Dipartimento Ingegneria Chimica Materiali Ambiente

Prof. Eng. Luca Di Palma, Ph.D.

Current position

• National Scientific Qualification (art.16 of the law 30 December 2010, n.240) Full Professor Competition Sector (Settore Concorsuale) 09/D3, Settore scientifico-disciplinare ING-IND 25
• National Scientific Qualification (art.16 of the law 30 December 2010, n.240) Full Professor Competition Sector (Settore Concorsuale) 09/D1, Settore scientifico-disciplinare ING-IND 22
• Associate professor, SSD ING-IND/22 Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali, Department Chemical Engineering Materials Environment, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
• Coordinator of the PhD Course in Chemical Processes for the Industry and the Enviroment, (Sapienza University, Rome, Italy).
• Founder and Member of the Sapienza start-up company GEEG (Geotechnical and Environmental Engineering Group)
• Member of the National Executive Board (Giunta) and the Directive Board (Consiglio Direttivo) of the Italian Association of Chemical Engineering (AIDIC)

Teaching activity:

• Processi di trattamento dei reflui liquidi – Wastewater treatment processes (9 cfu), Master Sc. Course in Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Sapienza University;
• Water Treatment Processes and Environmental Technologies (6 cfu), Master Sc. Course in Chemical Engineering for Innovative Processes & Products, Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Sapienza University.
• Tecnologie Chimiche Nucleari e Progettazione Tecnologica – Nuclear chemical technology and technological design (3 cfu), Master Sc. Course in Energetics Engineering, Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Sapienza University;
• Tecnologia dei materiali e chimica applicata – Materials technology and applied chemistry (9 cfu), Bachelor Sc. Course in Energetics Engineering, Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Sapienza University;

He has been the tutor of 82 Master Degree Thesis in Chemical Engineering, 188 Bachelor Degree Thesis in Chemical Engineering, Energetic Engineering and Environmental Engineering, and 7 PhD thesis (at national and international level). He was the member of several national panels for the admission to the PhD course, the final PhD exams, and for the allocation of Research Scholarship and Grants at the Department of Chemical Engineering Materials Environment of Sapienza University.

Research Activity

He is the author of more than 200 publications on international journal, conferences proceedings (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4838-7227).

His main research fields are:

- Biological, chemical and electro-chemical processes for industrial wastewater treatment;

- Adsorption and ionic exchange for water and wastewater purification

   - Nano technologies and nanomaterials for environmental remediation

- Energy and materials recovery from industrial wastes.

- Hazardous wastes and byproducts immobilization in cementitious matrix;

- Production of artificial aggregate for concrete

• He served as a referee for the main international journal in the field of environmental technologies and applied chemistry (top peer reviewer, Web of Science ResearcherID: F-1183-2011).
• He is currently member of the Editorial Board of:
  • Process Safety and Environmental Protection (IChemE)
  • Nanomaerials (MDPI)
  • Journal of Leather Science and Engineering, Springer.
  • Chemical Engineering Transactions, AIDIC Servizi, Italy
  • Sustainability (MDPI), Section "Sustainable Use of the Environment and Resources".
  • Hydrology - Current Research (Hilaris Publisher, Brussels, Belgium),

He is evaluator of research or mobility projects submitted to National or International funding Institutions or Agencies.

He was Invited Lecturer on “In situ chemical oxidation technologies” and “Nanotechnology for advanced site remediation”

Recent Research Grant as coordinator, P.I.

• Coordinator (Grant-holder) of the CBHE Erasmus+ project ITACA – Innovative Training centre to support a postgraduate 3rd cycle Advanced Course to face environmental emergency in Azerbaijan (609758-EPP-1-2019-1-IT-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP)

• Coordinator (Grant-holder) of the TEMPUS project Econano – Curriculum reform and the modernization of Ecology Engineering based in nanotechnology in Azerbaijan (543924-TEMPUS-1-2013-1-IT-TEMPUS-JPCR)
• Unit partner responsible (Sapienza University) of the EU funded ERANETMED project CrITERIA - Cr(VI) Impacted water bodies in the Mediterranean: Transposing management options for Efficient water Resources use through an Interdisciplinary Approach, ERANETMED_WATER-13-051 CRITERIA (2016-2019).

• Unit Partner Responsible (Sapienza University) of the EU funded project ETP-EABiofilms - Techniques for investigating Electron Transfer Processes in ElectroActive Biofilms nell’ambito del FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IRSES (2009-2010).

• Responsible of Sapienza Unit in the project funded by the Italian Ministry of Health: "Biotechnologies for sustainable development", in the 2011 CCM Programme.

• Coordinator of research project funded by MIUR (Italian Ministry of University and Reserch) in the field of PRIN projects (National Coordinator and P.I. of the National PRIN 2008 funded project: On board treatment of ballast water: innovative technologies to control the introduction of non-native species for biodiversity protection of coastal areas)

• He was the PI of several Research Project funded by private companies or public agencies, including INAIL (Italian Workers' Compensation Authority) and ISPESL (National Agency for Occupational Health and Safety).

