Our results show feasibility of PS in HC and HS and suggest setting differences in rates, indications, and practice of PS, possibly related to patients' selection or care organization.

Homologation of bio-ethanol to butanol and higher alcohols by means of Guerbet reaction has been performed with a novel ruthenium based bifunctional catalyst under homogeneous conditions in the presence of a basic co-catalyst. Reaction screening demonstrated that the new catalyst shows conversions and selectivity comparable with some of ruthenium based bifunctional catalysts recently reported in the literature. The reaction occurs in pure ethanol as well as in ethanol from wine wastes furnished by CAVIRO distillery with up to 46% conversion of ethanol and an overall selectivity to higher alcohols of 91% and a minor carbon loss. Based on the laboratory results, an industrialization study has been carried out in order to propose a viable technological solution. The experimental data consistency has been verified and the results have been up-scaled to design a reactor working in a batch or, potentially, semi-batch operation mode. Further analysis of the overall process, together with the introduction of dedicated figures of merit have allowed the estimation of the process performance both in mass and energetic terms, and the outcome has been integrated into a life cycle analysis. Although preliminary, the multidisciplinary approach has converged towards complementary results; more specifically, the adoption of the base co-catalyst NaOEt has showed similar performance in terms of specific alcohols production and energy demand compared to the NaOH case. Moreover this last case proves to be better from an environmental perspective (LCA).

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