PEOPLE
Core Team
ALBERTO TIRAFERRI
ERICA BERTOZZI
REZA SALLAKHNIKNEZHAD
ALI NAEIMI TABASIAN
Madina Mohamed Mahmmod
Marco Malaguti
Lorenzo Craveri
Past Lab Members
Post-doctoral Associates
Antonio Amelio (left June 2018): Fabrication and functionalization of hybrid organic/inorganic membranes for solvent resistant nanofiltration and for water purification; life-cycle assessment (currently at JRC Ispra)
Mattia Giagnorio (left July 2021): Forward osmosis modeling, techno-economic, and environmental assessment – (currently at Deloitte)
Giulio Farinelli (left October 2021): Advanced oxidation processes and their coupling with membrane-based water and wastewater treatment (currently at University of Montpellier, France)
Francesco Ricceri (left July 2023): Membrane distillation and osmotic membrane distillation (currently at KAUST, Saudi Arabia)
Ph.D. students (graduated)
Francesco Ricceri: “Efficient membrane-based solutions to promote water recovery within water-intensive energy production processes: Three case studies”, graduated March 2023
Mehdi Pejman: “Double-barrier membranes: coupling hydrophilic coatings with biocidal Ag-MOFs for sustainable (bio)fouling mitigation and biofilm inhibition”, graduated February 2022
Giulio Farinelli: “Improving the sustainability and effectiveness of oxidative processes for water and wastewater purification”, graduated May 2021
Mattia Giagnorio: “Membrane-based Technologies for the Production of High-quality Water from Contaminated Sources: from Lab Experiments to Full-scale System Design”, graduated April 2020
Co-supervised Ph.D. students (graduated)
Roberto Bert (currently at SMAT, Turin, Italy): “Hydrodynamic Techniques for Fouling Control in Membrane Systems”, graduated October 2022
Mostafa Dadashi Firouzjaei (currently at University of Alabama, USA): Water and wastewater treatment with novel membrane-based processes (co-supervision with Prof. Mark Elliott), graduated March 2022
Maria Di Vincenzo (currently at KAUST, Saudi Arabia): “Development of Reverse Osmosis Membranes Incorporating Biomimetic Artificial Water Channels”, graduated December 2020
Matteo Alberghini: “Heat and mass transfer in porous materials for passive energy-conversion devices”, (co-supervision with Prof. Pietro Asinari and Prof. Eliodoro Chiavazzo – Ph.D. funded by the CleanWaterCenter@PoliTo), graduated July 2022
Research Assistants
Marco Coha: Advanced oxidation processes for water and wastewater treatment
Giulia Blandini:Treatment of contaminated brackish groundwater with nanofiltration
Daria Grinic: Synthesis of polymers and membranes for osmotically-driven applicationsNicola Duimovich: Fabrication and testing of lab-made hybrid organic/inorganic membranes
Laura Andrea Saldarriaga Hernandez: Aggregation and deposition of iron oxide colloids, in the Environmental Nanotechnology Lab
Yasmine Ellaban: president of the NGO “Spring“
Masters’ students (graduated)
Mehryar Jafari: modeling and optimization of forward osmosis
Andrea Sansebastiano: analysis and improvement of a real-scale reverse osmosis plant in the north of Italy
Marco Malaguti: microalgae biomass concentration and growth solution recovery with ceramic membrane filtration
Stefano Chiampo: experimental study and optimization of a nanofiltration system for the reuse of contaminated groundwater
Aurora Zamboi: development of a process for the removal of high-molecular weight polymers from the wastewater produced during enhanced oil recovery operations
Arianna Milano: Assessing the impact of water carrying on women in Western Nepal (work performed at EPFL and EAWAG, Switzerland)
Ilaria Righetto: Nitrogen recovery from landfill leachate using gas-permeable membrane: selection of pre-treatments needed and analysis of membrane performance over time (performed at Aalto University, Finland)
Pierluca Oliveri: Investigation of the transport mechanism in forward osmosis vs. reverse osmosis (thesis work performed at Aquaporin A/S, Denmark)
Brenda Insonne: Understanding fouling mechanisms in pressure- vs. osmosis-driven membrane processes
Crawford Lang: Desalination of produced water with high salinity and laden with organics using membrane distillation; Erasmus+ thesis student from University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
Luigi Antonio Sequi: Novel membranes for nanofiltration. This work was performed at IEM, Montpellier, France, with the supervision of Dr. Maria Di Vincenzo and Prof. Mihail Barboiu; it involved the synthesis of anti-fouling nanofiltration membranes through the functionalization with polyols.
