Wheelchair basketball (WB) is an increasingly popular sport that guarantees numerous health benefits for people with disabilities who regularly practice it, such as an improved quality of life and ...psychophysical well-being. However, WB is a contact and high-stress sport, which exposes players to frequent overloads and injuries, mainly affecting the upper limbs. Therefore, shoulder pain (SP) is the most common musculoskeletal disorder among WB players, forcing them to suspend or abandon this sport activity. This narrative review aims to summarize all the known literature on this topic and to be a starting point for further research. Firstly, it explores the biomechanical causes that lead to SP and the underlying diseases, among which the most recurrent are rotator cuff tendinopathies. Furthermore, this overview deepens the most effective and specific rehabilitation programs for SP in WB players and it emphasizes the need for further studies to trial new rehabilitative protocols using novel technologies to make them faster and more personalized. In this regard, the general recommendation still remains to perform a combination of exercises such as strengthening, endurance and stretching exercises of various durations and intensities. To conclude, the most important prevention strategies are described, underlining the need for constant sport-specific training led by qualified personnel and suggesting some insights on possible new research aimed at improving wheelchair ergonomics, stressing the importance of a multidisciplinary team fully dedicated to the individual athlete.
•The full scale energy utilization in WWTP has been defined.•The energy efficiency of the plant corresponds to the best performances of large scale.•The thermal balance from sludge digestion and ...drying has been considered.•Improvement in energy efficiency had proposed.
Energy consumption represents a significant part of the operative costs of a wastewater treatment plant but, with a correct design and a careful management model, there are important possibilities for its limitation. The proposed research presents a multi-step methodology for the evaluation of the energetic aspects of wastewater treatment, which was implemented on the largest facility in Italy (2.7M population equivalents as organic load), managed by Società Metropolitana Acque Torino (SMAT). The study initially took into account each phase of the process scheme, in order to obtain specific electricity consumption values for all the electro-mechanic devices. Data from tele-control system and direct measurements in field have both been acquired. The total electric energy demand of the plant was evaluated (66.78GWh/y, about 50% from aeration in oxidation tanks). In account of large contribution the energy efficiency of the blowers was verified with positive results. Four specific energy consumption indexes were considered to carry out a critical analysis of SMAT wastewater treatment plant with other facilities performing biological oxidation processes and of a different order of magnitude about design capacity, and congruent values were obtained. The considered indexes related the electric energy demand to the equivalent population, to the volume of treated water and to the amount of removed COD and total Nitrogen. Furthermore the thermal energy demand of the plant was estimated (49.15GWh/y, more than 93% from sludge line). An energy balance for the whole plant was finally evaluated, and some energy optimization solutions to decrease the corresponding costs were suggested.
The presence of emerging pollutants in the aquatic environment in relatively small concentrations and the fact that they cannot be removed by conventional water/wastewater treatment processes bring ...new challenges in terms of adequate selection of technologies from the technical, economical and environmental points of view. Generally, literature discusses emerging pollutants’ removal at significant concentrations (such as those in wastewater), while few studies consider their low concentrations occurring in raw water. This study presents a comprehensive review of the research efforts related to the occurrence, fate, health effects and impacts of emerging pollutants on advanced drinking water treatment and the environmental performance evaluation of different technological options, with a focus on pilot and full-scale installations. All presented case studies consider pollutants removed, process conditions and removal efficiencies, thus making possible comparisons between membrane processes, advanced oxidation processes and adsorption on activated carbon and other materials. The study is completed by an analysis of the environmental assessment instruments (life cycle assessment, carbon, water footprints, other type of assessments) that may be used for selecting sustainable advanced drinking water treatment processes able to remove emerging pollutants. This paper critically reviews the main research topics concerning emerging pollutants: classification, legislative framework, up-to-date removal processes and their environmental performances assessment, to offer a comprehensive analysis of the strategic issues that may constitute future research directions for sustainable water supply.
•Research in EPs removal relevant for drinking water treatment is reviewed.•Membranes, advanced oxidation and adsorption are most used processes.•Advanced drinking water treatment pilot and full-scale installations are considered.•Environmental performance assessment is advised as basis for processes scale-up.•Research directions about processes and environmental performances are discussed.
