Susana Boeykens

University of Buenos Aires | UBA · School of Engineering

Industrial effluents are complex systems and therefore their treatment requires an integral approach. The composition and characteristics of each type of effluent, whether solid or liquid, determine the treatment to be required and its final disposal. In order to find a feasible solution for each specific case, it is necessary to recognize the syst...

An implementation proposal that seeks to globalize the scope of the sustainable technologies developed in the University laboratories is presented. This approach uses the generation of triple-impact projects placing people at the center of technological development to bring technical and scientific knowledge into a service design oriented to global...

The proposal of effluent treatment systems, based on circular economy principles, is a great challenge that leads to the reduction of waste from other activities, thus reducing the environmental and economic cost of the global process. In this work, buildings demolition waste is proposed to be used for metals removal from industrial effluents. To v...

Lignocellulosic Waste as Adsorbent for Water Pollutants: A Step towards Sustainability and Circular Economy

The search for low cost adsorbents that have metal-binding capacities has intensified in the last decades. Some natural aquatic macrophytes have been studied as adsorbents to remove heavy metals. Macrophytes ease to propagate converts them into plague for many ecosystems while they are also considered by some activities as a residue; therefore its...

El reingreso de lo que se consideran residuos al sistema productivo es uno de los puntos de partida del presente trabajo. Los sistemas de tratamiento de efluentes suelen ser costosos y por lo tanto poco factibles de aplicación en las industrias, ya que solo redundan en una ventaja ambiental. Así, la búsqueda de alternativas de bajo costo para la re...

Chromate and phosphate are contaminant frequently present in industrial effluents such as tanneries. The objective of this work is to evaluate the efficiency of different operational combinations with dolomite and banana peel for the adsorption of phosphate and chromate in binary solutions. Both adsorbents are residuals from construction and food i...

La Ley Periódica de los Elementos es para muchos la primera herramienta de predicción con que cuenta la Química, y sin duda, de las más valiosas. Sistematizada en su expresión gráfica, la Tabla Periódica, permite conocer a partir de sus “coordenadas” las propiedades de las sustancias simples y compuestas que forman (o podrían formar) las casi diez...

The University of Buenos Aires (UBA) develops the UBANEX program, focused on service-learning projects for students involving social, environmental and public health concerns. One of these proposals was a collaborative project between UBA and the National University of General Sarmiento. Based on the hypothesis that students´ voluntary involvement...

Adsorption is an effective method for the treatment of wastewater containing low concentrations of heavy metals. This kind of metals such as Chromium and Lead could affect health and the ecosystem. In this work, biomass of avocado seed was used as adsorbent. It was tested as adsorbent in natural form (NB), as a chemically activated (AB) form and as...

Desorption is a method that contributes to two important aspects for the sustainability of the water treatments that involve adsorption processes: a) the regeneration of the adsorbent making it reusable in several efficient cycles and, b) the recovery of the adsorbate. In previous studies, it was shown that dolomite constituted an efficient adsorbe...

Removing dyes used in the textile industry from the water bodies is a relevant task because of the importance of their high toxicity. The cotton industry waste is a big problem in the final disposal. Waste cotton fibrils were studied as adsorbent material to treat the coloured effluents of the textile industry. Washing with boiling water was determ...

Due to the characteristics of their processes, tanneries generate liquid effluents at different acidity or alkalinity conditions, with high turbidity, suspended solids and color. These effluents must be treated to avoid environmental contamination. The objective of the present work was to study, at a laboratory scale, coagulation processes that all...

The tannery industry is an important economic activity in Argentina. Due to the characteristics of their processes, tanneries generate liquid effluents in different acidity or alkalinity conditions, with high turbidity, suspended solids and color. These effluents must be treated to avoid environmental contamination. The objective of the present inv...

Resumen En este trabajo, se estudió la factibilidad dela remoción de arsénico (As) presente en soluciones acuosas empleandohidroxiapatita bovina como adsorbente. Para ello, se llevaron a cabo se llevaron a cabo distintos ensayos en régimen batch. Se estudiaron los efectos de la dosis de adsorbente sobre la remoción mediante la elaboración de curvas...

