TREATMENT, MANAGEMENT, AND DISTRIBUTION OF DRINKING WATER
Infrastructure and management of water resources
- Infrastructure and integrated management of water resources, monitoring, and advanced control of urban drinking water networks.
- Security and efficiency of smart infrastructures: water networks, sewage systems, canals, and rivers.
- Territorial planning for sustainable water management and drought prevention.
- Tools for global management of hydraulic infrastructures: supply and urban drainage.
- Sensors and algorithms for leak detection.
- Treatment and use of bamboo in sanitation and sewage systems.
Drinking water treatment
- Evaluation of groundwater quality and risks for pathogens and contaminants.
- Improvement of drinking water quality through microalgae and acai biochar.
Desalination
- Renewable energy and advanced membranes for desalination.
- Sustainable recovery of value-added elements from brine.
- Desalination with conductive polymer hydrogels.
WASTEWATER TREATMENT, RECYCLING, AND DECONTAMINATION
Treatment
- Production of bioproducts and high-quality regenerated water with microalgae.
- Recovery of ammonia from urban and industrial waste.
- Heat and wastewater recovery with membranes in the industry.
- Removal of emerging contaminants, antibiotics, and hormones.
- Production of bio-stimulants and bio-fertilizers with cyanobacteria.
- Removal of metals and sulfates from wetlands with Acid Rock Drainage (ARD).
- Control of micro and nanoplastics and antibiotic-resistant genes in soils and aquifers.
Industrial water reuse and recycling
- Electrochemical treatment of textile wastewater with hydrogen production.
- Efficiency in water, energy, and chemical consumption, reduction of microplastics in laundries.
Rainwater harvesting
- Permeable bituminous mixtures for drainage pavements.
- Hydraulic modeling of drainage grates with computational fluid dynamics.
Pollution and waste management in aquatic environments
- Predictive models of microplastic movement in rivers and seas.
- Monitoring and quantification of microplastics with deep learning.
- Treatment of precipitated silica waste with total water recovery and sodium sulfate production.
- Technologies for contaminant degradation and pathogen retention in aquifers.
Effluent and discharge treatment
- Quantification of water and solute flux in submarine discharge.
- Digital twins for early detection of pollution in wastewater treatment plants.
- Processes to improve contaminant degradation and pathogen retention in aquifers.
Pollution reduction
- Microfluidic systems to detect and eliminate microplastics and contaminants from algae.
- Removal of metals and sulfates from water.
- Aquifer recharge to improve water quality and availability.
- Control of seawater intrusion into coastal aquifers.
- Mine Acid Drainage (MAD) treatment with nature-based solutions.
- Diagnosis of river pollution with low-cost instrumentation.
- Impact of climate change on groundwater quality.
CONSERVATION AND EFFICIENT USE OF WATER AND ECOSYSTEMS
Efficient irrigation in agriculture
- Regenerative and precision agriculture for sustainable production.
- Digital twins for irrigation and water and nutrient recirculation systems in hydroponic crops.
- Production of alternative proteins with microalgae.
Water-saving technologies in urban environments.
- Strategies for sustainable water use and drought management.
- Sustainability evaluation between bottled and tap water.
- Natural solutions for water management in peri-urban areas.
- Reuse of wastewater in urban green spaces.
SUSTAINABLE USE OF AQUATIC RESOURCES
Aquaculture and mariculture
- Feasibility studies for aquaculture operations.
- Marine reserve networks for the recovery of fishery interest species.
- Acoustic tags for marine species tracking.
- AI for automatic calibration of fishery operations.
Marine biotechnology
- Circular biomaterials for marine ecosystem regeneration.
ENERGY GENERATION
Ocean energy
- Evaluation of the energy resource from waves and optimization of capture devices.
- Fluid-structure interaction analysis for buoys and floating wind turbines.
- Optimization of moorings for offshore wind turbines.
Hydraulic energy (waves and tides)
- Generation of undulating and tidal energy.
- Predictive diagnosis and maintenance of machinery.
- Numerical simulation of turbulent flows and hydrodynamic characterization for tidal energy.
- Optimization of turbines in micro-hydro power plants.
MARITIME AND INLAND WATER TRANSPORT AND LOGISTICS
- Ship traffic studies and air quality with AIS data.
- Technologies to reduce emissions and use of sustainable fuels.
- Energy management optimization and pollution reduction in shipyards.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND ADAPTATION IN AQUATIC ENVIRONMENTS
Blue economy
- Study of natural and human impacts on the sea.
- Development of ocean observation systems.
- Climate risk management and early warning systems.
- 3D printing of marine biotopes using recycled steel slag.
Environmental monitoring and management
- Oceanic and river observation networks.
- Participatory monitoring platforms for coastal environments.
- Analysis of physical and biological processes in coastal bays.
- Impact of human activity on river sediments and flood risks.
Exploration technologies
- Mitigation of acoustic pollution on aquatic species.
- Autonomous underwater vehicles for marine observation.
- Cost-effective solutions for water challenges and aquatic ecosystem restoration.
RELEATED PROJECTS
- The Tecnologia Orientada a la Comunitat (TOC) research group at UPC, in collaboration with the Centre d'Estudis Porcins de Catalunya, leads the AEROFER project, which aims to demonstrate the viability of liquid fertilisers derived from pig manure in aeroponic cultivation, with the intention of later extrapolating it to conventional crops, thereby closing the loop from waste to resource, with a positive environmental impact on the region.
- The Maritime Engineering Laboratory at UPC (LIM) participates in a European project that will help improve the management of plastic pollution in the north-western Mediterranean and raise environmental awareness among citizens about marine preservation.
- Microalgae-based wastewater treatment systems have demonstrated the ability to recover nutrients from wastewater and produce valuable biomass for agricultural applications while also recovering energy through the anaerobic digestion of residual biomass. In the Cyan2Bio project, in which the Group of Environmental Engineering and Microbiology (GEMMA) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC) is participating, an additional step will be taken in the valorisation of microalgae biomass to obtain biopolymers suitable for transformation into bioplastics alongside pigments, thereby replacing fossil-based materials.
- The energy transition is reshaping the foundations of the power grid, driven by the massive deployment of renewable generation based on power electronics and the gradual disconnection of conventional fossil-based generation. In this context, grid operators will require support systems to provide flexibility, as renewable generation is highly variable.
