Institute of environmental geology and geoengineering (IGAG)

Services

Services

Some of the recently performed professional service activities:
- IGAG is "Centro di Competenza" (Competence Centre) of the National Civil Protection Department (http://www.protezionecivile.gov.it/jcms/it/igag.wp);
- Macroseismic surveys of the 2012 earthquakes in the Po Plain (northern Italy) for the National Civil Protection Department;
- The IGAG was involved in the monitoring activities carried out by Civil Protection Department during the 2012 emergency of the Costa Concordia sinking, providing the acquisition, processing and interpretation of marine geophysical data (multibeam and side scan sonar);
- Mineralogic and lithologic analysis of railway embankment ballasts for various goals including the recognition of asbestos (Rete Ferroviaria Italiana);
- Acquisition of high-resolution multibeam bathymetry for marine geohazard assessments (National Civil Protection Department);
- Planning and realization of a public exercise for the National Civil Protection on tsunami risk (Salerno, Tyrrhenian Sea);
- Geothermal potential assessments and start of geothermal energy exploitation in Italy through the VIGOR Project (http://www.vigor-geotermia.it/);
- Geothermal Atlas: characterization, classification, and mapping of conventional and unconventional geothermal resources (Ministry of Economic Development);
- Thematic geological cartography to assess geological hazards in urban environments including archeological sites (Palatine Hill, Roma);
- Various geological-lithological analyses along the highway between Florence and Bologna (Società Autostrade).

Transfers

Through its industrial and public partnerships and its scientific activities, IGAG has been deeply involved (2011-2014) in transferring skills, knowledge, technologies, and services to industries and public institutions. To draw a schematic picture of this broad and varied activity, a set of the main transfers and outreaches is listed below:
- 3 national patents (no.1388844, 1397651 and 1400139) on environment management and remediation;
- ASSING-IGAG partnership and common laboratory on environmental technologies and assessments at IGAG Montelibretti;
- New technique for the valorisation of spent batteries (publication with doi: 10.3303/CET1439269);
- New technique for Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) recovery (publication with doi: 10.1016/j.ijmst.2013.08.015);
- New processes for recovery of industrial wastes (i.e. RECAT Project on recovery of petrochemical exhausted catalysts); IGAG - CISMA Ambiente SpA partnership;
- New methodological protocol on the acquisition of multibeam data to guarantee their highest homogeneity despite differences in research groups, research vessels and meteo-marine conditions during the acquisition itself (MaGIC project for the National Civil Protection Department to assess marine geohazards);
- New generation of digital elevation models from ultra-high resolution multibeam bathymetry and high precision and accuracy of GPS positioning in river environments (Tiber and Po Rivers), in order to monitor active morpho-sedimentary processes.

Laboratories

The equipment of the Institute is among the most substantial on a national level in its field of expertise; in various cases it is unique. Important among these are the semi-industrial pilot-plants for the processing of ores and contaminated soils, as well as asbestos-containing materials; the equipment for geotechnical characterization and qualification of rock materials; the instrumentation for on-site geotechnical monitoring; the analytical equipment in the fields of the geochemistry of stable and radioactive isotopes, of elementary geochemistry, of the characterization of ores and rocks and of radiochemistry, as well as for the chronology by the radiocarbon method.
The analytical laboratories and the mineralurgical processing plants are widely made available to the national and international scientific community under the form of scientific collaborations and research contracts, as well as a service both for free and for compensation.

List of laboratories:

o Laboratory of geochemistry of stable isotopes (H, C, N, O)
o Laboratory of geochemistry of Sr e Nd
o Laboratory of U-Th chronology and Radiochemistry
o Laboratory of chronology by the radiocarbon method
o Laboratories of ICP-MS and ICP-AES chemical analyses, X-ray fluorescence
o Laboratories of x-ray powder diffractometry and IR spectrometry
o Laboratories of WDS-EDS electron microprobe
o Laboratory of scanning electron microscopy with EDS
o Laboratory of thermal analysis
o Laboratory of gravimetry and microgravimetry
o Laboratory GIS
o Laboratory of hydrometallurgy
o Laboratory of mineralurgy
o Laboratory for asbestos studies
o Laboratories of geotechnical characterizations of rocks
o Laboratory of numeric modelling and automatic calculation
o Laboratory for the qualification of stone materials
o Consulting service of aerial photogrammetry surveys