Degree cum laude in Chemical Engineering in 1982 in the University
of Bologna. Researcher (Assistant Professor) since 1983 and
Associate Professor since 1992 in the Department of Chemical,
Mining and Environmental Engineering of the University of Bologna.
In the past he taught Fundamentals of Chemical Processes
Development, Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering and
Remediation of Contaminated Sites in the Faculty of Engineering of
the University of Bologna. Actually he teaches Technologies for the
Remediation of Soil and Subsoil and Laboratory of Introduction to
Process Simulation.
From 1983 to 1993 his research topic has been the characterization
and modeling of agitated multi-phase (liquid-solid and gas-liquid)
chemical reactors. His research on liquid-solid reactors focused on
the study of catalyst distribution in the reactor and on its
influence on reactor performance. The focus of the activity on
gas-liquid systems was the study of the distribution of the gas
phase and gas-liquid mass transfer. Prof. Nocentini developed novel
correlations and models for the prediction of the behavior of
agitated chemical reactors. In this field he published about 40
works, mainly as articles in international journals and proceedings
of international congresses with review.
In 1993 he started a new research line on bioremediation. The most
significant experiences focused on studying the feasibility of
bioremediation processes, with specific attention to scale-up
problems.
From 2001 the research of Prof. Nocentini has focused primarily on
the biodegradation of chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons (CAHs)
under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. The research
coordinated by prof. Nocentini in the field of chlorinated solvent
biodegradation includes the operation of small-scale batch reactors
as well as flow reactors simulating portions of saturated porous
media, and cover several aspects:
- feasibility studies relative to the
applicability of bioremediation to CAH-contaminated aquifers;
- isolation and characterization of bacterial
species effective in the biodegradation of CAHs and testing of
their effectiveness in bioaugmentation treatments;
- testing and validation of kinetic models of CAH
cometabolic biodegradation, coupled with fluid-dynamic models of
contaminant transport in saturated media;
- evaluation of design parameters for full-scale
applications of CAH bioremediation.
In the field of bioremediation Prof. Nocentini has published about
25 works, mainly as articles in international journals and
proceedings of international congresses with review. He has been
the coordinator of three PRIN research programs and he has
collaborated in other PRIN and institutional research
projects.
Prof. Nocentini has been the scientific coordinator in many research and consulting collaborations with more than 20 companies and institutions operating in the field of site remediation. With some of the biggest companies operating in site remediation the collaboration has continued many years leading to dozens of risk analyses, remedial projects and safety assurance of polluted sites. In the field of risk analysis of polluted sites the research activity regards the improvements of pollutants transport models for the evaluation of the concentration at the receptor.
