Contact Dr Luca Alibardi

Areas of expertise

  • Biomass and Waste
  • Waste Management and Resource Efficiency
  • Water Science and Engineering

Background

Dr Alibardi holds a degree and a PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of Padova (IT). His PhD focused on innovative treatments of tannery sludge and the project was sponsored by Acque del Chiampo S.p.A., a water company treating the industrial wastewater from the tanning pole of Arzignano, Vicenza - Italy.

After his PhD, Dr Alibardi continued to work at the University of Padova as a research fellow with research activities mainly focusing in the field of biological hydrogen production from organic waste. He also worked on a project for the co-treatment of source segregated wastewater and organic waste (AquaNova concept) with a pilot installation in a mountain hut (EnergiaNova project).

During his time at the University of Padova Dr Alibardi developed expertise in the evaluation of Biochemical Methane Potential (BMP tests) of different organic substrates, analysis and technical support for public bodies and private companies active in the field of anaerobic digestion for waste or agricultural products and residues.

Dr Alibardi joined Cranfield University in 2015 as Research Fellow and worked as seconded within the Innovation Team of Severn Trent Water to deliver research and development projects for the UK Water Sector.

Current activities

Dr Alibardi's research interests centre on the development of separation technologies and systems integration to lead on the transition towards the circular and hydrogen economies. He is active in the definition of the role of hydrogen to decarbonise the wastewater sector and on the development of the concept of biorefinery for the waste management sector. He works in the area of energy recovery systems from wastewater network to understand the wider impact of these systems and on the use of coarse separation systems as an alternative to conventional membranes to develop combined membrane-biological processes to sustain the recovery of added value products from waste materials.

Dr Alibardi is Centre Manager of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Water Infrastructure and Resilience (WIRe - www.cdtwire.com).

He is Co-Leader of the Task Group on Waste Biorefinery of the International Waste Working Group (IWWG - www.iwwg.eu).

Clients

Anglian Water

Scottish Water

Severn Trent Water

Yorkshire Water

EPSRC

Publications

Articles In Journals

Conference Papers

Books