The global energy sector heavily relies on fossil fuels, significantly contributing to climate change. The ambitious European emissions' reduction targets require sustainable processes and ...alternatives. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of 73 Italian thermal power plants registered to the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) aimed at assessing EMAS effectiveness in addressing and quantifying the environmental impacts of this relevant industrial sector. The analysis was based on EMAS environmental statements, publicly disclosing verified and certified data, with the secondary objective of evaluating if EMAS could be an efficient tool to improve the plants’ environmental performances. An inventory of technical and environmental aspects, adopted indicators, and allocated budgets was based on 2023 data. A strong correlation was found between the significance of the environmental aspects and the number of adopted indicators. Gaps were observed in describing aspects like “biodiversity” and “local issues”. Improvement objectives and budget allocation showed discrepancies and lacked correlation with the significance of the related environmental aspects. “Energy production” accounted for 68% of the total allocated budget; “environmental risks”, “emissions to air”, “electricity consumption”, and “local issues” were also key focus areas. Insufficient information on emission control technologies and progress tracking of improvement objectives was detected. This study highlights the need for thermal power installations to improve the selection of appropriate indicators and to better relate allocated budget to improvement objectives when implementing EMAS. Such measures would facilitate the quantification of the effective environmental impacts of the energy production sector, supporting future research on this topic, allowing stakeholders a better comparison among plants, and driving industry-wide improvements.
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•Analysis of environmental performances reporting of 73 thermal plants.•Strong correlation between aspects' significance and indicators' quantification.•Gaps found in quantifying biodiversity and local context issues.•Discrepancies detected in improvement objectives set and budget allocation.•Energy production-related technical aspects accounted for 68% budget allocation.
We reviewed 195 references discussing the pyrolysis of plastic waste, with the aim of analyzing the technical aspects (feedstocks, process parameters, reactors, products, catalysts, kinetics, and ...pollutants), the economic feasibility for the industrial implementation, and the environmental assessment through Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). In the last decade, the scientific community primarily studied individual virgin polymers (79% of the references) through batch lab-scale tests, mostly at temperatures around 500°C (46% of the selected references). Depending on the polymer (PE, PP, PET, PS), reactor type and operating conditions the relative amounts of gas/condensable/solid products varied, whereas PVC was considered undesirable due to the formation of corrosive gases. Liquid products are the most common targets, due to their application as fuels. Several technical issues (such as the impact of residence time and pressure, and low-cost catalysts) need further attention. Very few LCA studies explored plastic waste pyrolysis, with insufficient results for a thorough environmental assessment of the processes. Only seven references investigated the techno-economic feasibility of plastic waste pyrolysis at full-scale, achieving results that are interesting but too scarce for any conclusive evaluation. This represents the most significant knowledge gap identified in the review, as the techno-economic sustainability is a fundamental factor for the technological transfer. Pyrolysis has been proven to be a viable technology to convert plastic waste into high value-added products that can be utilized as fuels, chemicals and/or building blocks. This review provides guidance for further research and aims at stimulating the interest of the industrial world regarding the possible implementation of this technology.
●Analysis of feedstock, process parameters, reactors, products, catalysts, and kinetics.●“Real” plastic waste samples should be considered instead of virgin polymers.●Further efforts are needed to scale-up the research oriented to added-value products.●The environmental impacts have been scarcely investigated.
This study presents a sequential three-steps methodology for the technical, economic and environmental assessment (TEEA) of bioethanol production from waste biomass. In EU the most abundant waste ...biomasses produced in 2018 could be ascribed to three main categories: lignocellulosic (329.41 Mt), starch (160 Mt) and sugar-based (58.56 Mt). The technical assessment compiled an inventory of the waste biomasses and subsequently designed their biological conversion into ethanol through integrated biorefinery processes by means of material flow analysis (MFA); the economic assessment was aimed at the definition of the cut-off size of the biorefinery plant necessary to achieve profitability; the environmental assessment was based on Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and energy balance (i.e. energy input consumption). For each of the three waste biomass categories, at least one that was significant as available amount and representative in terms of physico-chemical characteristics, was evaluated: sugarcane for sugar-based, potatoes for starch-based and rice straw, cattle manure and organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) for lignocellulosic biomasses. The technical assessment of the biorefinery routes lead to the following yields (kg of bioethanol per kg of biomass): 0.16, 0.17, 0.22, 0.19 and 0.14 respectively. The economic profitability was reached by all biorefineries and Net Present Value (M€) were: 0.85 for sugarcane, 0.11 for potatoes, 0.09 for rice straw, 0.11 for cattle manure and 0.39 for OFMSW. From the environmental perspective, cattle manure reached the highest reduction of climate change and acidification impacts compared to other biomasses, while sugarcane achieved the lowest energy input consumption (around 64%).
•The sustainability of bioethanol biorefinery from waste biomass was assessed.•The technical evaluation lead to yields equal to 0.14–0.22 kg bioethanol/kg biomass.•Economic sustainability was accomplished for all waste biomasses considered.•Life Cycle Analysis showed that manure achieved the best environmental performances.•Sugarcane achieved the lowest energy input consumption (64%).
