Jaime Martín-Pascual

• PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Granada

Within the context of the new circular model for wastewater treatment aimed at achieving zero waste, this research seeks an alternative to landfill disposal of waste screenings. It examines the feasibility of thermochemical processes—combustion and gasification—for the valorisation of solid recovered fuel (SRF) derived from screening wastes, which...

The circular economy, as a new model of waste management through energy self-sufficiency and valorisation, can be applied to wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Screening waste from WWTP pretreatment is the only waste that is not energetically recovered and thus constrains the achievement of zero waste. Previous studies demonstrated the technical...

The increasing prevalence of pharmaceutical substances in wastewater is emerging as a pressing ecological issue on a global scale. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the biological influence of pharmaceutical compounds on the heterotrophic biomass residing in a membrane bioreactor. The study examined the way microorganisms react to antibioti...

The development in wastewater management has caused a shift towards a circular model that prioritises energy generation and waste reduction. Traditional unitary processes in wastewater treatment, such as screening, only allow for landfill disposal without energy recovery. However, producing solid recovered fuel (SRF) from waste screening may be a p...

The occurrence of emerging organic contaminants, such as pharmaceuticals, is a growing global concern. In this research, for a membrane bioreactor (MBR) laboratory plant operating at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 24 h, fed with real urban wastewater, the heterotrophic biomass behaviour was analysed for two concentrations of erythromycin, ibup...

Anaerobic digestion is considered as one of the most feasible waste-to-energy technologies for the valorization of organic wastes. It can be applied to many different substrates but the mono-digestion of a single substrate usually has some important drawbacks due to the physico-chemical characteristics of the substrate. A feasible solution is the s...

Agro-food (AF) industry provides great investment opportunities in its treated water and solid wastes, by conversion into value-added products. Our study accumulated extensive bibliometric data on this field from the Scopus database, between 1974 and 2021, and conducted a scientometric analysis using Science Mapping Analysis Software Tool (SciMAT)...

Morocco is a water-scarce developing country with a growing marketable agro-food industry, where untreated or insufficiently treated wastewater represents less than 1% of the irrigation water and treated wastewater reuse is virtually nil. The Government of Morocco is planning to increase the volume of treated wastewater reuse for irrigation agricul...

Energy recovery, according to circular economy and sustainable principles, has established itself as an inevitable field of action in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Energy costs are forcing the optimization of processes and increases in the development of applicable waste-to-energy (WtE) technologies. This study aims to analyze the existing k...

The increase in industry and population, together with the need for wastewater reuse, makes it necessary to implement new technologies in the circular economy framework. The aim of this research was to evaluate the quality of the effluent of an algae membrane photobioreactor for the treatment of the effluent of an urban wastewater treatment plant,...

Increasingly, wastewater treatment plants are laying the foundation for a circular economy. A novel approach to operating these plants is to redefine them as biorefineries to produce energy and move toward zero waste. To this end, an analysis of wastewater screening was carried out, as this is the only waste that does not yet have a valorization ro...

Although it has access to hydrocarbon reserves, Kazakhstan has developed a strategy for the transition to a low-carbon economy, which should include the use of renewable energy sources. In this framework, the use of biomass from waste could have the potential to reduce emissions from traditionally fueled energy generation, as well as adding value t...

Every day, large quantities of wastewater are discharged from various sources that could be reused. Wastewater contains nutrients such as nitrogen or phosphorus, which can be recovered. Microalgae-based technologies have attracted attention in this sector, as they are able to bioremediate wastewater, harnessing its nutrients and generating algal bi...

The growing demand for water by the population and industry, as well as water scarcity due to climate change, has created a need to reuse treated water for agricultural purposes. In this context, the European Union, through its Regulation (EU) 2020/741, establishes minimum requirements for wastewater reuse, specifying that reuse for agricultural pu...

In recent years, many scientific studies have focused their efforts on quantifying the different types of pollutants that are not removed in wastewater treatment plants. Compounds of emerging concern (CECs) have been detected in different natural environments. The presence of these compounds in wastewater is not new, but they may have consequences...

