Environmental biotechnology

Director: Dr. Joan Mata-Álvarez

Researchers: Dr. Ricard Torres-Castillo, Dr. Joan Dosta-Parras, Dr. Sergi Astals-García

Research topics: 

• Aerobic and anaerobic biological treatment of municipal and industrial wastewater, including nutrient removal (N and P) and treatment with membranes.
• Anaerobic digestion of organic wastes (sewage sludge, organic fraction of municipal waste, animal manure energy crop waste, ...), including pretreatments and codigestion.
• Fermentation of organic wastes to produce high value-added products
• Composting of municipal and industrial organic waste
• Membrane processes to recover nutrients from wastewater.
• Struvite precipitation to recover phosphorous from wastewater
• Modelling and simulation of biological processes (removal of organic matter and nutrients, anaerobic digestion, ...).
• Microbial ecology and biostatistics to comprehend and optimise biological processes.