Meet SOLPART partners in our interview series in video: Marco Tomatis, researcher at the University of Manchester (UK), answers 6 questions about his role in the project, challenges, achievements and the way ahead.

Question: Tell us a bit about yourself…

Answer: I did my Master and PhD in Environmental Science and finally after the completion of my PhD, I joined the University of Manchester for this study on the SOLPART system as a postdoc.

Describe your role in the SOLPART project.

My role is developing the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the SOLPART system. So, I’m taking data from all of the partners and developing this model which tells the environmental impact of the system.

Why did you decide to take part in this project?

As an environmental scientist, I am very interested in sustainability issues and the SOLPART system offers the chance to reduce, even significantly, the emission of the cement production process.

What are the most challenging aspects of your role?

For the LCA I have to gather data from all of the partners. So, it is sometimes difficult to coordinate and explain which sort of data I need to develop my model because they are things that are not normally gathered by the partners.

What success has been achieved within your task?

So far, we were able to demonstrate that potentially this system can bring some benefits compared to the conventional calcination system to the production of cement. We were able to demonstrate that the SOLPART system can be useful.

What should be the next step after the end of the project?

What will we do is the dissemination of the results, mainly. It is important once we will be able to determine which are the benefits – if there are benefits regarding the use of the SOLPART system – to disseminate them as much as possible. That will be done by papers and conferences, as much as possible.