Franco Cotana

Prof. Franco Cotana

Department of Engineering, University of Perugia, 06123 Perugia, Italy

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

34Years (1993-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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1 April 2013 in Carbohydrate Polymers
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
LBL. Brinchi
L. Brinchi
Franco CotanaFranco Cotana
Franco Cotana
EFElena Fortunati
Elena Fortunati
Jose KennyJose Kenny
Jose Kenny

1 December 2012 in Building and Environment
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
Anna Laura PiselloAnna Laura Pisello
Anna Laura Pisello
JTJohn E. Taylor
John E. Taylor
XXXiaoqi Xu
Xiaoqi Xu
Franco CotanaFranco Cotana
Franco Cotana



1 January 2016 in Applied Energy
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
Anna Laura PiselloAnna Laura Pisello
Anna Laura Pisello
APAlessandro Petrozzi
Alessandro Petrozzi
VCVeronica Lucia Castaldo
Veronica Lucia Castaldo
Franco CotanaFranco Cotana
Franco Cotana

1 January 2014 in Energy Procedia
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
Franco CotanaFranco Cotana
Franco Cotana
Gianluca CavalaglioGianluca Cavalaglio
Gianluca Cavalaglio
Andrea NicoliniAndrea Nicolini
Andrea Nicolini
MGMattia Gelosia
Mattia Gelosia
VCValentina Coccia
Valentina Coccia
LBLucia Brinchi
Lucia Brinchi
To improve the economic viability of the biofuel production from biomass, it is of increasing importance to add value to the lignin produced as a bio-residue. Moreover, to meet the goal to replace 30% of fossil fuel by biofuels by 2030, a huge amount of lignin will soon be produced. The first major step involved to add value to the unconverted lignin is its separation from other biomass constituents to give high purity lignin. In this current work, extraction of lignin from a bio-residue (containing ca. 40% lignin) from second generation bioethanol production is presented. The biomass chosen is Arundo donax L. (or giant reed), which is non-food plant, can tolerate a wide variety of ecological conditions with all types of soils, and has increasingly importance as raw material for industrial purposes as a source of fibers alternative to wood, which availability is decreasing. Slightly different extraction procedures are investigated. Methods used are simple, mild, safe, and avoid destruction of fiber content in the bio- residue, with the final aim to valorize all fractions of the bio-residue, which is an essential step to make biofuel production to be cost effective. Lignins extracted are characterized by morphological analysis, using Scanning Electron Microscopy, SEM, and in terms of thermal behavior -using thermo gravimetric analysis TGA- which is critical for determining suitability of the lignin for polymer composite preparation with improved thermomechanical performance. The method judged as the best of the three leads rapidly to extraction of lignin free from fibers and ash, with thermal behavior suitable for composite preparation