The Department of Chemical Engineering, Industrial Chemistry and Materials Science (DICCISM), merged from September 2012 in the current Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering (DICI) is based on a multitude of cultural competence experiences from chemistry and material science to development, design and modelling of the process plants.
The Department promotes and coordinates research activities in the fields of inorganic and organic industrial chemistry; material science; applied chemistry; principles of chemical engineering; process control; chemical reactor design; plant safety and environmental engineering; metallurgy; polymers science and biomaterials; new and renewable energy sources and, sustainable technologies. The DICI is a partner of the CRIBE Consortium, an Italian research centre equipped with pilot plants devoted to the experimentation of the production of energy and fuels from biomasses (Energy Farm). Some of these activities are carried out in collaboration with other Italian and foreign universities; industries and private and public companies.
The DICI has a Central Laboratory for analytical analysis that offers professional support service for both external customers and internal members. The Central Laboratory of department is equipped to perform chemical analysis of construction materials, water, gas mixtures, metals and alloys, fuels and oil products, polymeric materials, civil and industrial waste, sewage sludge by the treatment of municipal and industrial wastewaters etc. The analysis and measurement performed by the Laboratory are conducted by trained personnel in accordance with the methods prescribed by laws, decrees and official regulations, and/or standard procedures according to ASTM, UNI, UNICHIM, ISO, UNICEM, IEC, DIN, AASHTO, etc.., and with modern and reliable equipment.
The main analytical instruments owned by the department include Scanning Electron Microscope equipped with energy dispersive spectrometry detector (SEM-EDS JEOL GSM 5600LV); Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM JEOL 2010), Atomic Emission Spectrometer (AES-ICP Varian 710) and Scanning Electron Microscope equipped with wavelength dispersive spectrometry detector system (SEM-WDS JEOL JSM T300), X-Ray Diffraction (Cristalloflex 810 Siemens).
The working team of the DICI, involved in this project, conducted over the past years an experimental work on gasification/pyrolysis of municipal sewage sludge with the Region of Tuscany entitled "Development of processes and technologies for the thermo-chemical conversion of sewage sludge for energy recovery " maturing as an experience on the technology of gasification/pyrolysis applied to the sludge on pilot scale. This activity is documented by publications in scientific journals and proceedings of international conferences.