BIOGROUP-Artigos
http://hdl.handle.net/10347/15636
2024-03-28T21:07:48ZEnvironmental proteomics as a useful methodology for early-stage detection of stress in anammox engineered systems
http://hdl.handle.net/10347/33167
Environmental proteomics as a useful methodology for early-stage detection of stress in anammox engineered systems
Guzmán-Fierro, Víctor; Diéguez-Seoane, Alberto; Roeckel, Marlene; Lema Rodicio, Juan Manuel; Trueba-Santiso, Alba
Anammox bacteria are widely applied worldwide for denitrification of urban wastewater. Differently, their application in the case of industrial effluents has been more limited. Those frequently present high loads of contaminants, demanding an individual evaluation of their treatability by anammox technologies. Bioreactors setting up and recovery after contaminants-derived perturbations are slow. Also, toxicity is frequently not acute but cumulative, which causes negative macroscopic effects to appear only after medium or long-term operations. All these particularities lead to relevant economic and time losses. We hypothesized that contaminants cause changes at anammox proteome level before perturbations in the engineered systems are detectable by macroscopic analyses. In this study, we explored the usefulness of short-batch tests combined with environmental proteomics for the early detection of those changes. Copper was used as a model of stressor contaminant, and anammox granules were exposed to increasing copper concentrations including previously reported IC50 values. The proteomic results revealed that specific anammox proteins involved in stress response (bacterioferritin, universal stress protein, or superoxide dismutase) were overexpressed in as short a time as 28 h at the higher copper concentrations. Consequently, EPS production was also increased, as indicated by the alginate export family protein, polysaccharide biosynthesis protein, and sulfotransferase increased expression. The described workflow can be applied to detect early-stage stress biomarkers of the negative effect of other metals, organics, or even changes in physical-chemical parameters such as pH or temperature on anammox-engineered systems. On an industrial level, it can be of great value for decision-making, especially before dealing with new effluents on facilities, deriving important economic and time savings.
2024-01-01T00:00:00ZImproving the sustainability of heterogeneous Fenton-based methods for micropollutant abatement by electrochemical coupling
http://hdl.handle.net/10347/30053
Improving the sustainability of heterogeneous Fenton-based methods for micropollutant abatement by electrochemical coupling
Conde López, Julio José; Abelleira González, Santiago; Estévez Rivadulla, Sofía; González Rodríguez, Jorge; Feijoo Costa, Gumersindo; Moreira Vilar, María Teresa
Advanced oxidation processes such as Fenton reaction-based processes have attracted great interest in recent years as a promising alternative for the removal of persistent pollutants in wastewater. The use of nanocatalysts in advanced oxidation processes overcomes the limitations of homogeneous Fenton processes, where acidic pH values are required, and a large amount of sludge is generated after treatment. Aiming at maximizing the catalytic potential of the process, different configurations include coupling photocatalysis or electrochemistry to Fenton reactions. This manuscript presents a comparative environmental and economic analysis of different heterogeneous Fenton-based process using magnetic nanoparticles: Fenton, photo-Fenton, electro-Fenton and photoelectron-Fenton. These alternatives encompass not only different reaction conditions but also varying degradation kinetics, which control the treatment capability in each specific case. It is not only important to determine the technological feasibility of the proposal based on the removal performance of the target compounds, but also to identify the environmental profile of each configuration. In this regard, the Life Cycle Assessment methodology was applied considering a combination of primary and secondary data from process modeling. Moreover, and aiming towards the future large-scale implementation of the technology, an economic analysis of each configuration was also performed to provide a better understanding about the costs associated to the operation of Fenton-based wastewater treatments
2023-01-01T00:00:00ZProspective LCA to provide environmental guidance for developing waste-to-PHA biorefineries
http://hdl.handle.net/10347/29656
Prospective LCA to provide environmental guidance for developing waste-to-PHA biorefineries
Saavedra del Oso, Mateo; Mauricio Iglesias, Miguel; Hospido Quintana, Almudena; Steubing, Bernhard
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) production from waste streams using mixed microbial cultures (MMC) can unlock the potential of PHA to substitute oil-based plastics. However, these processes are still at low technology readiness level (4–6). Demonstrating a better environmental performance would boost their deployment at industrial scale. Hence, including environmental guidance during their development, when there are still opportunities for major alterations, is essential. To the best of our knowledge, this work elucidates for the first time how waste-to-PHA biorefineries could develop in the future by combining prospective LCA with scenario methodology and where the attention of stakeholders should be focused. Four future scenarios were derived considering both surrounding (e.g., scale, environmental or bioeconomy policies) and technological parameters (e.g., acidification yield, PHA content in biomass or recovery yield). Those scenarios derived under ambitious environmental and bioeconomy policies shop up to 50% lower environmental impacts than those under business-as-usual policies. These differences are caused by the different background processes’ environmental burdens (e.g., electricity mix with low renewable energies share) and the higher consumption of chemicals and utilities. However, the environmental impacts caused by lower yields can be partially mitigated by valorizing the intermediate waste streams into biogas. Sensitivity analysis results pointed out recovery yield and PHA content as the parameters that influence most the environmental performance, being responsible for up to 60% of variance in environmental performance. These parameters determine the chemicals and utilities consumption in PHA downstream processing, which is confirmed as the main environmental hotspot. This work goes beyond previous LCA studies on PHA production and quantifies the influence of different parameters on the environmental performance
2022-01-01T00:00:00ZReusable Fe₃O₄/SBA15 nanocomposite as an efficient photo-Fenton catalyst for the removal of sulfamethoxazole and Orange II
http://hdl.handle.net/10347/29454
Reusable Fe₃O₄/SBA15 nanocomposite as an efficient photo-Fenton catalyst for the removal of sulfamethoxazole and Orange II
González Rodríguez, Jorge; Fernández Fernández, Lucía; Vargas Osorio, Zulema; Piñeiro Redondo, Yolanda; Rivas Rey, José; Feijoo Costa, Gumersindo; Moreira Vilar, María Teresa
Today, the presence of recalcitrant pollutants in wastewater, such as pharmaceuticals or other organic compounds, is one of the main obstacles to the widespread implementation of water reuse. In this context, the development of innovative processes for their removal becomes necessary to guarantee effluent quality. This work presents the potentiality of magnetic nanoparticles immobilized on SBA-15 mesoporous silica as Fenton and photo-Fenton catalysts under visible light irradiation. The influence of the characteristics of the compounds and nanoparticles on the removal yield was investigated. Once the key aspects of the reaction mechanism were analyzed, to evaluate the feasibility of this process, an azo dye (Orange II) and an antibiotic (sulfamethoxazole) were selected as main target compounds. The concentration of Orange II decreased below the detection limit after two hours of reaction, with mineralization values of 60%. In addition, repeated sequential experiments revealed the recoverability and stability of the nanoparticles in a small-scale reactor. The benchmarking of the obtained results showed a significant improvement of the process using visible light in terms of kinetic performance, comparing the results to the Fenton process conducted at dark. Reusability, yield and easy separation of the catalyst are its main advantages for the industrial application of this process
2021-01-01T00:00:00Z