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[EN] In this work, the influence of bisphenol A (BPA) on biological wastewater treatment was studied. For it, two sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) were operated for three months. Both SBRs were fed with synthetic wastewater (SW), adding 1 mg.L-1 of BPA into the feed of reactor SBR-BPA, while the other one operatedwithout BPA as a control reactor (SBR-B). In addition, batch experiments were performed with adapted and non-adapted activated sludge, simulating the reaction step of SBR-BPA, to determine the pathways for BPA removal. Results of batch experiments showed that adsorption and biodegradation were the only significant BPA removal routes. BPA removal by biodegradation was more efficient when adapted biomass was used in the tests (32.2% and 8.2% with adapted and non-adapted biomass, respectively), while BPA adsorption removal route was similar in both types of activated sludge (around 40%). Regarding the SBRs experiments, after 16 days no BPA concentration was detected in SBR-BPA effluent. In the adaptation process, SBR-BPA biomass was more sensitive to low temperatures resulting in higher effluent turbidity, COD and solublemicrobial products concentrations than in SBR-B. However, once temperature increased, adapted biomass from SBR-BPA presented higher activity than SBR-B biomass, showing higher values of sludge production, microbial hydrolytic enzymatic activities and specific dynamic respiration rate. The bacterial community study revealed the increase of abundance of Proteobacteria (especially Thiothrix species) and Actinobacteria (especially Nocardioides species) phyla at the expense of Bacteroidetes and Chloroflexi phyla in SBR-BPA during its operation., Authors thank the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for the financial support (Reference of the project: RTI2018096916BI00).

[EN] The production of olive oil generates wastewater with a high organic load and toxicity due to the high concentration of phenolic compounds. In recent years, the study on the treatments of these waters has been intensified together with the search for a process to recover these phenolic compounds due to their great antioxidant potential. All this with the aim of implementing the concept of circular economy. In this study, four different organic ultrafiltration membranes were evaluated in order to recover the phenolic compounds present in olive oil washing wastewater (OOWW) from an oil mill in the Valencian Community (Spain). The tested membranes differ in materials and molecular weight cut-off (MWCO): two permanently hydrophilic polyethersulfone (PESH) membranes with MWCO of 4 and 50 kDa, respectively, one polyethersulfone (PES) membrane with a MWCO of 5 kDa and a regenerated cellulose acetate (RCA) membrane with a MWCO of 10 kDa. Transmembrane pressure (TMP) and crossflow velocity (CFV) were varied from 1 to 3 bar and from 1.5 to 3.4 m/s, respectively. The effectiveness of the different membranes and operating conditions were evaluated comparing the permeate flux and the rejection of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total phenolic compounds (TPhs). The membranes with lower MWCO showed stable permeate fluxes without significant changes over time, while the 50 kDa membrane showed a gradual decrease, without achieving a stable flux. Low rejection of phenolic compounds was observed in all cases, while the rejection of COD varied between 19.5 % and 62.9 % depending on the membrane and operating conditions tested. Except for the 50 kDa PESH membrane, initial permeability recovery greater than 95 % was achieved with a 35 °C water rinse, indicating that membrane fouling was not severe. Since the aim was to recover the TPhs in the permeate stream and separate them from the organic matter, the 5 kDa PES membrane at 2 bar and 2.5 m/s was considered to be the best option. At those conditions a stable permeate flux of 40 L/h·m2 was obtained, while the lowest TPhs rejection was observed (8.01 %) with a high COD rejection (61.18 %)., The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness through the project CTM2017-88645-R and The European Union through the Operational Program of the Social Fund (FSE).

