Celeste Gritti

Background

Maria Celeste Gritti graduated with a BSc in Biotechnologies from Milano Bicocca University (IT). Following, she attended the first year of a MTech in Environmental Engineering at Aalborg University (DK) and secondly obtained a MSc in Environmental Sanitation at Ghent University (BE). Her master studies comprised a wide range of environmental topics, from management to remediation of water, soil and air. Moreover, she collaborated, as intern, with a Belgian R&D SME investigating microbial protein production. Her experimental master thesis was realised at the Center for Microbial Ecology and Technology in Ghent, aiming to develop a safe treatment train for source-separated urine, able to recover nutrients in a potentially marketable fertiliser product (Arcelor Mittal-Indaver thesis prize 2019). Her main professional interests are applied solutions for recovery of valuable resources from industrial and domestic “waste” and “wastewater” streams, in the context of circular economy.

Current activities

Maria Celeste is carrying out her PhD within the Water Science Institute at Cranfield University. Her research seeks to upgrade the treatment of distillery wastewater by recovering ammonia, water and heat, via the testing and optimisation of different technologies, from lab and pilot scale up to in situ implementation in Scotland. Specifically, the investigated processes are stripping and adsorption for N recovery, reverse osmosis membrane filtration for water reuse and heat exchange. This study is carried out within the framework of the ULTIMATE project, sponsored by the EC Horizon 2020 and targeting “water smart industrial symbiosis (WSIS)” (https://ultimatewater.eu/). This research aims to deliver findings broadly applicable in the sector, ultimately promoting a circular economy.