Now showing items 1-20 of 28

    Design of hybrid nano-engineered bioprocesses for wastewater treatment 

    Ponzelli, Michele (Date of defense: 2023-12-11)

    Freshwater scarcity is a growing concern, prompting the exploration of water reuse strategies. Anaerobic wastewater treatment is gaining popularity due to its low energy requirements and the potential for resource recovery. ...

    Chemometric methods to process online spectrometry for quality monitoring of different water matrices 

    Plà Castellana, Mireia (Date of defense: 2023-02-24)

    Water quality monitoring during the purification and sanitation processes in Drinking Water Treatment Plants (DWTP), Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP) and Water Reclamation Plants (ERA) is a necessary step to obtain a ...

    Electrochemical control and minimization of hydrogen sulfide formation in anaerobic systems 

    Sergienko, Natalia (Date of defense: 2021-10-13)

    Formation of hydrogen sulfide represents a major challenge in the operation of wastewater collection systems. Hydrogen sulfide is malodourous and toxic gas, which causes corrosion of pipes, wells, and constructions, hence ...

    Analysis and impact of antibiotics in marine organisms. Laboratory experiments and field studies 

    Serra Compte, Albert (Date of defense: 2021-03-26)

    Antibiotic residues in the environment are amongst the most concerning micropollutants due to their potential impact on the natural ecosystems and human health. In this thesis, laboratory and field studies were conducted ...

    Analysis, occurrence, fate and behaviour of emerging micropollutants in wastewater and the receiving environment 

    Gusmaroli, Lucia (Date of defense: 2020-05-25)

    The presence of xenobiotics - such as pharmaceutically active compounds, endocrine disrupting compounds and pesticides - in the aquatic environment has risen great environmental concern due to their high toxicity even at ...

    Removal of pharmaceuticals in wastewater combining different treatment technologies: suspect screening identification and risk assessment of transformation products 

    Jaén Gil, Adrián (Date of defense: 2021-05-28)

    The low efficiency of wastewater treatment plants to achieve the complete removal of micropollutants, including pharmaceuticals, has motivated the development of alternative water technologies to improve their efficiency, ...

    Target analysis and suspect screening of wastewater derived contaminants in receiving riverine and coastal areas and assessment of environmental risks 

    Čelić, Mira (Date of defense: 2020-12-15)

    The main objective of this thesis is to evaluate the impact of wastewater discharges on receiving riverine and coastal ecosystems by studying the occurrence and fate of emerging contaminants (ECs). Since there is a myriad ...

    Biofilm responses to flow intermittency in Mediterranean rivers 

    Colls Lozano, Miriam (Date of defense: 2020-07-31)

    Currently, global change is promoting the spatiotemporal occurrence of temporary streams, altering fluvial ecosystem function and structure, and the ecosystem services they provide. To effectively protect fluvial ecosystems, ...

    Integrated assessment of wastewater treatment plants and their receiving river systems in a global change context 

    Aymerich Blazquez, Ignasi (Date of defense: 2019-01-22)

    For a long time, there has been a need and an ambition to better understand the behavior of integrated systems by considering the whole urban water cycle, including wastewater transportation, wastewater treatment and the ...

    Mass transport and fouling of novel forward osmosis thin-film composite membranes 

    Sauchelli Toran, Marc (Date of defense: 2019-07-18)

    Forward osmosis (FO) is known to be particularly efficient at treating impaired water sources with a high fouling potential. In the context of water reuse FO is being introduced as a robust pre-treatment process, usually ...

    Combining forward osmosis and anaerobic membrane bioreactor technologies for raw municipal wastewater treatment 

    Ferrari, Federico (Date of defense: 2020-10-14)

    In this thesis, different studies were performed to investigate the combination of FO for the pre-concentration of municipal WW with an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) for the production of biogas. Firstly, a ...

    Flow alteration and wastewater inputs effects on freshwater communities in Mediterranean rivers 

    Mor Roy, Jordi-René (Date of defense: 2019-09-19)

    Mediterranean rivers are characterized by high hydrological variability and heterogeneity of habitats, placing themselves amongst arid and temperate climates, and are associated with high biological diversity. On the ...

    Multiple stressor effects on river biofilm communities: from community composition to ecosystem processes using experimental mesocosms 

    Romero Blanch, Ferran (Date of defense: 2019-12-20)

    Human exploitation of river ecosystems, together with the increasing pressure that represents climate change, is posing rivers worldwide at risk. In rivers, microorganisms are ecologically very important. Most of ...

    Evaluation and comparison of advanced treatment technologies to enhance the removal of pharmaceutical active compounds from wwtp secondary effluent 

    Sbardella, Luca (Date of defense: 2019-05-22)

    The presence of several pharmaceutical active compounds (PhACs) in water bodies has garnered increasing attention and worldwide concern. The effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are one of the main sources ...

    Resilience of water resource recovery facilities: a framework for quantitative model-based assessment 

    Juan García, Pau (Date of defense: 2019-02-04)

    The water sector is entering a period of uncertainty, as stressors such as climate change pose unknown risks to its infrastructure. Utilities need to build resilience to handle unpredictable changes, but the field of ...

    Characterization of dissolved organic matter in wastewater using liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry 

    Verkh, Yaroslav (Date of defense: 2019-01-28)

    Individual hazardous chemicals and substance mixtures with synergistic toxicity ef-fects occur in the dissolved organic matter (DOM) of wastewater and negatively im-pact human health. Yet a large number of chemicals and ...

    Transport, distribution and fate of emerging contaminants in wastewater-receiving rivers under multiple stress conditions 

    Mandarić, Ladislav (Date of defense: 2018-10-24)

    The main aim of this thesis was to establish a link between the urban origin of chemical contamination (e.g. PhACs) and other stressors, particularly associated to water scarcity (Chapter 1, 2, and 3). Research has been ...

    Elimination of micropollutants in conventional and novel nitrogen removal processes. A comparative assessment of diverse microbial communities capabilities 

    Kassotaki, Elissavet (Date of defense: 2018-09-07)

    Pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) and endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) can pose a significant risk to the environment and human health, undermining prosperity. Current wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) cannot ...

    Influence of anthropogenic pollution on the prevalence, maintenance and spread of antibiotic resistance in aquatic microbial communities 

    Subirats Medina, Jessica (Date of defense: 2018-07-24)

    This Thesis demonstrates that microorganisms derived from wastewater are the 2/2 main contributors to antibiotic resistance (AR) in the environment. Once there, the background chemical contamination with antibiotic ...

    Factors affecting the distribution, abundance and diversity of uncultured archaeal groups in freshwater sediments 

    Compte Port, Sergi (Date of defense: 2018-07-03)

    Archaea are abundant in extreme environments but they are also a prevalent component of microbial communities in soils, marine or freshwater plankton and sediments. Many studies highlighted the prominent role of marine ...