA) with specific reference to agricultural and energy systems using attributional LCA. The module will be based around the ISO 14040 methodology and will involve developing a LCA model using MS-Excel as well as commercial software for LCA. It will focus on the four common stages of LCA: (i) definition of the Goal and Scope; (ii) Life Cycle Inventory Analysis; (iii) Life Cycle Impact Assessment and (iv) Interpretation with a specific focus on carbon footprint, water footprint and energy audit. Case studies will consider LCA studies of agro-food systems, energy systems and bio-products and bio-refinery processes

- Analysis of technologies.
The students will learn technical aspects on the most applied technologies for bioresource management and pollution control to be applied to production processes. Topics will include: i) description of the operational parameters, design unit processes and dimensioning of plants and devices for renewable energy production, pollution control and waste treatment facilities; ii) energy analysis of the production processes, savings identification, and implementation of optimisation scenarios; iii) energetic metrics, systems thinking, and leading change for sustainability within companies.

- Working groups (WG)
Students will be divided in small WG focused on the analysis of the state of the art of the most innovative and up-to-date technologies and/or on the sustainability assessment of different case studies