35th WEBINAR

15-07-2021 | 12:00

Are emerging contaminants affecting drinking water bacteria?

Inês Bezerra Gomes

Junior Researcher at LEPABE/BIO

Inês B. Gomes graduated in Bioengineering in 2013 at FEUP. She concluded the PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering in 2019, under the supervision of Professor Manuel Simões. Since the beginning of 2021, Inês is Junior Researcher at LEPABE. Her main research interests focus on the impact of emerging contaminants in drinking water microbial communities and on the development of strategies for biofilm control in drinking water and industrial settings.

Talk summary

The presence of emerging contaminants (ECs) in drinking water (DW) is unavoidable and unpredictable. The scientific community has been focused on the impact of ECs on DW consumers’ health and has been disregarding the impact on DW microbial communities and further consequences for DW microbiological quality and safety. Although the lack of information, studies have reported changes on biofilm formation ability, on biofilm susceptibility to disinfection and even on the bacterial interaction with human cell lines, after bacterial exposure to ECs. This talk will focus on the main findings about the impact of several ECs on DW microorganisms.

Webinar Platform: Zoom

34th WEBINAR

01-07-2021 | 12:00

From research to business – Amnis Pura, a spinoff dedicated to gas purification

Frederico Moura Relvas

PhD student at LEPABE/PPE and co-founder of AmnisPura

Frederico Relvas received his Msc in Chemical Engineering from University of Aveiro. He is finishing his PhD in Chemical Engineering at LEPABE in the field of gas purification by PSA, under the supervision of Professor Adélio Mendes, accounting with 8 scientific articles. Frederico Relvas is one of the co-founders of Amnis Pura and has been actively participating in various international startup programs, including CleanTech Camp 2021.

Talk summary

The growing interest in decentralized hydrogen production has created the need of more efficient small-scale PSAs. Although this has been recognized within the scientific community, the path from research to business is a long way to run…What are the main challenges for a start-up?

Webinar Platform: Zoom

33rd WEBINAR

17-06-2021 | 12:00

Siloxanes in WWTPs: presence, impact, and challenges in their removal

Nuno Ratola

Principal Researcher at LEPABE/ENV

Nuno Ratola has a PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering by FEUP. He has a significant experience in advanced analytical chemistry (sampling, trace analysis, high resolution chromatography) and environmental chemistry, namely in the monitoring and behaviour of legacy and emerging pollutants like siloxanes in several environmental matrices. Currently, he is a Principal Researcher at LEPABE, in the Environmental Sciences and Technologies Research Group, and is leading the project LANSILOT - LAunching New SILOxane Treatments: assessing effluent, sludge and air quality and improving biogas production in WWTPs.

Talk summary

Siloxanes are a growing concern for our environment and have a particularly important presence and effect in WWTPs. The domestic and industrial effluents carry a significant load of these widely used chemicals into these facilities, promoting an extended partition between the water line, the sludge line, and the surrounding air, predominantly the latter two. While the release into the atmosphere may affect firstly the workers of the WWTPs and then the neighbouring, the presence in the sludge can affect not only the quality of the composting products used as a soil additive in several crops but especially the efficiency of the biogas production units, essential for the economic and energetic sustainability of WWTPs.

Webinar Platform: Zoom