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Research infrastructures for Circular Economy
ENEA has about one hundred specialized researchers and technologists and a network of laboratories, plants and technological halls, in six Research Centers and Large Laboratories, engaged in research and development activities aimed at the transfer of technologies and methodologies for the implementation of process, products and system eco-innovation strategies, as well as new business and consumption models in industrial, urban and territorial areas, from the laboratory scale to the pilot and pre-industrial scale.
In particular, the Agency has advanced infrastructures for the production and characterization of innovative materials, the recovery / recycling and enhancement of resources such as, for example, water, biotic resources, chemicals from by-products, scraps, waste and wastewater.
ENEA is equipped with a network of analytical laboratories at the Research Centers of Bologna, Casaccia, Portici and Trisaia for the characterization of waste, effluents and materials and for the development of innovative and sustainable processes aimed at the treatment and recovery of secondary raw materials, such as:
- strategic and / or high value-added metals through hydrometallurgical processes of different types of complex matrices;
- end-of-life photovoltaic panels using innovative low environmental impact processes, for the recovery of glass, polymers, electrical contacts and cells;
- plastic waste by extrusion for 3D printers and feedstock recycling;
- N and P and biopolymers from wastewater treatment processes.
Recovery and valorisation of scraps and effluents
The technological hall of the laboratory for reuse, recycling, recovery and valorization of waste and raw materials (Casaccia Research Centre) develops eco-innovative technologies and processes for the valorization of by-products, scraps, waste and secondary raw materials (plastic, organic waste, critical raw materials).
The Agrobiopolis and agro-industrial processes technology halls (Trisaia and Casaccia Research Centres) operate in the Mild Technologies sector in order to enucleate, characterise, extract and purify, on a pre-industrial scale, fractions, substances, and biologically active metabolites for many industrial segments.
The laboratory on Technologies for efficient use of water and effluents has a technological hall equipped with pilot plants (Brasimone Research Centre). It implements industrial-scale demonstration units at purifying plants, for sustainable, circular valorization of sewage and industrial effluents, agro-industrial by-products, and purification sludge.
The ROMEO pilot plant (Casaccia Research Centre) allows to verify the recovery processes of high added-value secondary raw materials that include complex matrices such as, for example, circuit boards, permanent magnets, batteries, fluorescent lamps and end-of-life catalysts.
The Laboratory on Advanced Materials in an Open Infrastructure - MAIA (Casaccia Research Centre) is set up as a center devoted to research and service orders from aerospace industries and biomedical sector. MAIA is equipped with innovative process devices and systems (3D printers, presses, furnaces) and technologies for materials and components qualification and for the study of new materials.
The Laboratory on agrifood sustainability, quality and safety (Brindisi and Casaccia Research Centres) is specialised in membrane separation processes to recover bioactive substances and wastewater from the agriculture and food sector.
The Laboratory on virgin and recycled Carbon Fibers Composites and “nature-based solutions" (Brindisi Research Centre) has skill and equipment for materials characterization; the laboratory develops hi-tech materials with virgin and recycled carbon fibres for automotive components.
The technological hall for recyclable composite materials (Faenza Research Centre) is specialised in the development of high-performance ceramics and recyclable composites for transportation (aeronautics and automotive).
ENEA has developed and implemented the first Italian platform of industrial symbiosis - called "Symbiosis" - to accelerate the transition of production activities towards circular economy. The platform is a tool for the companies and the other operators and serves as a place where demand and resources supply meet (e.g. waste materials, energy byproducts, wastewater, services, know-how), in order to establish and implement inter-corporate industrial symbiotic practices.
The platform is based on a web interface that allows users to:
- register for free;
- geo-referencing the organization;
- insert, update and manage resources;
- search for possible synergies of industrial symbiosis with other companies