Valorization of municipal solid waste (MSW) plays a crucial role in a sustainable society and provides an opportunity to reduce carbon emissions. The economic and social viability of the treatment of the organic fraction of MSW (OFMSW) with a multi-scenario analysis (composting and anaerobic digestion for renewable electricity or for biomethane inj...

The need for new energy sources and the problems associated with waste in the agroforestry industry are an opportunity for the recovery of this waste. For the use of this agricultural waste as energy, different pretreatments, such as torrefaction, can be carried out. Torrefaction is a thermochemical treatment involving energetic densification of bi...

The organic fraction is usually the predominant fraction in municipal solid waste, so its recycling is a potential alternative to disposal in landfill sites, as well as helping to reach targets included in the European Circular Economy Package. The existing body of knowledge in this research field is very large, so a comprehensive review of the exi...

The challenge of sustainable cities involves rethinking some infrastructure systems and supply chains, including those for energy and waste. In this sense, the injection of green gas as biomethane into the natural gas network could contribute to the reduction of waste in landfills and to the decarbonisation of energy systems. Positive and negative...

The management of fecal sludge is a recurrent problem for the actors in charge of the urban environment of Sokodé. Often, the sludge emptied is poured on empty spaces or used, without treatment, on urban and suburban agricultural land and for market gardening; in fact, a survey of market gardeners in the city of Sokodé found that around 40% of them...

In the present study, residue from olive groves has been used for the manufacture of clay ceramic bricks as a new environmentally-friendly solution. For this purpose, waste products of olive cultivation, such as olive prunings, leaves and wood, were ground to obtain a particle size of 0–2 mm; 7.5%, 15% and 25% of olive waste was added to the clay,...

The main aim of this study has been to determine the influence of total water to cement ratio, recycled fine aggregate from construction and demolition waste, and air entraining/plasticizer admixture on the properties of masonry mortar. Two mortar series were prepared using varying percentages of dry or pre-soaked recycled fine aggregate to replace...

Over the last years, an increasing concern has emerged regarding the eco-friendly management of wastewater. Apart from the role of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) for wastewater and sewage sludge treatment, the increasing need of the recovery of the resources contained in wastewater, such as nutrients and water, should be highlighted. This woul...

This research was performed to assess the production of reclaimed water from urban wastewater in membrane bioreactor - advanced oxidation process (MBR-AOP) and moving bed biofilm reactor - membrane bioreactor - advanced oxidation process (MBBR-MBR-AOP) combined treatments to study the effect of biofilm incorporation. Both combined treatments were o...

Emerging contaminants are a global concern, as Directive 2013/39/UE shows. Given the possible consequences that may lead to the presence of these compounds in water resources, different proposals are being evaluated to avoid their discharge into the environment. This study focuses on the use of a biological and physicochemical combined treatment fo...

Numerous studies have analyzed the viability of the biodegradation and removal of different compounds of emerging concern in biological systems for wastewater treatment. However, the effect on the heterotrophic biomass of organic matter removal is sometimes missed. The aim of the present research was to study the effect of the addition of a mix of...

This study focuses on the use of advanced oxidation processes as a tertiary treatment in wastewater treatment plants to degrade contaminants of emerging concern at the natural pH of the biologically treated wastewater. Different peroxide dosages and initial concentrations of a mix of three pharmaceuticals commonly present in wastewater (carbamazepi...

A bench‐scale bioreactor was operated under two different technologies of membrane bioreactor and hybrid moving bed bioreactor‐membrane bioreactor at hydraulic retention time 6–16 h, sludge retention time 6–24 days, and mixed liquor suspended solids 3400–7800 mg L⁻¹. Analyses of their bacterial community structures showed marked differences between...

El ladrillo cerámico como material de construcción industrial contribuye negativamente al deterioro del medioambiente, tanto por el agotamiento de los recursos naturales como por la elevada cantidad de energía necesaria para su fabricación, que se traduce en emisiones de CO2. La incorporación de productos residuales o subproductos procedentes de di...

The start-up phase of a membrane bioreactor (MBR) for municipal wastewater treatment was studied to determine the effect of temperature on the organic matter removal and heterotrophic kinetics. The MBR system was analyzed during four start-up phases with values of hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 6 h and 10 h, mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS)...