There is a need to re-evaluate the residues generated in industrial processes for the production of new raw material, reducing the volume of waste. In this regard, the biosorption is a low-cost alternative method for treating effluents compared to conventional methods. The main objectives of this research were: the evaluation of the biosorbent capa...

With the purpose of designing tubular reactors of low cost for pollutants removal, tubular reactors and continuous stirred tank were made. Those will allow us to study the functionality of different fillings. In order to achieve the objective, transparent acrylic tubes were acquired to monitor the flow behavior in the bed, with commercial end fitti...

In the present work we evaluated the use of dolomite as an alternative for the adsorption of lead and copper ions from their aqueous solutions. The possible interferences between them and the selectivity of the process were studied working with mixtures of these two ions in adsorption processes. From the analysis of the results it can be inferred t...

La industria del cuero es considerada una de las más contaminantes ya que genera efluentes de variada cantidad y naturaleza de constituyentes. En algunos casos, estos efluentes son liberados con escaso tratamiento, a cuerpos hídricos ocasionando su degradación y afectando al ambiente en general. El tipo de curtido más utilizado, es con sales de cro...

La adsorción ha demostrado ser uno de los métodos fisicoquímicos más eficaces para el tratamiento de aguas residuales que contienen metales pesados tales como el cromo (VI) y el plomo (II) que afectan en la actualidad a la salud y al ecosistema en general. En este trabajo se utilizó biomasa de carozos de Persea americana. Esta biomasa representa d...

La industria de la curtiembre constituye una actividad económica importante en la Argentina. Por las características propias de su proceso, genera efluentes que deben ser tratados para evitar la contaminación ambiental. La descarga de efluentes líquidos contaminados en diferentes condiciones de acidez o alcalinidad, con elevada turbidez, sólidos su...

In this work, it is intended to address the problem of Urban Solid Waste (USW) progressive generation and the decreasing spaces availability for its deposition. Based on this situation, main objective is to analyze the technical, economic and financial viability of an USW-organic-fraction-treatment home automatic and continuous system implementatio...

En el marco de un proyecto UBANEX que encara una problemática social y promueve la vinculación con diferentes actores sociales, participaron 22 alumnos de diferentes carreras de la UBA. Se realizó un trabajo que promueve el desarrollo de competencias en los alumnos como parte de la formación integral del futuro profesional. Se realizaron encuestas...

Con el fin de mejorar la articulación y el trabajo de futuros estudiantes, se diseñó una encuesta, a través de un formulario electrónico, para recabar la opinión sobre distintos aspectos de la estadía científica de alumnos de posgrado extranjeros que han realizado estancias y trabajos de Tesis de química en la UBA. De acuerdo a los resultados se co...

El agua potable y el saneamiento adecuado son elementos indispensables para el bienestar de la niñez. Por otro lado, la Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) enfatiza y pone de manifiesto el interés por retomar el rol que la sociedad le asigna y que reflejan sus estatutos. Sobre esta base, se planteó un proyecto en el marco del "Programa de Extensión U...

Este artículo pretende aportar a la difusión de algunos aspectos referidos a los Institutos y Derechos comprendidos dentro de la Propiedad Intelectual, con énfasis en la investigación y la ingeniería. Se presentan las diferentes formas de registros de la Propiedad Intelectual con algunos ejemplos y la Legislación Internacional, Nacional y de la Uni...

Eutrophication causes aquatic environment degradation as well as serious problems for different purposes of water uses. Phosphorus and nitrogen, mainly as phosphate and nitrate respectively, are considered responsible for eutrophication degradation. The focus of this work was the study of adsorption processes for decreasing phosphate and nitrate co...

La contaminación de las aguas superficiales es un tema de constante preocupación que permanentemente necesita de esfuerzos para superarla, remediarla y controlarla. La eutrofización de los cuerpos de aguas provocada por el aumento de la cantidad de nutrientes (nitratos y fosfatos principalmente) se ha convertido en un problema en todo el mundo. Est...

