This research area develops and evaluates methodologies and technologies for optimizing resources, energy efficiency, and cost minimization of processes related to the urban water system.
These objectives are achieved through the application of emerging, resource-optimization technologies of water supply, wastewater treatment, reclamation, and reuse. This area has an integral perspective of the integrated processes involved, from the river to human consumption and back to the system. The development of technologies is related to those best available but not entailing an excessive cost, while striving to achieve resource consumption reduction and optimization, related to water scarcity and improvement of the final product.
Lines of research
The lines of research of the Technologies and Evaluation Area are:
AIII1 Water supply and advanced treatment
AIII2 Wastewater treatment, reuse and resource recovery
AIII3 Modelling and management systems
AIII4 Unit operations
Group leader
Maite Pijuan
Research Scientist
mpijuan@icra.cat
Maite Pijuan is a Research Scientist at the Catalan Institute for Water Research and the Head of the Technologies and Evaluation Research Area.
Maite obtained a PhD in Environmental Engineering at the University Autonomous of Barcelona in 2004. After a 6 year-postdoc at the Advanced Water Management Centre (The University of Queensland, Australia) she joined ICRA with one of the competitive Ramon y Cajal research fellowships. In 2015 she obtained a permanent Research Scientist position. Her research background is in biological wastewater treatment, with particular interest in novel wastewater treatment processess, linking microbial ecology with process performance, energy and nutrient recovery and greenhouse gases mitigation.
Maite has published 75 reviewed papers (H-index 32, Scopus, August 2020), an international patent and 4 book chapters, has participated in > 20 competitive projects (7 as PI) and several consulting projects with industry and has supervised 8 completed PhD thesis.