Grups d'Investigació

GIUV2013-061

The CALAGUA-UV group is formed by professors belonging to the Department of Chemical Engineering of the Universitat de València. Within the different research groups of the Department of Chemical Engineering, the CALAGUA-UV group focuses its activity in the area of knowledge of Environmental Technologies and more specifically in the treatment and purification of wastewater. CALAGUA-UV has been collaborating for more than two decades with different national and international research groups in research lines related to the development of technologies for the elimination of pollutants and the recovery of resources in both urban and industrial wastewaters. It is worth mentioning the more than 25 years of collaboration with the Water Quality group of the Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering of the Universitat Politècnica of València (UPV), which have resulted in the development of control systems in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), simulation models of biological processes in wastewater treatment plants, as well as methodologies for the characterisation of water and biomass.

http://www.aguas-residuales.es

• Desarrollo de tecnologias sostenibles para el tratamiento de las aguas residuales
• Gestion sostenible e integral del agua (separacion y tratamiento selectivo de efluentes de aguas residuales)
• Recuperacion de los recursos contenidos en el agua residual (energia, nutrientes, agua reutilizable)
• Evaluacion energetica, economica y medioambiental mediante analisis de ciclo de vida de procesos de depuracion avanzados
• Estudio del el comportamiento y eliminacion de contaminantes prioritarios y emergentes en los tratamientos de aguas residuales

• Photobioreactors & microalgae production.Design and development, both from a scientific and technology transfer point of view, conducting pilot-scale experiments on microalgae cultures for the removal of nutrients from urban wastewater.
• Organic matter valorisation with anaerobic processes..Design and development of efficient technologies for the valorisation of organic waste from different sources, such as urban wastewater, industrial wastewater, municipal solid waste, algal biomass, etc. Depending on the type of waste to be recovered, CALAGUA evaluates the viability of different anaerobic treatment systems, such as mesophilic or thermophilic anaerobic digesters, or anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBR), as well as the combination of different anaerobic systems to transform existing WWTPs into nutrient, reclaimed water and energy factories.
• Removal and recovery of nutrients..Study and optimisation in the laboratory and pilot plant of advanced configurations for the biological removal of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) to prevent their discharge and the eutrophication of rivers, lakes and coasts. Study of phosphorus recovery systems in the form of struvite by crystallisation processes and nitrogen recovery processes by means of membrane contactors.
• Control and optimization of wastewater treatment plants.Design and development of control systems for the primary sludge fermentation process, optimisation of volatile acid production, management of sludge streams to eliminate problems of uncontrolled struvite precipitation, aeration and nitrogen removal.
• Membranes for wastewater treatment.Development, both from a scientific and technology transfer point of view of membrane systems for the recovery of wastewater resources and for its reuse.
• Water quality.Characterisation of wastewater from different sources, as well as the different flows that define a WWTP (influent, effluent, sludge, recirculations, etc.), analysing both conventional pollutants (COD, BOD, ammonium, etc.) and micropollutants (pesticides, herbicides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, phenols, volatile organic compounds, TBT, etc.). Development of new measurement techniques, fine-tuning of measurement methodologies and development of procedures and protocols for the evaluation of data quality, guaranteeing the quality, repeatability and reproducibility of each measurement.
• Priority and emerging pollutants.Development and application of analytical techniques aimed at the identification, detection, characterisation, quantification and behaviour of micropollutants in the water and sludge lines of current WWTPs, as well as in the new processes for the removal of organic matter (membrane reactors) and nutrients (microalgae cultivation). The presence of these micropollutants in the receiving natural environment is also studied, for which not only water samples are analysed, but also sediments and biota in contact with them. In this way, it is possible to monitor these substances in the receiving environment in order to evaluate the impact that their discharge causes in the aquatic environment.
• Mathematical modelling.Development of mathematical models for sedimentation processes, primary sludge fermentation, two-stage nitrification, acid-base processes, precipitation processes, sulphurogenesis and filtration. The group has developed global models that incorporate the main physical, chemical and biological processes that take place in a WWTP, both in water and sludge lines. These models are: Biological Nutrient Removal Model No. 1 (BNRM1) and Biological Nutrient Removal Model No. 2 (BNRM2). The latter model is implemented in the DESASS software.
• Microbiological and biokinetic analyses.Microbiological study of wastewater treatment systems by applying both basic techniques, such as observation by phase contrast or differential staining and molecular techniques, including FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridisation) or qPCR (quantitative polymerase chain reaction). Study of biological systems from the point of view of microbial diversity, applying massive NGS (next-generation sequencing) techniques.
• Economic and environmental sustainability.Assessment of the economic and environmental impact of technologies for the treatment of wastewater and other waste, as well as the study and evaluation of new alternatives to reduce the economic and environmental impact in the wastewater treatment sector, through the application of the Life Cycle Assessment Tool. This tool makes it possible to evaluate the sustainability of different technologies, both from an economic (LCC, Life Cycle Costing) and environmental (LCA, Life Cycle Assessment) point of view. These tools serve as a basis for the development of Decision Support Systems (DSS) for decision-making in the design and monitoring of treatment systems.

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• Chemical Engineering

• Microalgas; Valorización de los nutrientes presentes en efluentes de tratamientos de aguas
• Tratamiento anaerobio de aguas residuales; Biorreactores de membranas; Valorización energética de materia orgánica en aguas residuales; Nutrientes; Energía; Digestores
• Eliminación biológica de nutrientes; Modelos de simulación de procesos de eliminación de nutrientes; Fermentación de fangos; Elutriación de fangós; Cristalización; Contactores de membrana
• Sistemas de control inteligente; Instrumentación y control del proceso de depuración de aguas residuales; Lógica difusa
• Biorreactores de membranas; Biorreactores anaerobios de membranas; Ultrafiltración; Microfiltración; Membranas dinámicas
• Análisis de contaminantes; Contaminantes prioritarios y emergentes; Calidad de aguas
• Microcontaminantes, sustancias prioritarias, aguas residuales, aguas costeras, aguas de transición, aguas continentales, sedimentos, biota
• Simulación de depuradoras de aguas residuales; Diseño de depuradoras de aguas residuales; Modelación de procesos biológicos
• Técnicas moleculares, secuenciación masiva, tinciones diferenciales
• Análisis de ciclo de vida, análisis de costes, sistema de soporte a la decisión.