Paola Cipollone: Design and evaluation of small-scale desalination units for applications in Oman (co-supervisor: Prof. Pietro Asinari, SMaLL Lab) – in the framework of the CleanWaterCenter@PoliTo
Anna Mate: Solar Concentration and Membrane Distillation coupling: System Model and Case Studies (main supervisor: Prof. Eliodoro Chiavazzo, SMaLL Lab) – in the framework of the CleanWaterCenter@PoliTo
Francesco Artuso: Solar Concentration and Membrane Distillation coupling: System Model and Case Studies (main supervisor: Prof. Eliodoro Chiavazzo, SMaLL Lab) – in the framework of the CleanWaterCenter@PoliTo
Andrea Maizzi: Water / energy nexus: assessment of future water treatment scenarios and their energy sustainability (co-supervision: Prof. Francesco Laio) – in the framework of the CleanWaterCenter@PoliTo
Giorgio Paradies: Application of forward osmosis for the treatment of wastewater of beer production (work performed at Technical University of Denmark, DTU, and in collaboration with Aquaporin A/S)
Federica Granato (co-advisor; main advisor: Prof. Marco Sangermano, DISAT): functionalized polyethersulfone-based membranes for pervaporation (in collaboration with Ben Gurion University, Israel, lab of Dr. Roy Bernstein)
Edoardo Carlo Massasso: Rimozione di cromo esavalente da acque potabili con impianto pilota (in collaboration with SMAT S.p.A.)
Emmanuele Castiglione: Adsorption and desorption of a positively charged polymer on silica and implications for environmental processes
Andrea Cosola: Fabrication and characterization of membranes made of sulfonated polyethersulfone for nanofiltration and as support for forward osmosis membranes
Simone Cascia: Removal of phosphate from aqueous solutions through adsorption onto dolomite in a depth filter (in collaboration with University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, lab of Prof. Susana Boeykens)
Jacopo De Tommaso (co-advisor; main advisor: Prof. Tiziana Tosco, DIATI): Transport and fate of nanoparticles in soils and acquifers (thesis work performed at McGill University, Canada, in the lab of Prof. Nathalie Tufenkji)
Daniela Russo (co-advisor; main advisor: Prof. Marco Sangermano, DISAT): Thin-film composite membranes with covalent binding between polyamide and the support layer resistant to backwashing (in collaboration with Ben Gurion University, Israel, lab of Dr. Ron Kasher)
Salvatore Manuel Sortino: Engineered biological processes for resource recovery from waste streams (thesis work performed at Columbia University, USA, in Prof. Kartik Chandran’s lab)
Nicola Duimovich: Use of biochar for removal of organic matter (thesis work performed at Aalto University, Finland)
Sara Abbenante: Renewable energy-powered membrane processes (thesis work performed at KIT, Germany, in the lab of Prof. Andrea Iris Schӓfer)
Santino Nanni: Development of antifouling RO membranes by incorporation of nanomaterials (thesis work performed at University of Concordia, Canada, in the lab of Prof. Saifur Rahaman)
Massimiliano Bolettieri: Graphene oxide-based multifunctional membrane for water purification (thesis work performed at UC Berkeley, USA, in Prof. Baoxia Mi’s lab)
Cédric Le Teuff: Preventive maintenance of the water and wastewater treatment plants of Nouméa, New Caledonia
Francesco Ricceri: Graphene-based membranes for nanofiltration (thesis work performed at KAUST, Saudi Arabia, in the lab of Prof. Peng Wang)
Cristina Andriollo: Chromium removal by nanofiltration for potable water, in collaboration with Prof. Mariachiara Zanetti and Dr. Barbara Ruffino of DIATI
Elisabetta Averna: Chromium removal by nanofiltration for potable water, in collaboration with Prof. Mariachiara Zanetti and Dr. Barbara Ruffino of DIATI
Maria Di Vincenzo: Improving boron removal in thin-film composite membranes (thesis work performed at IEM, France in collaboration with Dr. Yves-Marie Legrand and Prof. Mihai Barboiu)