Membrane Engineering in the Circular Economy: Renewable Sources Valorization in Energy and Downstream Processing in Agro-food Industry

Membrane Engineering in the Circular Economy: Renewable Sources Valorization in Energy and Downstream Processing in Agro-food Industry describes the modification of the general concept of "waste," including waste valorization as added-value products that are useful for energy production and biotechnology industries. Speaking to the relevance of this new vision, the book highlights the fundamentals of membrane operations in the exploitation of renewable sources for energy production and the valorization of agro-food waste at the industrial level. This book is an excellent resource for researchers, biologists, membranologists and engineers in chemistry, biochemical engineering, food sciences and the agro-food refinery industry.

• Discusses membrane engineering for agro-food wastes' transformation into added-value products
• Presents circular and zero-waste economy principles pursued by membrane technology and applied to the agro-food industry
• Includes potentialities of agro-food wastes for renewable and energy production via membrane operations

Adolfo Iulianelli, Degree in Chemical Engineering in 2002 at University of Calabria (Italy), obtained his PhD Degree in Chemical and Materials Engineering in 2006 at University of Calabria (Italy). Nowadays, he is working at the Institute on Membrane Technology of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ITM). He is author or co-author of more than 50 international articles (ISI), 1 patent, more than 50 contributes as oral and poster presentations in national and international conferences, more than 20 book chapters. Furthermore, he is Reviewer of more than 20 international ICI journals, Invited Speaker in more than 5 international conferences, training school, etc. Subject Editor of the Scientific World Journal, Guest Editor for the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (ICI) and Journal of Membrane Science and Technology and Associate Editor of International Journal of Membrane Science and Technology. His research interests are membrane reactors, fuel cells, gas separation, hydrogen production from reforming reactions of renewable sources through inorganic membrane reactors and membrane operations. His h-index is 22 (source: www.scoupus.com).

Alfredo Cassano has worked as a Researcher at CNR-ITM in Italy since 2000. Trained in Biology, he specializes in membrane science and technology, including conventional membrane processes, membrane contactors, and integrated membrane operations used for wastewater treatment and agro-food applications. He has led or directed research through numerous national MIUR-funded projects, as well as European Union international projects and industry collaborations. Cassano contributes to the scientific community through editorial-board roles and has co-authored several books, numerous journal articles, and chapters, alongside conference and invited work, and two national patents. His interests include recovering bioactive compounds from by-products, membrane distillation, osmotic distillation, and wastewater remediation, motivated by bridging membrane technology with practical AI/ML and real-time monitoring to advance circular economy resource recovery.

Carmela Conidi, Master Degree in Pharmacy at the University of Calabria (Italy) and PhD degree in methodologies for the development of molecules of pharmacological interest at the same university.

She performed her post-doctoral activity as visiting researcher at the “Instituto Universitario de Ingenieria de Alimentos para el Desarrollo ", University Polytechnic of Valencia (November 2011-May 2012; November 2012 -May 2013).

Nowadays, she is researcher at the Institute on Membrane Technology of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-ITM). Since 2005, her research activities focus on membrane science and technology in the field of pressure-driven membrane operations, membrane contactors and sustainable integrated membrane systems mainly applied to the clarification and concentration of fruit juices, treatment of industrial wastewaters, water purification and in the recovery of high added value compounds from agro-food products and by-products.

C.C. is author or co-author of more than 50 scientific contributions as international peer reviewed articles in ISI journals (h-index =22, Scopus database), 14 peer reviewed book chapters, and several contributions at National and International Conferences.

C.C. is Reviewer of different international ISI journals (Journal of Food Engineering, Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies, Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of Membrane Science, Food and BioProducts Processing, etc.), co-editor of special Issue as well as Member of the Organizing of International Conferences and she made several presentations (also as invited and keynote lecture) in National and International Conferences.

Konstantinos Petrotos, Master Degree in Chemical Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece) and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, specialisation in Food Engineering & Technology (Ph.D. thesis title: The study of concentration of tomato juice by using direct osmosis membrane technology) at the same university. Nowadays, he is Professor of Food and Agricultural products processing in Bio-systems Engineering Dept. of Technological Educational Institute of Larissa-School of Agricultural Technology (Larissa, Greece) and Head of the Food and Biosystems Engineering Laboratory, Department of Biosystems Engineering of the Technological Educational Institute of Thessaly in Larissa, (Greece). K.P. is author or co-author of more than 90 scientific contributions as international peer reviewed articles in ISI journals (44 article and chapter publications; h-index = 14, Scopus database), chapters, and proceedings of National and International Conferences. Member of the Technical Chamber of Greece, Hellenic Association of Food Technologists, Greek Society of Agronomist Food Technologist, and Greek Association of Chemical Engineers, K.P. is President of the International Conference FaBE and Reviewer for international scientific journals (Journal of Membrane Science, Journal of Food Science and Engineering, Desalination etc.) as well as Editorial Board member of Journal of Food Science and Engineering and Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Food and Biosystems Engineering.

His research interests are Application of Membrane Technology in Food processing and in agricultural and food wastes; Osmotic Techniques; Nano- and Micro-encapsulation of bioactive physical substances and use of them in Food and Pharmaceutical Industry; Food and Agricultural products drying technologies; Novel techniques for food preservation (high pressure processing and pulsing electric field applications).