Since 2024, Pietro Altimari is Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry of the Sapienza University of Rome (SSD ING-IND / 26).
He obtained the laurea (5 year degree) and the PhD both in Chemical Engineering from the University of Naples "Federico II" in the 2002/03 and 2006/07 academic years respectively. During the period 2007-2011, he was post-doc researcher, first at the Department of Chemical Technology of the Delft University of Technology (TU-Delft), Delft, The Netherlands (1 year), and then at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Food of the University of Salerno (2 years and six months). From 2011 to 2020, with only one year break (2014-2015), he was a fixed-term type A researcher at the Department of Chemistry of the Sapienza University of Rome (SSD ING-IND / 26). From 2021 to 2024, he was tenure-track Associate Professor at the same Department.
He is currently responsible for the courses of Industrial Microbial and Environmental Biotechnology (6 CFU) (master's degree in Genomic, Industrial, and Environmental Biotechnology) and "Methods for the Development of Chemical Processes" (master's degree in Industrial Chemistry) and co-teacher of the course "Analysis and Control of Chemical Processes" (master's degree in Industrial Chemistry).
From 2013 to 2021, he was a partner of Eco Recycling Srl, a spin-off of the Sapienza University of Rome, and since 2011 he has been a member of the High Tech Recycling inter-university center.
The research activity is aimed at the development of methodologies for the analysis, control and optimization of chemical processes. The main research topics addressed are currently the production of nanostructured materials for application in energy storage devices and electrocatalytic processes, the development of microalgae biomass production processes, and the recovery of metals from electrical and electronic wastes and from batteries. The results of the research activities have been reported in 104 publications in scientific journals (90), conference proceedings (14), chapters in books (3) (h-index 27) (source SCOPUS) and in 1 EU patent.
Pietro Altimari has participated/participates as a member and/or coordinator of a research unit in several national and European projects. Some examples of recent projects are:
(2022-2026) RHINOCEROS "Batteries reuse and direct production of high performances cathodic and anodic materials and other raw materials from batteries recycling using low cost and environmentally friendly technologies" (European project funded under the Horizon Europe program; role: coordinator of a research unit)
(2020-2023) BioAs: Removal of As from water using innovative BIO-adsorbents produced from by-products of the agro-industrial sector (LIFE EU project n. LIFE19 ENV/IT/000512) https://www.lifebioas.eu/ (coordinator of a research unit)
(2018-2022) CROCODILE: First of a kind commercial Compact system for the efficient Recovery Of CObalt Designed with novel Integrated LEading technologies (H2020 EU project; Grant agreement n.: 776473) (coordinator of a research unit involved as subcontractor)
(2020-2023) DRONE: Direct pROduction of New Electrode materials from battery recycling (DRONE) (LIFE EU project project n. LIFE19 ENV/IT/000520) (member of a research unit)
(2017-2020) LIBAT: Recycling of primary LIthium BATtery by mechanical and hydrometallurgical operations (LIFE EU project n. LIFE16 ENV/IT/000389) EU project LIFE+ www.lifelibat.eu (coordinator of a research unit)
(2018-2021) MEWLIFE: MicroalgaE biomass from phototrophic-heterotrophic cultivation using olive oil Wastewaters (MEWLIFE) (LIFE EU project n. LIFE17 ENV/IT/000180) (member of a research unit)