This study analyzed the effect of bisphenol A (BPA) on the kinetic behavior of the heterotrophic biomass of a membrane bioreactor (MBR) treating municipal wastewater in order to determine possible variations in the rates of organic matter removal, decay and biomass generation. Four operation phases were analyzed in the steady state at different val...

Primary settling tanks are used to remove solids at wastewater treatment plants and are considered a fundamental part in their joint operation with the biological and sludge treatment processes. The aim of this study was to obtain a greater understanding of the influence of operational parameters, such as surface overflow rate, hydraulic retention...

The start-up phase of a membrane bioreactor (MBR) for municipal wastewater treatment was studied to determine the effect of temperature on the organic matter removal and heterotrophic kinetics. The MBR system was analyzed at hydraulic retention times (HRTs) of 6 h and 10 h and temperature values varying between 11.5 °C and 30.1 °C. Arrhenius and Mo...

BACKGROUND This study analyzed the effects of carbamazepine, ciprofloxacin and ibuprofen on the behavior of a membrane bioreactor (MBR) system treating urban wastewater that was doped continuously with three different concentrations of this mix of pharmaceuticals under a hydraulic retention time of 6 h. RESULTS The degradation capacity of these ch...

The efficiency of a two-stage mesophilic anaerobic sludge digestion process was studied in comparison with a conventional process to treat urban sludge in relation to the hydraulic retention time (HRT) of the acid stage. This comparison, performed to optimize methane production in relation to the acid stage, was carried out in a pilot plant operati...

Nitrogen compounds are some of the main pollutants in municipal wastewater and tend to cause eutrophication problems. Eutrophication has a severe impact on the environment as the nitrogen excess implies oxygen depletion, which involves the death of aquatic organisms. In this regard, it is necessary to remove the nitrogen compounds from municipal wa...

Conventional activated sludge (CAS) technology has been extensively used in wastewater treatment around the world since it was developed. Most of the wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) built decades ago have experienced an increase of the influent flow rate or pollution load due to the increase of population. This fact as well as the stricter norm...

In recent years, the use of natural resources in industrial sectors has increased, specifically in the textile industry. One of the main problems generated by the textile industry is related to the wastewater generated. The textile industry is considered one of the main generators of complex dangerous water pollutants with high contents of organic...

This review carries out a comparative study of advanced technologies to design, upgrade and rehabilitate wastewater treatment plants. The study analyzed the relevant researches in the last years about the moving bed biofilm reactor process with only attached biomass and with hybrid biomass, which combined attached and suspended growth; both could b...

The influence of operative variables in the performance of an ultrafiltration membrane in a hybrid moving bed membrane bioreactor treating real urban wastewater was studied in relation to the fouling rate and the recovery of permeability with a multivariable statistical analysis. Twenty-one cycles of operation were studied in relation to the fillin...

Bacteria are key players in biological wastewater treatments (WWTs), thus a firm knowledge of the bacterial population dynamics is crucial to understand environmental/operational factors affecting the efficiency and stability of the biological depuration process. Unfortunately, little is known about the microbial ecology of the advanced biological...

The application of H2O2/UV, photo-Fenton and heterogeneous photocatalysis (TiO2/H2O2/UV) processes for the treatment of a highly polluted coloured wastewater was analysed. The experiments were carried out with different H2O2 concentrations (0.25, 0.5, 1, 2 and 5 g/L). The toxic properties of different H2O2 concentrations in textile wastewater were...

Seven cycles of operation in relation to the filling ratio, mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS), hydraulic retention time (HRT), and temperature were studied in a pilot-scale experimental plant of a hybrid moving bed biofilm reactor-membrane bioreactor (MBBR-MBR). The aim of the present research was to study the influence of the operative variable...

The present research studies the influence of the operative variable of a hybrid moving bed biofilm reactor–membrane bioreactor (hybrid MBBR–MBR) in the attached biomass, and analyses the effect of the variables on the evolution of solids retention time (SRT) treating real urban wastewater in a pilot-scale experimental plant. This was operated unde...

Wastewater from textile manufacturing introduces recalcitrant organic compounds, such as dyes and toxic by-products into the environment, where advanced oxidation processes are used to treat toxic and non-biodegradable organic pollutants which cannot be removed by traditional methods. H2O2/UV, photo-Fenton and heterogeneous photocatalysis (TiO2/H2O...

