Nuno Ratola

Senior Researcher

Research group: Environmental Sciences and Technologies

Research position: Principal Researcher

Background: PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering – Faculty of Engineering of Porto, Portugal

Major research topics

• Environmental presence and behaviour of legacy and emerging organic contaminants.
• Biomonitoring and other field sampling strategies.
• Advanced analytical techniques of sample handling, extraction and quantification.
• Waste valorisation for energy production and safe recycling (circular economy).
• Exposure assessment and prioritisation of relevant chemicals.
• Climate change scenarios.

Selected Publications

F. Rocha, V. Homem, J. Castro-Jiménez, N. Ratola, “Marine vegetation analysis for the determination of volatile methylsiloxanes in coastal areas”, Science of the Total Environment, 650: 2364-2373, 2019.

N. Ratola, P. Jiménez-Guerrero, “Can biomonitors effectively detect airborne benzo[a]pyrene? An evaluation approach using modelling”, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 16: 4271-4282, 2016.

N. Ratola, V. Homem, J.A. Silva, R. Araújo, J.M. Amigo, L. Santos, A. Alves, “Biomonitoring of pesticides by pine needles – chemical scoring, risk of exposure, levels and trends”, Science of the Total Environment, 476–477: 114–124, 2014.

N. Ratola, A. Cincinelli, A. Alves, A. Katsoyiannis, “Occurrence of organic microcontaminants in the wastewater treatment process. A mini review”, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 239-240: 1-18, 2012.

N. Ratola, J.M. Amigo, A. Alves, “Comprehensive assessment of pine needles as bioindicators of PAHs using multivariate analysis. The importance of temporal trends”, Chemosphere, 81: 1517–1525, 2010.

Selected Projects

As Project Leader or Co-Leader:

Jul 2018 – Jun 2021

Project: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-032084 from 02/SAICT/2017 (€ 224 968,43)

Funding body: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal)

• “LANSILOT - LAunching New SILOxane Treatments: assessing effluent, sludge and air quality and improving biogas production in WWTPs”

Jun 2018 – May 2021

Project: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028101 from 02/SAICT/2017 (Co-PI; Project leader – Arminda Alves; € 222 995,98)

Funding body: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal)

• “SAFEGOAL - Safer synthetic turf pitches with infill of rubber crumb from recycled tires”

Jan 2018 – Dec 2019

Project: REDES170166 (€ 21 325, Leader in Portugal)

Funding body: CONICYT – Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (Chile)

Partners: Univ. Técnica Federico Santa María (Chile), LEPABE-FEUP, Univ. Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), Univ. Extremadura (Spain)

• “Support Of International Networking Between Research Centres”

Nov 2017 – Apr 2018

Project: ANR-11-LABX-0061 (€ 7 890, Co-Leader with Dr. Javier Castro-Jiménez, Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO))

Funding body: Labex OT-Med, French Government “Investissements d’Avenir” (ANR) (France)

• “ECoMarE - Emerging Contaminants in complex matrices from Marine Environments: A Mediterranean-Atlantic Perspective”

Feb 2014 – Feb 2015

Project: EXPL/AAG-MAA/0981/2013 (€ 42 312)

Funding body: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal)

• “SILOQUEST - How are siloxanes behaving in the environment?”