Dr. Luigi di Bitonto has been a Researcher at the National Council of Italian Research, CNR, Water Research Institute since 2021. He graduated in Chemical Sciences and Technologies (62/s) cum laude from the University of Bari "Aldo Moro" in 2010 and obtained his PhD in Chemical Sciences from the same university in 2014. During his PhD studies, he carried out research activities within the EuroBioRef project "European Multilevel Integrated Biorefinery Design for Sustainable Biomass Processing" on the valorization of animal and plant biomass resources for the production of third-generation biofuels. In the same year, he worked under a project contract at the University Consortium for Chemical Reactivity and Catalysis on the development of processes for the synthesis of "platform molecules" from residual biomass. As a scholarship holder (2015-2017) and postgraduate (2017-2020) at IRSA-CNR in Bari, he has participated in numerous national and international projects (PON-TARANTO, BioLuBridge, RES URBIS, IPROPBIO, WE-MET, BFBioS, WISE) and collaborations with private entities (Hydro SpA, CISA SpA). He is a co-author of 29 indexed scientific publications (Scopus and ISI) (490 citations), 3 book chapters, and 5 patents and has participated in international and national conferences 34 times (HI: 15, Scopus). Currently, he is working on the valorization of wastewater sludge through thermo-chemical conversion into fine chemicals and/or liquid biofuel.