Towards context-independent indicators for an unbiased assessment of environmental sustainability in higher education: An application to Italian universities.

Higher education institutes (HEIs) are important drivers for the development and implementation of best practices for environmental sustainability. However, reliable indicators are needed to objectively evaluate the environmental performance of HEIs and their policies. The present paper aims at identifying suitable indicators for unbiased comparisons among different HEIs and for the identification of temporal trends in terms of environmental sustainability performance.

Evaluating the potential impact of energy-efficient ammonia control on the carbon footprint of a full-scale wastewater treatment plant.

An assessment was performed for elucidating the possible impact of different aeration strategies on the carbon footprint of a full-scale wastewater treatment plant. Using a calibrated model, the impact of different aeration strategies was simulated. The ammonia controller tested showed its ability in ensuring effluent ammonia concentrations compliant with regulation along with significant savings on aeration energy, compared to fixed oxygen set point (DO) control strategies.

Interpreting per capita loads of organic matter and nutrients in municipal wastewater: A study on 168 Italian agglomerations.

The size of an agglomeration is expressed in population equivalent, referring to the maximum average weekly load during the year according to the European Directive 271/91. This quantity, multiplied by the daily biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) produced by one population equivalent (which is 60 g d PE, by definition), yields the design biodegradable organic load of the wastewater treatment plant. The same agglomeration size is compared against the capacity of the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) for plant conformity verification by the European Commission.

Improving the quality of wastewater treatment plant monitoring by adopting proper sampling strategies and data processing criteria.

Monitoring is a crucial operation for plant management. However, proper sampling procedures and data processing criteria are not always adopted. Wastewater treatment plants work under dynamic conditions, which poses a challenge for a correct performance assessment.

A novel fuzzy-logic control strategy minimizing NO emissions.

A novel control strategy for achieving low NO emissions and low effluent NH concentration is here proposed. The control strategy uses the measurements of ammonium and nitrate concentrations in inlet and outlet of the aerobic zone of a wastewater treatment plant to calculate a ratio indicating the balance among the microbial groups. More specifically, the ratio will indicate if there is a complete nitrification.