Moving bed membrane bioreactors (MBMBR) are advanced biological wastewater treatments combining suspended biomass (SB) and attached biofilms (AB). To evaluate the specific contribution of each biomass fraction to N removal, the abundances of gene markers of nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria were measured by quantitative PCR in a pilot-scale MBMB...

Studies investigating the functioning and possible utility of new wastewater treatment technologies are urgently needed if the requirements of European Directive 91/271/EEC are to be met. Here, moving bed biofilm reactor-membrane bioreactor (MBBR-MBR) technology was studied in a pilot plant of 445 L volume with ultrafiltration membrane (ZW-10) unde...

Textile wastewater is one of the main environmental pollutants which exist in our society. Textile effluents cause great concern due to the alteration of properties of water bodies such as differences in temperature, organic load, pH, colour and turbidity. Turbidity is one of the most important parameters that should be removed from industrial wast...

Two membrane bioreactors with different mixed liquor suspended solid concentrations and a hybrid moving bed biofilm reactor-membrane bioreactor which contained carriers only in the aerobic zone of the bioreactor were used in parallel with the same municipal wastewater and compared. The hydraulic retention time was 18 h. Kinetic parameters for heter...

The moving bed biofilm reactor-membrane bioreactor (MBBR-MBR) has been investigated to minimise the membrane fouling. In this study, a membrane bioreactor (MBR), a hybrid MBBR-MBR and a pure MBBR-MBR operated in parallel to treat municipal wastewater. These systems were compared in terms of membrane fouling under the hydraulic retention times (HRTs...

The moving bed biofilm reactor–membrane bioreactor (MBBR–MBR) is a novel solution to conventional processes. In this study, a conventional membrane bioreactor (MBR), a hybrid MBBR–MBR and a pure MBBR–MBR were compared. The hybrid MBBR–MBR contained suspended and attached biomass, while the pure MBBR–MBR mainly had attached biomass. The reactors ope...

Effects of temperature on the permeate flux and the permeability of the membrane have been studied in a membrane bioreactor system with a moving bed pilot plant to treat real urban wastewater. In the present study, the permeability of the membrane has been determined under four different suspended solids concentrations and three different degrees o...

The microbial hydrolytic enzymatic activities (acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase and glucosidase) in a moving bed membrane bioreactor (MBMBR system) for real urban wastewater treatment were investigated. This study was conducted in both suspended biomass and attached biofilm present in a MBMBR system. For this, four experimental phases with 20...

A hybrid moving bed biofilm reactor-membrane bioreactor (hybrid MBBR-MBR) system has been tested in this study at two scales to analyse the scale-up effect. Two municipal wastewater treatment plants were used, one at laboratory scale (hybrid MBBR-MBRL) with a reactor working volume of 241 and one at pilot scale (hybrid MBBR-MBRP) with a reactor wor...

Large quantities of pollutants such as phthalocyanine which are difficult to degrade by conventional techniques are discharged by the textile industry. Advanced oxidation processes have been shown to be capable of degrading organic compounds and removing colour from the industrial wastewater. In this research, the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)/UV proces...

Wastewater treatment using moving bed membrane bioreactor technology was tested with real urban wastewater at a pilot plant, combining moving bed treatment as a biological process with hybrid biomass (suspended and fixed) and the advantages of a membrane separation system. The evolution of the kinetic constants of the hybrid biomass and organic mat...

At present, there is great concern about limited water resources and water quality, which require a more advanced technology. The Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) has been shown to be an efficient technology for removal of organic matter and nutrients in industrial and urban wastewater treatment. However, there are some pollutants which are more d...

Different types of carriers were tested as support material in a lab-scale moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) used to treat urban wastewater under three different conditions of hydraulic retention time (HRT) and carrier filling ratios (FR). The bacterial diversity developed on the biofilms responsible of the treatment was studied using a cultivation...

In recent years, moving bed systems have been shown as an efficient technology in wastewater treatment and particularly in the treatment of urban effluents. This paper presents the results obtained for three different carriers in organic matter removal, analysing the influence of hydraulic retention time (HRT) and the filling ratio, as well as the...