[EN] Although wastewater treatment plants can retain a high percentage of microplastics (MP) arriving at the facilities, no method for extracting and characterizing these microparticles has been still standardized in these units. This study investigated three protocols of chemical digestion, prior to analysis of microplastics, one directed to the effluents, using peroxidation, and two for activated sludge (peroxidation and Fenton). The samples (primary effluent, secondary effluent and activated sludge) were collected from a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) located in Valencia (Spain). In addition, four common types of polymers (Low density polyethylene-LDPE, Polypropylene-PP, Polystyrene-PS and Polyethylene terephthalate-PET) were used to assess the influence of reagent exposure on microparticle integrity. Peroxidation was effective in treating the studied effluents (primary and secondary) and was also identified as the ideal protocol for activated sludge. The analysis showed that the use of H2O2 does not compromise the identification of the polymers evaluated by FTIR and also significantly reduced the concentration of suspended solids, resulting in an efficient visual separation of the microparticles. After been properly separated, the microparticles were characterized according to their size, colour and shape, and a fraction submitted to identification by mu-ATR-FTIR/ATR-FTIR. In all samples, a high presence of microfibers (MF) was observed, corresponding to more than 90% of the microparticles. However, in relation to secondary effluents, only 9% of these MF were identified as plastics, the remaining ones corresponded to cotton. The fragments found in the samples were classified as secondary in origin, and were mainly PE and PP, lower than 1 mm size., Authors thank the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for the financial support (Reference of the project: RTI2018-096916-B-I00).

[EN] The high presence of microplastics (MPs) in different sizes, materials and concentrations in the aquatic environment is a global concern due to their potential physically and chemically harm to aquatic organisms including mammals. Furthermore, the bioaccumulation of these compounds is leading to their ingestion by humans through the consumption of sea food and even through the terrestrial food chain. Even though conventional wastewater treatment plants are capable of eliminating more than 90% of the influent MPs, these systems are still the main source of MPs introduction in the environment due to the high volumes of effluents generated and returned to the environment. The amount of MPs dumped by WWTP is influenced by the configuration of the WWTP, population served and influent flow. Thus, the average of MP/L disposed vary widely depending on the region. In addition to MPs disposed in water bodies, more than 80% of these emerging contaminants, which enter the WWTP, are retained in biosolids that can be applied as fertilizers, representing a potential source of soil contamination. Due to the continuous disposal of MPs in the environment by effluent treatment systems and their polluting potential, separation and identification techniques have been assessed by several researchers, but unfortunately, there are no standard protocols for them. Aiming to provide insight about the relevance of studying the WWTP as source of MPs, this review summarizes the currently methodologies used to classify and identify them.

[EN] Nowadays, alternative options to conventional wastewater treatment should be studied due to rising concerns emerged by the presence of pharmaceuticals compounds (PhCs) in the aquatic environment. In this work, a combined system including biological treatment by activated sludge plus adsorption with activated carbon is proposed to remove three selected drugs (acetaminophen (ACT), caffeine (CAF) and ibuprofen (IBU)) in a concentration of 2 mg L-1 of each one. For it three sequencing batch reactors (SBR) were operated. SBR-B treated a synthetic wastewater (SWW) without target drugs and SBR-PhC and SBR-PhC + AC operated with SWW doped with the three drugs, adding into SBR-PhC + AC 1.5 g L-1 of a mesoporous granular activated carbon. Results showed that the hybrid system SBR-activated carbon produced an effluent free of PhCs, which in addition had higher quality than that achieved in a conventional activated sludge treatment in terms of lower COD, turbidity and SMP concentrations. On the other hand, five possible routes of removal for target drugs during the biological treatment were studied. Hydrolysis, oxidation and volatilization pathways were negligible after 6 h of reaction time. Adsorption mute only was significant for ACT, which was adsorbed completely after 5 h of reaction, while only 1.9% of CAF and 5.6% of IBU were adsorbed. IBU was the least biodegradable compound., This work was supported by Spanish grants AICO/2018/292 of the Generalitat Valenciana.

This chapter discusses the importance of investment in early life determinants of health to break the cycle of long-term disadvantage. This chapter addresses these issues while focussing on neurodevelopmental disorders and their related mental health concerns as the targets at the centre of a biopsychosocial transformation of the health system. To achieve this goal the chapter discusses the importance of understanding early life stress, genetic and microbial interactions with stress, and the emergence of clinical phenotypes. It then discusses how these phenotypes are at times inadequately captured by diagnostic criteria and outlines some approaches aimed at addressing this. In discussing how best to intervene, a system-based approach is used to discuss issues such as capacity building in the workforce, the importance of translation and implementation science, and the establishment of equity-focussed pathways of care.

