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Open-field experimentation of an innovative and integrated zeolitite cycle: project definition and material characterization

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Abstract

This study is a part of the European LIFE +2010 Project “ZeoLIFE—Water pollution reduction and water saving using a natural zeolitite cycle”. It characterizes the application of Italian zeolite-rich pyroclastic rocks (zeolitites) as soil conditioner. Laboratory experiments will be tested on an experimental field in the Codigoro area, Ferrara district (North-East Italy). The samples investigated are chabazite- and phillipsite-rich and are all collected in quarries from Central Italy: (1) Grosseto area (Sorano and Sovana); (2) Viterbo area (Farnese, Grotte Santo Stefano, Corchiano, Nepi), and (3) Rome area (Riano). All samples are characterized by more than 30 % of zeolite content, together with volcanic glass, feldspars, pyroxenes, and micas. The quantitative mineralogical characterization of soil samples from Codigoro shows variable proportions of quartz, illite, plagioclase, K-feldspar, calcite, dolomite, chlorite, serpentine, kaolinite, gypsum together with an amorphous residual. Collected data confirm that conditioning of soils with selected zeolitite can be extremely promising for a well evident improvement of the soil quality, and contribute to define a standard approach which can surely find a general application well above the boundaries of the selected area for the field test.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge Verdi S.r.l. for giving us permission to consult the geologic study “The zeolite deposits of Piandirena Sorano Central Italy” (2003) by Dr. Vito Meggiolaro, and are grateful to Dr. Vito Meggiolaro for searching for the original files in his archive and making them available to us. This publication is made in the context of the European LIFE +2010 project “ZeoLIFE—Water pollution reduction and water saving using a natural zeolitite cycle” (project code: LIFE +10 ENV/IT/000321); we are therefore grateful to the EC for funding received.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Daniele Malferrari, Angela Laurora, Maria Franca Brigatti, Elio Passaglia & Maria Giovanna Vezzalini

  2. Dipartimento di Fisica e Scienze della Terra, Università di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy

    Massimo Coltorti, Dario Di Giuseppe & Barbara Faccini

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  1. Daniele Malferrari
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  2. Angela Laurora
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  3. Maria Franca Brigatti
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  4. Massimo Coltorti
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  5. Dario Di Giuseppe
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  6. Barbara Faccini
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  7. Elio Passaglia
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  8. Maria Giovanna Vezzalini
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Correspondence to Maria Franca Brigatti.

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Malferrari, D., Laurora, A., Brigatti, M.F. et al. Open-field experimentation of an innovative and integrated zeolitite cycle: project definition and material characterization. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 24, 141–150 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-013-0235-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-013-0235-3

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