The arsenic occurrence in the water constitutes a serious world health concern due to its toxicity. Depending on the intensity and duration of exposure, this element can be acutely lethal or may have a wide range of health effects in humans and animals. In Argentina, the origin of arsenic is mainly natural, and related to different geological proce...

This study proposes a green way to design Plug Flow Reactors (PFR) that use biodegradable polymer solutions, capable of contaminant retaining, for industrial wastewater treatment. Usually, to the design of a PFR, the reaction rate is determined by tests on a Continuous Stirred-Tank Reactor (CSTR), these generate toxic effluents and also increase th...

Durante las actividades realizadas para la XIII Semana nacional de la Ciencia y la Tecnología con la comunidad educativa de nivel secundario del Partido de Almirante Brown y en búsqueda de fomentar el interés por las ciencias duras y sus aplicaciones, se intentó crear un espacio de acercamiento a la producción del conocimiento científico para que a...

El objetivo de este trabajo fue estudiar la capacidad de la hidroxiapatita bovina (HAb) para actuar como adsorbente de arsénico (As) a fin de ser empleado para la remediación de aguas arsenicales. Con tal propósito, se llevaron a cabo experimentos batch con soluciones de Na2HAsO4.7H2O de distintas concentraciones iniciales (3 mg L-1 y 6 mg L-1 de A...

La reutilización de las aguas residuales industriales muchas veces resulta imposible debido a los altos niveles de sustancias tóxicas que pueden estar presentes, dependiendo del tipo de industria que las genere. Aún en concentraciones no muy elevadas, la exposición a metales pesados como cromo y plomo puede producir efectos deletéreos a distintos n...

En este trabajo se presentan los resultados obtenidos sobre el uso de biomasa de macrófitas secas y sin tratamiento para la adsorción de iones cúpricos de soluciones acuosas a fin de estudiar la naturaleza del fenómeno de biosorción y utilizar los parámetros cinéticos y de adsorción obtenidos para el diseño de reactores para el tratamiento y recupe...

The performance of a plug-flow automated aerobic digester for the composting of the biodegradable organic waste (BOW) from a typical family at its generation rhythm was evaluated. During 13 month assessment, 179.7 kg of BOW were treated and 106.7 kg of compost were obtained with a C:N ratio of 12 and an average concentration of N of about 2.72%. Ad...

In this work feasibility of arsenic (As) removal from aqueous solutions employing low cost adsorbents was analyzed. Solutions of 10ppm As were treated with 1 g of adsorbents based on hydroxyapatite, three derivatives, nacre and external surface of shells, for 24h to ensure saturation. As concentration was measured by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy....

The development of low-cost methods for abatement of arsenic in natural waters is a growing concern in many regions of our country and the world. In this paper we present a preliminary study on the use of untreated biomass for arsenate ions adsorption from aqueous solutions. The biomass coming from dead aquatic macrophytes: Pistia stratiotes, Limno...

The aim of this study was to investigate exposure to arsenic of La Matanza inhabitants, Argentina. In order to establish a full view of arsenic exposure in the area, several matrices and targets were investigated. As matrices, water and soil samples were analyzed. As targets, canine and human hair were selected. The results of the present study dem...

En este trabajo se presenta una metodología de diseño de reactores para tratamiento de efluentes industriales utilizando datos del estudio de transporte de contaminantes en dispersiones de biopolímeros hidrosolubles. Estos reactores se basan en la capacidad de retención de la biomasa.

En este trabajo se presentan los resultados obtenidos en experimentos con un reactor tanque agitado discontinuo (TAD) con biomasa de macrófitas oriundas de la llanura Pampeana, a fin de utilizar los parámetros obtenidos para el diseño de reactores para el tratamiento y recuperación de efluentes líquidos industriales. Iones boratos, cúpricos y arsen...

Dentro de las nuevas tecnologías para la eliminación de contaminantes de efluentes industriales, los procesos de biosorción tienen un gran potencial, que se caracteriza por el uso de materiales de bajo costo, no tóxicos y biodegradables. El término "biosorción" se utiliza para referirse a la captación de contaminantes que realiza una biomasa (viva...

