PSIPW joined LEPABE in celebrating its 25 years of existence, under the motto: “Boarding into a new era of knowledge!”

The LEPABE meeting 2023, which took place on 5 July at the Porto de Leixões Cruise Terminal in Porto Portugal, enjoyed the participation of over 250 researchers and stakeholders.

LEPABE – Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy -- is a research unit operating in the fields of Chemical, Environmental and Biological Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Porto. With a large majority of young researchers, LEPABE is focused on generating scientific knowledge through interdisciplinary research, and on establishing successful university–industry collaborations for effective technology transfer.

Consistently evaluated as an “Excellence Research Unit” by the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology (FCT) through international experts, LEPABE aims to address the societal challenges on a environment-energy-health triangle. One focus is on water-sustainability, namely:

* Pollution and risk assessment studies on environmental water matrices by novel micropollutants;

* Assessment of microbiological pollution of water bodies, antibiotic resistance and water reuse safety;

*Advanced water treatment technologies to remove pollutants from waters;

* Clean Technologies and Waste Recycling for reuse of water effluents and economic valorization; * Novel approaches to water disinfection and biofilm inhibition.

PSIPW, through its Prince Sultan Participation Grant Scheme that supports young researchers, sponsored a Water and Sustainability Contest where various participating research teams gave pitch presentations for their innovative water related work.

Winners received a monetary award and certificate.

Four teams competed for the prize. Their topics were:

[1] Removing parabens from wastewater using coaggregating bacteria in a novel oscillatory flow reactor (OFR)

[2] Fenton-like process using phenolic compounds as pro-oxidants to degrade antineoplastic drugs from wastewaters

[3] Can computer vision help to reduce water consumption in the textile industry?

and the winning work:

[4] GreenFrame: Advancing Eco-Friendly Wastewater Treatment with a Cellulose Scaffold

The members of the winning team from the University of Porto were Ana Rosa Silva, Ana Sofia Fernandes, and Marta Redondo.