[EN] Reduction of sludge production is one of the most desired goals in the wastewater treatment plants operation. Alternatives like the enhancement of metabolism uncoupling or the increase of endogenous respiration by different chemicals have been reported in the bibliography. In this work, two folic acid concentrations (0.8 and 1.6mg L-1) added to a laboratory sequencing batch reactor were tested in order to assess the effect of this vitamin on the biological treatment. For this purpose, in addition to study sludge reduction and organic matter removal, an exhaustive biomass characterization including soluble microbial products, cellular viability, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), microbial hydrolytic enzymatic activities and bacterial community analysis have been performed. Results indicated that a concentration of 0.8 mg L-1 led to the greatest sludge reduction (44.7%), due to the increase of endogenous respiration. In the reactor with folic acid addition, higher soluble microbial products, enzymatic activities, cellular viability and lower cellular ATP was observed. Regarding the microbial community, folic acid addition did not affect nitrifying bacteria although it did reduce the abundance of denitrifying, increased the amount of filamentous bacteria (Caldilineacaeae and Haliscomenobacter) and enhanced Bacteriodetes and Chloroflexi phyla. A continuous addition of folic acid drove to biomass adaptation that caused a diminution of folic acid activity after 40 days., This work was supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Spain (grant no. CTM2014-54546-P-AR).

[EN] Pig slurry is highly polluted waste stream characterized by its high nutrients content and its high organic matter concentration. In this research, two alternatives in the management of this wastewater were studied. On the one hand, removal of nutrients from piggery wastewater by struvite precipitation was evaluated. Different molar ratios Mg+2/PO4-3, pH and temperatures were tested. On the other hand, an anaerobic treatment was performed with and without previous struvite crystallization and the methane production was analyzed. Results showed that the optimal experimental conditions to achieve the highest ammonium nitrogen and phosphate removal percentages (62.01% and 66.96%, respectively) were a molar concentration ratio (Mg+2/PO4-3) of 2.8, pH of 10 and temperature of 22 degrees C. In addition, images from FE-SEM microscopy demonstrated that the struvite morphology was orthorhombic. Concerning the anaerobic digestion, the chemical oxygen demand removal efficiencies were 59.87% and 52.25% for the treatment without previous struvite precipitation and with previous struvite precipitation, respectively. Furthermore, the maximum biogas potential was found when no previous struvite precipitation was carried out, with a biogas generation around 4 mLh(-1) and a percentage of methane in the biogas between 32.37 and 59.73%., The authors wish to gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the project PROVIP.ES (RTC-2014-2239-2).

[EN] The performance of an osmotic membrane bioreactor (OMBR) for treating tannery wastewater at laboratory scale has been evaluated in this study. The forward osmosis (FO) membrane tested was CTA-NW from HTI. As draw solution, actual waste water from an absorption column for ammonia separation, which consists mainly of ammonium sulphate was used. The study was focused on the salt reverse flux during the OMBR operation, membrane water flux, biomass characteristics and membrane fouling. Regarding membrane water flux change with the time, the measured values diminished from 3.44 to 0.72 LMH due to the membrane fouling and the salt accumulation in the biological reactor. The stable mixed liquor conductivity value at the end of the experiment was 29.8 mS·cm¿1. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies were maintained near 80% until the first 50 days of operation, considering the soluble COD in the reactor instead of the COD in the membrane permeate for the performance calculation. Thence, COD removal efficiencies decreased progressively due to the accumulation of non degradable COD coming from the tannery wastewater. Concerning to the membrane fouling, FESEM/EDX analysis corroborated that organic fouling was predominant on the membrane active layer., This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the project RTC-2015-3582-5-AR.