En este estudio se propone el uso de dispersiones poliméricas en reactores para tratamiento de efluentes industriales líquidos. El trabajo se realizó con scleroglucano, xanthano y POE, analizando el transporte de Cr III y Cr VI en dispersiones de los tres polímeros por medio de dispersión de rayos X de bajo ángulo y microfluorescencia de Rayos X. P...

Hair arsenic concentrations were measured in 50 dogs living at Barrio Los Alamos, Gran Buenos Aires, Argentina, to evaluate the contamination risk in humans living in an area with arsenic levels higher than maximum allowed limit of 10 mg l À1 . This region belongs to the zone in Argentina with Chronic Endemic Hydroarsenicism. Quantification of the...

La mayoría de los edificios de valor cultural o histórico se encuentran en entornos urbanos y se someten a una serie de diferentes factores de deterioro, que deben abordarse por separado. Es importante tener en cuenta las variaciones que se producen en el medio ambiente urbano, tales como cambios en los contaminantes, la temperatura, ciclos de hume...

This paper presents an analysis of water quality on farms and communities of the Puna region adjacent to the Salinas Grandes. The levels found in water samples tested exceeded the recommended values for human consumption in terms of dissolved salts. The amount and diversity of toxic heavy metals makes it inadvisable to use for human and animal drin...

Technological and operational aspects for the installation of self-home Organic Municipal Solid Waste bioreactors are considered. Throughout the process, only carbon dioxide and water vapor were released. Results are presented for more than a year of emissions, temperatures, evolution of the mass and stability of the obtained compost.

This study proposes the use of polymer solutions that retain contaminants, in industrial wastewater treatment reactors. First, the rate of transport of toxic ions was evaluated through different polymer solutions, as models. Then, based on the obtained relationships, laboratory experiments were planned with the purpose of optimizing the design of D...

El conocimiento químico composicional de la fracción inorgánica presente en muestras de pinturas rupestres es indispensable para inferir la modalidad de preparación de los pigmentos, identificar aditamentos que faciliten la adherencia y fijación de las pinturas, conocer la naturaleza de acreciones que las afectan y que causan su deterioro natural....

Some polymers are intrinsically responsible for a sensor function; other polymers are made to augment the sensing operation through modification of the polymer by functionalization. Polymeric thin film deposition technology and the design of more active and sensor specific polymers will lead to successful miniature, multiple sensor arrays. A sensor...

This article describes the study carried out on a series of oil paintings on canvas from the eighteenth century that were restored at Centro de Producción e Investigación en Restauración y Conservación Artística y Bibliográfica - Tarea (CEIRCAB-Tarea), Buenos Aires, Argentina: the San Pedro González Telmo Sibyls. Experimental study was undertaken t...

This paper demonstrates the applicability of total reflection x-ray fluorescence (TXrf) as a powerful analytical tool for discovering the composition of the liquid inside a bottle found in the hMs Swift, a British warship which sank off Patagonia in 1770. in order to characterize the contents of the bottle, a microsample was submitted for TXrf dete...

Honey is produced by Apis Mellifera bees, primarily from floral nectars. The bees are estimated to forage on plants growing in a relatively large area of more than 7 km2. If it is assumed that any hive includes at least 1000 worker bees and that each of them forages on 1000 flowers per day, the honey produced daily can be considered the outcome of...

The equilibrium properties of a polymer solution in the vicinity of a solid–liquid interface are locally altered relative to those in bulk. Discrepancies between porous media and conventional rheology appear when the pore wall is either attractive or repulsive for the polymer adsorption. These local alterations become evident in practical situation...

X-ray fluorescence is an analytical technique that has been used for both, qualitative and quantitative evaluation of chemical composition in various types of samples, coming from different fields such as agriculture, industry, geological, environmental, etc. Being a non destructive and instrumental, this technique allows the analysis of several el...

Report of the first research co-ordination meeting under co-ordinated research projects on “Unification of nuclear spectrometries integrated techniques as a tool for materials research”. IAEA Tec-Doc Series. Editor: David Cohen. Vienna, Austria. 2007.108 pag. ISBN 978-92-0-109215-0.

