Maria Paches

Universitat Politècnica de València | UPV · Research Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering (IIAMA)

Due to their capacity to assimilate carbon dioxide and nutrients, microalgae-based cultivation systems have emerged as a green solution for intensive wastewater treatment. However, when large concentrations of ammonium are present the competition between microalgae and ammonium-oxidising bacteria plays a significant role. Microalgae use ammonium to...

El Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos (ABP) es una metodología de aprendizaje activa que está siendo usada para que los estudiantes aprendan de manera colaborativa y cooperativa, fomentando su motivación y logrando que alcancen un aprendizaje profundo. En esta investigación no nos centramos solamente en si con esta metodología conseguimos lo que desea...

A pilot-scale microalgae (Chlorella spp.) and primary sludge anaerobic co-digestion (ACoD) plant was run for one year in an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) at 35 °C, 70 d solids retention time and 30 d hydraulic retention time, showing high stability in terms of pH and VFA concentration. The plant achieved a high degree of microalgae and prim...

Como marca la Agenda 2030, los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) son formulados con el fin de erradicar la pobreza, promover la prosperidad y el bienestar, proteger el medio ambiente y hacer frente al cambio climático. En el marco de estos objetivos, el Plan Estratégico de la UPV, UPV2020, plantea el Reto 5 “Destacar por sus compromisos en m...

Although microalgae are recognised to release external organic matter (EOM), little is known about this phenomenon in microalgae cultivation systems, especially at large scale. A study was carried out on the effect of microalgae-stressing factors such as temperature, nutrient limitation and ammonium oxidising bacteria (AOB) competition in EOM produ...

Microalgae cultivation has been receiving increasing interest in wastewater remediation due to their ability to assimilate nutrients present in wastewater streams. In this respect, cultivating microalgae in membrane photobioreactors (MPBRs) allows decoupling the solid retention time (SRT) from the hydraulic retention time (HRT), which enables to in...

Los profesionales del ámbito de la ingeniería ambiental requieren una alta capacidad de análisis crítico y holístico para enfrentarse a la complejidad y diversidad del mundo real. El proyecto descrito en esta memoria tiene como finalidad desarrollar y aplicar una metodología de aprendizaje que fomente el entrenamiento de dicha capacidad y el uso de...

Coastal ecosystems are heavily polluted by human activities. These pollutants reach the aquatic environment and accumulate in the sediment. Among the chemical pollutants, metals represent a notable hazard since they are not biodegradable and have the capability to bioaccumulate, resulting in toxic effects in both the short and long term. In this st...

The Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000/60/EC) determines that all water bodies must achieve a good ecological status. The solar salterns system of Mata-Torrevieja (Spain) has been designated as Heavily Modified Water Bodies (HMWB). This ecosystem is a transitional water body (TW) largely conditioned by socio-economic management plan and the relat...

The anthropogenic alteration of the nitrogen cycle results in the modification of the whole food web. And yet, the impact caused on nitrogen dynamics in marine systems is still very uncertain. We propose a workflow to evaluate changes to coastal nitrification by modelling nitrite dynamics, the intermediary compound. Nitrite concentrations were esti...

Ecosystem-based management is one of the strategies to protect the coastal areas. One of the key elements is phytoplankton community composition since it represents a good indicator of anthropogenic pressures. This identifies the seasonal patterns of phytoplankton, and its alterations by the stress factors induced by human activities are highly val...

A comprehensive study was carried out to evaluate the occurrence, significance of concentrations and spatial distribution of heavy metals (Cr, Cd, Ni, Cu, Pb, Hg, Zn and As) in sediments along the Valencia coastline (Spain). The sampling campaign covered 476 km of the coastline in a 4-year period. The highest concentrations of metals in the sedimen...

This research work proposes an innovative water resource recovery facility (WRRF) for the recovery of energy, nutrients and reclaimed water from sewage, which represents a promising approach towards enhanced circular economy scenarios. To this aim, anaerobic technology, microalgae cultivation, and membrane technology were combined in a dedicated pl...

Conventional treatments for nutrient removal in wastewater are shifting to Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactors, which produce a high quality effluent with minimum sludge production. The effluent resulting contains high nitrogen and phosphorus load that can be eliminate by microalgae culture. The aim of this study is to evaluate the ammonium and phosphor...

Sewage discharges through marine outfalls are an important source of nutrients to marine waters, which cause undesired impact such as eutrophication. However, few authors have evaluated the contribution of wastewater disposal to nutrient concentration in coastal waters. We estimated how wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) discharges alter ammonium co...

