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Prof. Mark Milke

Umberto Arena

University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli

Italy

 

 

Umberto Arena, chemical engineer and Ph.D. in chemical engineering, is full professor of “Solid waste management” and of "Industrial Pollution Control Engineering" at the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli.

He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Waste Management journal of Elsevier and of Managing Board of the International Waste Working Group (IWWG). He is the leader of the IWWG-Task Group on Thermal Treatments.

He is also a member of a number of international committees like: the Int. Scientific Committee of the Int. Conf. on Industrial and Hazardous Waste Management; the Int. Scientific Committee of the Int. Symposium on Urban Mining; the Int. Scientific Committee of the Fluidized Bed Conversion Conference; the Int. Advisory Board of the Int. Symposium on Energy from Biomass and Waste; the Int. Expert Group on Life Cycle Analysis for Waste Management; the Int. Scientific Committee of the Engineering Foundation on Fluidization; the Int. Advisory Board of the Int. Conference on Circulating Fluidized Beds.

He is in charge of research programs with several companies and research centers. In particular, he worked or still works with Sagit-UNILEVER, Fater-P&G, CONAI (the Italian National Consortium for Packaging), ENI (Snamprogetti, Enitecnologie, Agip Carbone, Enichem Anic), ENEL, Ansaldo Energia, ENEA-Environmental Department, Eco-Bat, CIRA (the Italian National Centre for Aerospatial Research), Asia.biz., Eco-Engineering, ChemTex. He prepared the Solid Waste Management Planning for some Italian regions. He was also a member of the Scientific Committee for the evaluation of Environmental Risk in Campania Region.

He is author of more than 90 scientific papers published in international scientific journals and he wrote chapters for some multi-authored books, published by Chapman & Hall, J. Wiley&Sons and Woodhead Publishing.

Umberto Arena’s research and professional activity is mainly oriented to several aspects of waste management, with particular attention to:

  • thermal treatments (combustion, gasification and pyrolysis) of different fuel and wastes;
  • design and operation criteria of fluidized bed combustors and gasifiers;
  • technological, economical and environmental aspects of the different recycling and recovery routes (mechanical recycling, feedstock recycling and energy recovery) of municipal and industrial wastes;
  • application of Life Cycle Assessment, Material Flow Analysis and Substance Flow Analysis as tools for environmental assessment of waste management planning and for optimization of different waste treatments.

He co-operated in several international research programs, with a number of international partners: Technical University of Vienna-Austria; Technical University of Hamburg-Hamburg – Germany; Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MASS, USA; Technical University of Halifax, Canada; Centre for Environmental Strategies-University of Surrey, Guildford - UK); Centre for Renewable Energies, Athens – Greece; Ciemat, Spain.

Some recent publications:

    1. Arena U. and F. Di Gregorio. A waste management planning based on substance flow analysis. Resource, Conservation and Recycling, dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2013.05.008, in press  (2014)

    2. Arena U. and F. Di Gregorio. Gasification of a solid recovered fuel in a pilot scale fluidized bed reactor. Fuel, 117:528-536 (2014)

    3. Arena U. Fluidized bed gasification chap. 17 in Fluidized-bed technologies for near-zero emission combustion and gasification, F. Scala (Ed.) Woodhead Publishing, p. 765-812, ISBN 978-0-85709-541-1, DOI: 10.1533/9780857098801.3.765 (2013)

    4. Arena U. and F. Di Gregorio. Element Partitioning in Combustion- and Gasification-based Waste-to-Energy Units. Waste Management, 33:1142-1150 (2013)

    5. Arena U. Process and technological aspects of municipal solid waste gasification. A review. Waste Management, 32:625-639 (2012)

    6. Mastellone  M.L., L. Zaccariello, D. Santoro, U. Arena. The O2-Enriched Air Gasification of Coal, Plastics and Wood in a Fluidized Bed Reactor. Waste Management, 32:733-744 (2012)

    7. Arena U., M. Nelles, J. Werther. Advanced aspects of thermal treatment of solid wastes: From a flue gas to a fuel gas technology?. Waste Management, 32:623-624 (2012)

    8. Arena U., F. Di Gregorio, C. Amorese, M.L. Mastellone. A techno-economic comparison of fluidized bed gasification of two mixed plastic wastes. Waste Management, 31:1494-1504 (2011)

    9. Arena U., L. Zaccariello, M.L. Mastellone. Fluidized Bed Gasification of Waste-Derived Fuels. Waste Management, 30:1212-1219 (2010)

    10. Arena U., L. Zaccariello, M.L. Mastellone. Gasification of Natural and Waste Biomass in a Pilot Scale Fluidized Bed Reactor. Combustion Science & Technology, 182:1-15 (2010)

    11. Mastellone  M.L., U. Arena, L. Zaccariello. Co-Gasification of Coal, Plastic Waste and Wood in a Bubbling Fluidized Bed Reactor. Fuel, 89: 2991-3000  (2010)

    12. Arena U., F. Di Gregorio, M. Santonastasi. A Techno-Economic Comparison Between Two Design Configurations for a Small Scale, Biomass-to-Energy Gasification Based System. Chem. Eng. Journal, 162: 580-590  (2010)

    13. Arena U., L. Zaccariello, M.L. Mastellone. Tar Removal During the Fluidized Bed Gasification of  Plastic Waste. Waste Management, 29:783-791 (2009)

    14. Mastellone  M.L., P.H. Brunner, U. Arena. Scenarios of Waste Management for a Waste Emergency Area: a Substance Flow Analysi. J. of Industrial Ecology, 13/5:735-757  (2009)

    15. Arena U., E. Romeo, M.L. Mastellone. Recursive Operability Analysis of a Pilot Plant Gasifier. J. Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 21/1:50-65 (2008)

    16. Mastellone M.L. and U. Arena. Olivine as a Tar Removal Catalyst During Fluidized Bed Gasification of Plastic Waste. AIChE Journal, 54/6: 1656-1667 (2008)

    17. Arena U. and M.L. Mastellone. Fluidized Bed Pyrolysis of Plastic Wastes. chap. 16 in Feedstock Recycling and Pyrolysis of Waste Plastics, J. Scheirs and W. Kaminsky (Eds). J. Wiley&Sons Ltd, ISBN: 0-470-02152-7, p. 435-474, 2006

    18. Arena U., M.L. Mastellone, G. Camino, E. Boccaleri. An innovative process for mass production of multi-wall carbon nanotubes by means of low-cost pyrolysis of polyolefins. Polymer Degradation and Stability, 91:763-768 (2006)

    19. Perugini, F.,  M.L. Mastellone and U. Arena. A Life Cycle Assessment of Mechanical and Feedstock Recycling Options for Management of Plastic Packaging Wastes. Env. Progress, 24/2:137-154 (2005)

    20. Arena, U., M.L. Mastellone, F. Perugini and R. Clift. Environmental Assessment of Paper Waste Management Options by means of LCA Methodology. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 43:5702-5714 (2004)

       

      Contact information:

      Umberto Arena, Ph.D.

      Full Professor of Chemical Engineering

      Department of Environmental, Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies

      University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli

      Via Vivaldi, 43 - 81100 Caserta, ITALY

      phone: +39-0823-274414

      fax: +39-0823-274605

      Email: umberto.arena@unicampania.it