This work proposes the use of X-ray fluorescence with total reflection geometry to explore the metal ions transport in aqueous hydrophilic polymer solutions. It is centered in the study of polymer concentration influence on ion diffusion. This subject is relevant to various and diverse applications, such as drug controlled release, microbiologic co...

In “In situ applications of X Ray Fluorecene Techniques”. IAEA, Vienna, Austria. IAEA-Tecdoc-1456. ISBN 92-0-107105-1. ISSN 1011-4289. 250 pag.

This work describes a sampling strategy that will allow the use of portable EDXRF (energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence) instruments for "in situ" soil analysis. The methodology covers a general approach to planning field investigations for any type of environmental studies and it was applied for a soil characterization study in the zone of Campana...

Scleroglucan aqueous solutions and gels were selected to study the dependence of diffusion behavior of alkali and alkaline-earth metal ions on matrix structural characteristics. Stokes and free diffusion experimental methods for obtaining diffusion coefficients were contrasted. Three different behaviors, corresponding to three well-defined concentr...

The aim of this work is to use the information coming from the spectral region corresponding to inelastic scattering of the incident X-rays obtained under total reflection conditions to classify synthetic and natural polymers through chemometric techniques. Total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) spectra were obtained and analyzed to retrieve ma...

A fast and rapid chemical reaction is presented here for labelling the polysaccharide scleroglucan with iodine to simplify its detection. The conditions proposed for the chemical reaction (temperature, concentrations of reactants and pH) were selected so as to substitute only a few of the OH groups in the polymer. The quantification of the labelled...

This paper proposes an optimized method to mark polysaccharide macromolecules with heavy atoms in order to make possible their detection by total reflection X-ray fluorescence. A chemical reaction was employed to produce the substitution of OH groups of the polymer macromolecules by iodine atoms. Temperature, time, concentration of reactants and pH...

The aim of this work is to explore the use of chemometric tools for the classification of synthetic and natural polymers with a mean molecular weight greater than 10(6). Total Reflection X-Ray Fluorescence (TXRF) spectra were obtained and analyzed in order to retrieve matrix information and to illustrate the calibration procedure. The intensities o...

The aim of this work was to use the determination of trace elements by total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) for the performance study of three final purification methods of polysaccharide systems. TXRF shows two indispensable advantages to accomplish this study: the small quantities of sample required for the analysis and the avoidance of dig...

A procedure for the non-destructive elemental analysis of soils using wavelength-dispersive x-ray fluorescence spectrometry (WDXRF) is proposed. The determination of minor and trace elements is considered. It does not require any sophisticated treatment of the sample. The method was validated using certified soil standard reference materials, obtai...

The chemical control of impurities in nuclear materials is indispensable in order to ensure efficient operation of the reactors. The maximum concentration admitted depends on the elements and in most cases is in the parts per billion range. Conventional analytical methods require a preconcentration treatment of the sample and a previous separation...

This paper proposes the use of radiation scattered by the sample instead of the internal standard method for quantifying impurities in high viscosity materials using X-ray fluorescence with total reflection geometry. The method has been performed for checking trace elements in gels of polymers. Advantages include no sample preparation and a minimum...

Polysaccharides biological growth requires carbohydrates as source of C and micronutrients namely N, F, Na, Mg, P, S, etc, coming from inorganic salts. The presence of these impurities could alter physical properties as adsorption processes in biological tissues. Quantitative trace determination of these low Z elements is rather difficult by using...

In this paper the influence of dispersed macromolecules in the process of selective mass transfer through aqueous systems was studied in order to apply this knowledge in the design of reactors for industrial wastewater treatments. The application of biomass, usually composed of biopolymers production accessible, is currently in great development. P...

An amendment to the Enhanced Oil Recovery by water injection is the addition of a plug of high molecular weight polymers in water injection. The most important effect of the polymer is to make the aqueous solution more viscous than water to increase the efficiency of oil recovery off the reservoir. This technique is called "chemical method" of reco...