Green Chemistry & Circular Solutions

Speaker: Alberto Mannu (University of Brescia)

This presentation explains the WORLD project, which aims to improve sustainability and circular economy practices by repurposing waste vegetable oils. Currently, these oils are mainly used for biodiesel production, requiring strict acidity limits, large-scale facilities, and long-distance transportation, leading to storage and logistical challenges. The WORLD project proposes a simple, low-impact process to regenerate waste oils locally into lubricants for chains, eliminating the need for blending or strict acidity control. By deploying numerous small recycling units, the approach minimizes transport, reduces stored waste, and creates a near zero-waste, circular solution for managing used cooking oils globally.

The presentation provides an overview of sustainability and circular economy, highlighting the shift from a linear “take-make-waste” model to approaches that respect planetary boundaries and reduce environmental impact. It explains the current challenges of resource depletion, waste generation, and pollution, and introduces sustainability as development that meets present needs without compromising future generations. The circular economy is presented as a key solution, aiming to keep resources in use through technical and biological cycles, reduce raw material demand, and minimize waste. It also reviews EU strategies such as the Circular Economy Action Plans, the European Green Deal, and the Critical Raw Materials Act, emphasizing collective efforts by policymakers, industries, and consumers to achieve climate neutrality and a more resilient, resource-efficient economy.

Speaker: Sonia Martel (University of Burgos).

The presentation introduces the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework, a European approach to integrate safety, sustainability, and functionality from the earliest stages of chemical and material design. It explains the rapid growth of the chemical industry and the associated risks due to limited safety and environmental data, outlines regulatory initiatives and opportunities, and details SSbD’s five assessment phases, including environmental evaluation through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and socio-economic aspects. It also highlights key challenges—such as data gaps, methodological complexity, and the need for digital tools—and concludes that SSbD is essential for driving responsible, circular innovation aligned with a climate-neutral economy.

Speaker: Julieta Díez Hernández (University of Burgos)

The presentation focuses on the social dimension of sustainability, explaining that sustainable development must meet present needs without compromising future generations. It highlights key stakeholders affected by social issues—such as employees, local communities, consumers, and supply chain actors—and introduces tools like Stakeholder Theory, the Salience Model, and Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) to evaluate social impacts. The process includes defining goals, collecting data, assessing impacts, and interpreting results to identify social hotspots and best practices. Within the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework, social and economic aspects are intertwined, emphasizing fairness for workers and competitiveness, though consensus on assessment methods remains low.

Speaker: Laura Caggiu (University of Sassari)

The presentation explores eco-friendly approaches in solid-state chemistry, focusing on two solvent-free techniques: ball milling (BM) and microwave-assisted synthesis (MW). These methods address the high energy consumption and waste generation of conventional solid-state reactions by enabling faster, cleaner, and more efficient processes. Ball milling offers scalability and tunability through adjustable parameters, while microwave heating provides rapid, uniform, and energy-efficient activation. Combining BM and MW creates a hybrid route that maximizes yield, reduces reaction time, and enhances reproducibility, representing a sustainable alternative aligned with circular economy principles and the goal of minimizing environmental impact.

Speaker: Abbas Ahmad Kassem (Université du Littoral-Côte D'Opale)

The presentation examines the use of regenerated waste cooking oil (WCO) as an eco-friendly absorbent for capturing volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are major air pollutants and impurities in biogas. It outlines the context of air pollution, VOC characteristics, and current emission control methods, then details WCO’s physical properties, partition coefficients, and dynamic absorption performance compared to conventional solvents. Results show that WCO offers high VOC absorption capacity, low viscosity, and cost-effectiveness, making it a promising alternative for industrial applications and biogas purification. Additionally, COSMO-RS simulations were used to predict optimal natural compounds for designing deep eutectic solvents, reinforcing WCO’s role in sustainable gas treatment strategies.

Speaker: Santiago Aparicio (University of Burgos)

The presentation addresses the global challenge of PFAS contamination and introduces bio-inspired Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES) as an innovative, sustainable solution for selective PFAS extraction from water. It explains the scale of the PFAS problem—thousands of compounds, widespread industrial use, and extremely high removal costs—and highlights the environmental and health risks. The proposed approach combines multiscale molecular modeling and artificial intelligence to design DES with optimal physicochemical properties for liquid–liquid extraction, enabling efficient, cost-effective remediation. This technology aligns with circular economy principles by reducing waste and energy consumption, offering a promising pathway for large-scale PFAS removal and environmental protection.