Thermally Stimulated Currents in Nanocrystalline Titania.

A thorough study on the distribution of defect-related active energy levels has been performed on nanocrystalline TiO₂. Films have been deposited on thick-alumina printed circuit boards equipped with electrical contacts, heater and temperature sensors, to carry out a detailed thermally stimulated currents analysis on a wide temperature range (5-630 K), in view to evidence contributions from shallow to deep energy levels within the gap. Data have been processed by numerically modelling electrical transport.

Leaching behaviour of hazardous waste under the impact of different ambient conditions.

The overall objective of this study is to provide an improved basis for the assessment of the leaching behaviour of waste marked as hazardous partly stabilised (European waste catalogue code 19 03 04). Four samples of hazardous partly stabilised waste were subjected to two leaching tests: up-flow column tests and batch equilibrium tests. The research was carried out in two directions: the first aims at comparing the results of the two experimental setups while the second aims at assessing the impact of different ambient conditions on the leaching behaviour of waste.

Biochemical methane potential tests of different autoclaved and microwaved lignocellulosic organic fractions of municipal solid waste.

The aim of this research was to enhance the anaerobic biodegradability and methane production of two synthetic Organic Fractions of Municipal Solid Waste with different lignocellulosic contents by assessing microwave and autoclave pre-treatments. Biochemical Methane Potential assays were performed for 21days. Changes in the soluble fractions of the organic matter (measured by soluble chemical oxygen demand, carbohydrates and proteins), the first order hydrolysis constant kh and the cumulated methane production at 21days were used to evaluate the efficiency of microwaving and autoclaving pretreatments on substrates solubilization and anaerobic digestion.