Wastewater treatment: novel approaches for new challenges

ITQB SCAN Seminar

Title: Wastewater treatment: novel approaches for new challenges
Speaker: Gilda Carvalho

Affiliation: IBET-Microbiology of Man-made Environments/ REQUIMTE-CQFB, Univ. Nova de Lisboa

Abstrat:

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are facing new challenges, resulting from new man-made compounds and the rapidly increasing demand for quality water with global population growth. Most of the WWTP rely of the activity of mixed microbial cultures for pollutant removal. Therefore, it is important to understand the microorganisms and their activity in respect to new challenges. The removal of xenobiotics, namely pharmaceuticals and heavy metals, can be achieved through specialized microbial communities. Combined removal of phosphorus and nitrogen, with significant savings, can be optimized when understanding the responsible organisms. Water reuse based on membrane processes is highly dependent on the microbial populations and extracellular products. The investigation of these processes will ultimately establish a correlation between WWTP operation and performance and its microbial fauna, which can provide the operator/designer with additional tools for plant optimization.