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•Highly viscous blended food waste was fermented to lactic acid without dilution.•Maximum lactic acid titer during batch operation was 50 g L−1.•Continuous flow fermentation at 0.44 ...d−1 gave up to 74 g L−1 lactic acid.•Lactic acid selectivity was up to 91% with indigenous culture.•Plants with minimum 200,000 inhabitants in catchment area are economically profitable.
Non-sterile lactic acid (LA) fermentation of highly viscous food waste was demonstrated in batch and continuous flow fermentations. With Streptococcus sp., an indigenous consortium, and/or applied glucoamylase, food waste was fermented without addition of external carbon or nitrogen sources. Experimental results were used for economic and energy evaluations under consideration of different catchment area sizes from 50,000 to 1,000,000 inhabitants. During batch mode, addition of glucoamylase resulted in a titer (after 24 h), yield, and productivity of 50 g L−1, 63%, and 2.93 g L−1h−1, respectively. While titer and yield were enhanced, productivity was lower during continuous operation and 69 g L−1, 86%, and 1.27 g L−1h−1 were obtained at a dilution rate of 0.44 d−1 when glucoamylase was added. Both batch and continuous flow fermentations were found economically profitable with food waste from 200,000 or more inhabitants.
Wine lees (WL) are undervalued residues from the wine-making process. Anaerobic digestion (AD) of WL is highly challenging due to the acidic pH and high content of readily biodegradable compounds. ...This study investigated the biomethane potential (BMP) of 3 WL samples through mesophilic batch tests fed with 2–3 % total solids. The influence of wood-based biochar (BC), considering 2 different BCs and doses (3 and 10 g L−1), was also assessed. BMP values up to 1.257 Nm3 kgVS−1 and 92–96 % soluble COD removal were recorded. However, the inhibition of methanogenesis was observed due to organic acids accumulation exceeding 21–24 g L−1. BC addition didn’t improve biomethane production in the considered experimental conditions. This study proved that WL is a highly attractive AD substrate, considering its high biodegradability and availability throughout the year, although the process must be carefully operated.
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•Wine lees (WL) were suggested as a potential substrate for biomethane production.•The wide range of WL characteristics led to varying biomethane potentials.•Overloads of COD in WL mostly in soluble forms led to inhibition of methanogenesis.•In this study, biochar supplementation didn’t mitigate the process’ instabilities.•High sCOD and wide variability of WL characteristics were critical issues.
This work presents the economic assessment of an integrated biorefinery process for sequential fermentative production of lactic acid and biogas from food waste. The integrated biorefinery process ...was compared to single processes for either lactic acid or biogas production. The economic assessment, considering catchment areas from 2000 to 1 million inhabitants, was based on data from real biorefinery plants and carried out using SuperPro Designer® 8.0. The consistency of the approach was evaluated through a set of composite indicators. The integrated biorefinery process was investigated for its economic feasibility of producing lactic acid and biogas, the impact of process scale as well as energy use. Outcomes revealed that an integrated biorefinery process contributes more to optimal use of energy and material flows than single processes. Profitability was confirmed for catchment areas larger than 20,000–50,000 inhabitants.
•Conversion of food waste into lactic acid and biogas is economically feasible.•Integrated biorefinery exhibits various technical and economic benefits.•Energy balance and mass flows proved the convenience of integrated biorefinery.•Integrated biorefinery was more cost-efficient than single processes.•Demonstration of cost-effectiveness for at least 20,000–50,000 inhabitants.
This work presents a systematic characterisation of 100 waste mobile phones (73 feature phones and 23 smartphones) produced between 1989 and 2016. All items were inventoried and the evolvement of the ...relative abundances of their macro-components (mechanic and electro-mechanic parts, electronics and others) and materials was investigated. The average lifetime was 15.1 years for feature phones and 6.4 years for smartphones. The main component was plastic, on average 46%-wt. in feature phones and 37%-wt. in smartphones; over the years electronics' and plastic's amounts decreased (respectively 80% and 70%), while metal components' amount increased (12%). A cost-benefit analysis explored the profitability of the management of waste mobile phones through manual dismantling followed by the sale of the separated components and materials. The average cost of manual dismantling was estimated as 6.93 € per item according to EU average labour costs and 1.50 € per item based on minimum EU labour costs. According to the performed economic analysis, the actual market prices for the potentially recoverable materials and components of waste mobile phones were not able (particularly mixed plastics) to counterbalance the costs of manual dismantling according to the European standard labour costs.
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•100 waste mobile phones were identified, dismantled, and characterized.•Trends related to their macro-composition over 28 years were compared and discussed.•Electronics and plastics components' weight decreased, while metals increased.•a cost-benefit analysis of manual dismantling was performed.•Manual dismantling was not found economically profitable in the EU context.