Conference organization

• International Conference on the Remediation of Polluted Sites (BOSICON), Roma, 14-15 febbraio 2006, Sapienza University, Interuniversitary Center of Technology and Chemistry for the Environment.
• 2nd International Conference on the Remediation of Polluted Sites (BOSICON 2009), Roma, 13-15 maggio 2009, Sapienza University, Interuniversitary Center of Technology and Chemistry for the Environment.
• 3rd International Congress on Soil and Sediment Remediation (BOSICON-2012), Roma, 11-14 settembre 2012, organized jointly by the AIDIC (Italian Association of Chemical Engineering), the Interuniversitary Center of Technology and Chemistry for the Environment, and the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of Sapienza University.
• Chairman, and member of the Steering Committe of International Conference of Nanotechnology Application for the Environment, NINE 2016, Roma, Italy, 21-23 March, 2016, organized by the AIDIC (Italian Association of Chemical Engineering).
• Chairman, and member of the Organizing Committe Second International Conference of Nanotechnology Application for the Environment, NINE 2017, Roma, Italy, 24-26 September, 2017 organized by the AIDIC (Italian Association of Chemical Engineering).
• Member of the Steering Committe of the 3rd International Conference on Nanotechnology Based Innovative Applications for the Environment, NINE 2019, Naples, Italy, 16-19 April, 2019.
• Member of the Steering Committee and the Scientific Committee of the 4^th International Conference on Nanotechnology Based Innovative Applications for the Environment, NINE 2021, on line, Italy, 29-31 March, 2021.
• Member of the Steering Committee and the Scientific Committee of the 5^th International Conference on Nanotechnology Based Innovative Applications for the Environment, NINE 2023, Venice, Italy, 26-29 March, 2023.

• Processi di trattamento dei reflui liquidi – Wastewater treatment processes (9 cfu), Master Sc. Course in Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Sapienza University;
• Water Treatment Processes and Environmental Technologies (6 cfu), Master Sc. Course in Chemical Engineering for Innovative Processes & Products, Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Sapienza University.
• Tecnologie Chimiche Nucleari e Progettazione Tecnologica – Nuclear chemical technology and technological design (3 cfu), Master Sc. Course in Energetics Engineering, Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Sapienza University;
• Tecnologia dei materiali e chimica applicata – Materials technology and applied chemistry (9 cfu), Bachelor Sc. Course in Energetics Engineering, Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Sapienza University;

Selected publications

• L. Di Palma, I. Bavasso, M. Capocelli, P. De Filippis, V. Piemonte (2019) Biological treatment of wastewater from pyrolysis plant: Effect of organics concentration, pH and temperature, Water, 11(2), article n.336.
• Bavasso, M. P. Bracciale, F. Sbardella, J. Tirillò, F. Sarasini, L. Di Palma (2020) Effect of yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis) residue and coupling agent on the mechanical and thermal properties of polyolefin-based composites, Polymer Composites 41(1), 161-173.
• G. Vilardi, B. De Caprariis, M. Stoller, L. Di Palma, N. Verdone (2020) Intensified water denitrification by means of a spinning disk reactor and stirred tank in series: kinetic modelling and computation fluid dynamics, Journal of Water Process Engineering, 34, art. 101147.
• E. Brasili, I. Bavasso, V. Petruccelli, G. Vilardi, A. Valletta, C.D. Bosco,  A. Gentili, G. Pasqua, L. Di Palma (2020) Remediation of hexavalent chromium contaminated water through zero-valent iron nanoparticles and effects on tomato plant growth performance, Scientific Report, Volume 10, Issue 1, 1 December 2020, Article number 1920.
• Bavasso, M. P. Bracciale, F. Sbardella, D. Puglia, F. Dominici, L. Torre, J. Tirillò, F. Sarasini, I. M. De Rosa, W. Xin, L. Di Palma (2021) Sulfonated Fe3O4/PES nanocomposites as efficient separators in microbial fuel cells, Journal of Membrane Science, Volume 620, 15 February 2021, Article number 118967
• L. Mazzeo, D. Marzi, I. Bavasso, M. P. Bracciale, V. Piemonte, L. Di Palma (2022) Characterization of waste roots from the as hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata as low-cost adsorbent for methylene blue removal, Chemical Engineering Research and Design, 186, October 2022, Pages 13-21.
• D. Rosa, F. D’Agostino, I. Bavasso, M. P. Bracciale, L. Di Palma (2023) Easy way to produce iron-doped titania nanoparticles via the solid-state method and investigation their photocatalytic activity, Journal of Materials Research, https://doi.org/10.1557/s43578-022-00885-8.