The European Water Framework Directive aims to achieve a good status of all inland and coastal waters in the European Union by evaluating the status and the anthropogenic pressures to natural water bodies. As such, several techniques have been developed to evaluate the anthropogenic pressure to coastal areas. The most widespread methods are indexes...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of light intensity and phosphorus concentration on biomass growth and nutrient removal in a microalgae culture and their effect on their competition. The photobioreactor was continuously fed with the effluent from an anaerobic membrane bioreactor pilot plant treating real wastewater. Four experimenta...

Spectroscopy technology and statistical methods (Partial Least Squares) have been integrated to develop a model that allows estimating the microalgal biomass in a photobioreactor. The model employing PLS combines the absorption spectrum measurements in the visible range (400–750 nm) with a microalgae cell density in a water sample. First, a calibra...

Microalgae cultivation appears to be a promising technology for treating nutrient-rich effluents from anaerobic membrane bioreactors, as microalgae are able to consume nutrients from sewage without an organic carbon source, although the sulphide formed during the anaerobic treatment does have negative effects on microalgae growth. Short and long-te...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of light intensity and temperature on nutrient removal and biomass productivity in a microalgae-bacteria culture and their effects on the microalgae-bacteria competition. Three experiments were carried out at constant temperature and various light intensities: 40, 85 and 125 µE·m⁻²·s⁻¹. Other two exp...

Urban lakes are artificial systems that accomplish many functions, such as storing rainwater, avoiding flooding of adjacent urban areas and supporting recreational activities. However, their intrinsic aesthetic value is usually reduced due to eutrophication problems and anoxia processes. The objective of this study is to present the results of the...

Levels of heavy metal pollution in coastal environment are increasing continuously due to human activities. The bivalve molluscs are the most widely used as indicators of heavy metal since they concentrate pollutants in their tissues and might provide a time-integrated picture of local contamination. In this study the heavy metal concentrations of...

Microalgal growth and ammonium removal in a P-free medium have been studied in two batch photobioreactors seeded with a mixed microalgal culture and operated for 46 days. A significant amount of ammonium (106 mgN-NH4 l−1) was removed in a P-free medium, showing that microalgal growth and phosphorus uptake are independent processes. The ammonium rem...

The Cullera Estany is a coastal lagoon located in a highly intensified agriculture and tourist area in Valencia. This coastal lagoon has connections with the sea that produce marine intrusion and generate a freshwater interface. Four sampling campaigns were carried out during 2010 in order to analyse the phytoplankton composition and its relation t...

Phytoplankton and its attributes (biomass, abundance, composition, and frequency and intensity of phytoplankton blooms) are essential to establish the ecological status in the Water Frame Directive. The aim of this study is to develop an index "Glophymed" based on all phytoplankton attributes for coastal water bodies according to the directive requ...

The Júcar River, characterized by a very irregular freshwater flow, discharges into the Spanish Mediterranean coastal waters. However, the flow at its mouth is usually insignificant due to the overexploitation of upstream waters, except during intense rain periods. The presence or absence of freshwater generates two different scenarios/conditions i...

The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) has as its objective the establishment of a framework for the protection of continental, groundwater and surface, transitional, and coastal water. The phytoplankton is one of the biological quality elements established for determining the ecological status within the Directive. Phytoplankton biomass, com...

Characterisation of phytoplankton communities in aquatic ecosystems is a costly task in terms of time, material and human resources. The general objective of this paper is not to replace microscopic counts but to complement them, by fine-tuning a technique using absorption spectra measurements that reduces the above-mentioned costs. Therefore, the...

The Environmental Monitoring Programme for four fish farms located in the western Mediterranean Sea was studied in order to assess their suitability for detecting possible environmental impact in the surrounding marine ecosystems. A significant number of physical, chemical, and biological parameters, both in water and sediments, were reviewed, as w...

The Environmental Monitoring Programme for four fish farms located in the western Mediterranean Sea was studied in order to assess their suitability for detecting possible environmental impact in the surrounding marine ecosystems. A significant number of physical, chemical, and biological parameters, both in water and sediments, were reviewed, as w...

La Directiva Marco del Agua de la UE (2000/60/CE) tiene como objetivo establecer un marco para la protección de las aguas superficiales continentales, las aguas de transición, las aguas costeras y las aguas subterráneas que prevenga todo deterioro adicional, proteja y mejore el estado de los ecosistemas acuáticos. El fitoplancton es uno de los indi...