TTEC - Taranto Polytechnic

The demand for a strong enhancement of research activity in the environmental sector and in the related industrial and information sectors arose precisely from the strong demand from the industrial system and local authorities, which led to the establishment, within the TARANTO WIDE AREA, of the project for the creation of the “Magna Grecia” Scientific and Technological Hub in Taranto. This project was adopted by the territorial authorities on 5 November 2008, with the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, as part of the Strategic Planning for the Taranto Wide Area, between the Municipality of Taranto (Lead Authority), the Province of Taranto, the Polytechnic University of Bari, the University of Bari, ARPA Puglia, the CNR, Confindustria (and subsequently the Chamber of Commerce), the Local Health Authority (ASL), and the ASI Consortium. The Hub (hereinafter referred to as PST) aims to establish intense synergies and interactions between the scientific system and the local, regional, national and international business system, promoting technological innovation in the environmental sector as one of the main drivers of development, with the aim of significantly increasing the competitiveness of the productive system, in line with the National Strategic Framework and with the National and Regional Community Programming for the 2007-2013 period. The project therefore aimed to develop laboratories to provide services with a high scientific-technological content to the business system, not only local but also national and international, particularly to SMEs operating in the environmental sector, while at the same time working to identify eco-sustainable production processes in industrial companies in other sectors, especially those with a strong environmental impact both during construction and operation.

In particular, among the new enhanced laboratories of the “Magna Grecia” Hub, only those managed by professors of the Polytechnic University participating in the activities of the “Magna Grecia” Center, or otherwise in collaboration with colleagues from the Aldo Moro University – former Second Faculty of Science MMFFNN, also at the “Paolo VI” campus, are listed below.

• Technologies and Measurements for the Environment: in which the technological methods are studied for reducing the polluting potential of waste and/or for recycling it, as well as the methods for carrying out effective and timely monitoring and control of all variables that constitute harmful impact on the environment and/or health. The laboratory is able to operate at meso-scale, that is, at near-industrial prototyping level, in order to potentially patent innovative technological solutions. An important aspect is also that related to electromagnetic pollution measurements, which are the subject of continuous demand for knowledge and in-depth study by companies operating mainly in the telecommunications sector. Of equal importance is the need to define low-cost techniques for the remediation of contaminated sites, such as to represent a valid alternative and/or complement to traditional chemical-physical methods, which are currently the subject of a research programme in collaboration with the Extraordinary Commissioner for Remediation. The same laboratory is also equipped to promote the coordination of supply chains for the recovery of materials from the decommissioning of means of transport such as aircraft, cars and naval units, with the aim of promoting and implementing organisational processes and innovative technologies for eco-sustainable design and the recovery or recycling of transport wrecks. LCA (Life Cycle Analysis) applications on products represent another important aspect of this Laboratory, as they are able to reduce the polluting potential of waste at source.
• Marine Sciences: (marine biology and ecology, physical and chemical oceanography, geology, marine geophysics geomorphology, marine technologies, etc.). The presence of contaminated marine sediments in the seas of Taranto is, in fact, an incontrovertible reality, to the extent that it has led to the establishment of a Site of National Interest, which requires the implementation of remediation and safety measures for hundreds of hectares of seabed. In addition, the presence of high-risk waste on the seabed, especially in Apulia but not only there (e.g. war ordnance, “ships of poison”, sunken containers, etc.), requires the availability of specialized equipment capable of operating even at great depths.

Another important research activity, carried out in the period 2015-2018, enhanced the laboratories and the expertise of the Center’s researchers, within the framework of the collaboration on the “Taranto Remediation Project” of the Extraordinary Commissioner for urgent interventions for remediation, environmental restoration and redevelopment of Taranto, Dr. Vera Corbelli, following a specific Agreement signed between Rector Di Sciascio and Dr. Corbelli herself. The Magna Grecia Center made offices, laboratories and services available to the Commissioner and her staff for the entire duration of the research, in which the PoliBA operational units of Geotechnics, Chemical Technologies for Environmental Protection, Hydraulics and Hydraulic Structures, Measurements and Computer Science took part. The research results enabled Commissioner Corbelli to draw up an updated and, above all, in-depth map of the environmental situation of the Mar Piccolo basin, through the analysis of hundreds of samples taken from the seabed and the coastline in order to determine pollution levels in the various environmental matrices and outline hypotheses for the resulting remediation works.