94274 - Raw Materials

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will be aware of the criticiy of feedstock supply of some raw materials, bot organic or inorganic. The student will know how to design new products and processes for the improvment of recyclability and reuse. She/he will be able to use Life Cycle Assessment as most important tool for general and environmental evaluation of chemicals in the perspective of circular economy. The studente is expected to be able to: 1. contributr to design products and processes that are intrinsecally suitable for a smart recycling of the components and materials; 2. to propose alternatives to the critical raw materials now in great use, or improve their recycle; 3. to exploit the instuments of LCA for the assessment of improvements achievable.

Course contents

This CU is composed of three modules which are taught autonomously:

(1) Life Cycle Assessment:

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) belongs to the set of methodological tools set up in the last years, able to test the eco-sustainability of processes and used as operative approach to develop preventive actions. Also for chemical companies, it is more and more important to match economical results with a strict management of their environmental performances, because it represents a decisive factor for the determination of its competitiveness. The use of this tool, which is inserted in the framework of the more general life cycle thinking approach, can be usefully used to perform comparison among different products or processes, considering the same functional unit.

(2) Sustainability and Circularity of Material Flows

In this module students learn to apply material flow analysis to important raw materials used in the chemical industry. These will be used to develop indicators for circularity and sustainability of chemical processes.

(3) Design for Recycling

In design for recycling, the suitability of a product design for recycling is considered, with products designed for easy disassembly and the use of compatible raw materials. This module covers the concept, rules and guidelines of design for recycling.

Readings/Bibliography

Lecture notes and selected papers will be available for students.

Recommended reading:

ISO 14040 and ISO 14044

Brunner, P.H.; Rechberger, H. “Practical Handbook of Material Flow Analysis”. Lewis Publisher, 2004.

Teaching methods

Expositive lectures presenting the basic concepts and state of the art in the field, and exercise seminars.

Assessment methods

Students will be evaluated by written tests, group reports on a given case study, or individual presentations to class.

Teaching tools

The course will be taught with the aid of computer support for the projection of text and images. The slides will be left available to the students, usually uploaded on the course platform.

Office hours

See the website of Luca Ciacci

See the website of Alessandra Bonoli