Descrizione del progetto
Uno sguardo più attento alle interazioni tra particolato e biofilm
Uno dei processi più comuni di trattamento delle acque reflue utilizza i biofilm per trasformare gli agenti inquinanti. Sebbene i processi a biofilm siano sempre più importanti per la rimozione dei nutrienti, i miglioramenti della tecnologia sono stati limitati. Il progetto ABSOLUTE, finanziato dall’UE, svilupperà nuove tecnologie basate sul biofilm, più efficienti dal punto di vista energetico e in grado di recuperare meglio le risorse. In particolare, si analizzeranno più da vicino i meccanismi alla base delle interazioni tra la materia organica particolata e i biofilm. La ricerca andrà oltre l’attuale stato dell’arte costruendo innanzitutto una piattaforma sperimentale che sfrutta i recenti sviluppi nell’imaging avanzato, nei nanosensori e nel tracciamento delle particelle. Nel complesso, i risultati ottenuti aiuteranno il settore idrico ad avvicinarsi all’obiettivo di emissioni nette zero e contribuire all’economia circolare.
Obiettivo
Wastewater treatment (WWT) processes that use biofilms as their biocatalyst have been in use for over 100 years. Over the past few decades, a greater understanding has emerged on how biofilms can be exploited for enhanced nutrient removal and this knowledge has been translated into new technologies representing about one-third of all WWT processes in a multibillion-euro global wastewater technology market.
Despite the success of these technologies, there is significant need for enhanced efficiencies in these processes and the development of new technologies that are more energy efficient and are capable of better resource recovery from wastewater are needed. To achieve this, there is need for new mechanistic insight, in particular the interaction between biofilms and particulate organic matter in the influent wastewater. The knowledge-gap spans three key areas: (i) non-oxidative interactions, (ii) hydrolysis and (iii) bioflocculation. This research project will develop an enhanced multispecies biofilm model that better incorporates new understating of these areas. We will go significantly beyond current state of the art by first building an experimental platform that exploits recent developments in advanced imaging, nanosensors & particle-tracking to probe the fundamentals of these mechanisms. To achieve this, the platform will be uniquely based on fluorescently tagged monospecies biofilms, rather than on conventional multispecies biofilm in a first phase of the project. This work will then inform the development of new mathematical model relationships, which will be implemented in an extended multispecies model and validated against data from a pilot plant operating with conditions representative of a real WWT plant.
The transformative approach in this project will lead to a more fundamental insight into the mechanisms underpinning particle-biofilm interactions and pave the way to new application of biofilms for advanced wastewater treatment.
Campo scientifico
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-AG - HORIZON Action Grant Budget-BasedIstituzione ospitante
4 Dublin
Irlanda