[EN] Tannery wastewaters are difficult to treat biologically due to the high salinity and organic matter concentration. Conventional treatments, like sequential batch reactors (SBR) and membrane bioreactors (MBR), have showed settling problems, in the case of SBR, and ultrafiltration (UF) membrane fouling in the case of MBR, slowing their industrial application. In this work, the treatment of tannery wastewater with an osmotic membrane bioreactor (OMBR) is assessed. Forward osmosis (FO) membranes are characterized by a much lower fouling degree than UF membranes. The permeate passes through the membrane pores (practically only water by the high membrane rejection) from the feed solution to the draw solution, which is also an industrial wastewater (ammonia absorption effluent) in this work. Experiments were carried out at laboratory scale with a FO CTA-NW membrane from Hydration Technology Innovations (HTI). Tannery wastewater was treated by means of an OMBR using as DS an actual industrial wastewater mainly consisting of ammonium sulphate. The monitoring of the biological process was carried out with biological indicators like microbial hydrolytic enzymatic activities, dissolved and total adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in the mixed liquor and microbial population. Results indicated a limiting conductivity in the reactor of 35 mS cm(-1) (on the 43th operation day), from which process was deteriorated. This process performance diminution was associated by a high decrease of the dehydrogenase activity and a sudden increase of the protease and lipase activities. The increase of the bacterial stress index also described appropriately the process performance. Regarding the relative abundance of bacterial phylotypes, 37 phyla were identified in the biomass. Proteobacteria were the most abundant (varying the relative abundance between 50.29% and 34.78%) during the first 34 days of operation. From this day on, Bacteroidetes were detected in a greater extent varying the relative abundance of this phylum between 27.20% and 40.45%. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved., This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the project RTC-2015-3582-5-AR.

[EN] In this work, six identical laboratory SBRs treating simulated wastewater were operated in parallel studying the effect of three food-to-microorganisms ratio (F/M ratio; 0.20, 0.35 and 0.50 kg COD¿kg MLSS-1¿d-1), two hydraulic retention times (HRT; 24 and 16 h) and two values of number of cycles per day (3 and 6). Influence of these operational parameters on the SMPs production and reactor performance, were studied. Results indicated that the highest F/M ratio, HRT and cycles/day produced 72.7% more of SMP. In a second experimental series, biological process yielding the maximal and the minimal SMPs production were replicated and both mixed liquors (ML) and treated effluents were ultrafiltrated. The flux decay in the conditions of minimum and maximum SMPs production were 52% and 72%, when the SBRs effluents were ultrafiltrated while no significant differences in the ultrafiltration of ML were found. In terms of permeability recovery, this was lower for the case of the ML (73% and 49% of initial permeability recovered for effluent and ML ultrafiltration, respectively)., This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (CTM2014-54546-P).

Massive parallel DNA sequencing combined with chromatin immunoprecipitation and a large variety of DNA/RNA-enrichment methodologies is at the origin of data resources of major importance. Indeed these resources, available for multiple genomes, represent the most comprehensive catalogue of (i) cell, development and signal transduction-specified patterns of binding sites for transcription factors (‘cistromes’) and for transcription and chromatin modifying machineries and (ii) the patterns of specific local post-translational modifications of histones and DNA (‘epigenome’) or of regulatory chromatin binding factors. In addition, (iii) the resources specifying chromatin structure alterations are emerging. Importantly, these types of “omics” datasets populate increasingly public repositories and provide highly valuable resources for the exploration of general principles of cell function in a multi-dimensional genome–transcriptome–epigenome–chromatin structure context. However, data mining is critically dependent on the data quality, an issue that, surprisingly, is still largely ignored by scientists and well-financed consortia, data repositories and scientific journals. So what determines the quality of ChIP-seq experiments and the datasets generated therefrom and what refrains scientists from associating quality criteria to their data? In this ‘opinion’ we trace the various parameters that influence the quality of this type of datasets, as well as the computational efforts that were made until now to qualify them. Moreover, we describe a universal quality control (QC) certification approach that provides a quality rating for ChIP-seq and enrichment-related assays. The corresponding QC tool and a regularly updated database, from which at present the quality parameters of more than 8000 datasets can be retrieved, are freely accessible at www.ngs-qc.org.

[EN] Osmotic membrane bioreactor (OMBR) is an emerging membrane process which has gained interest in the recent years because of the low energy consumption and the high effluent quality. The osmotic membrane bioreactor combines a forward osmosis (FO) membrane and a biological treatment. However, salt reverse flux is the main problem because of the negative effect of the salt concentration increase in the reactor on the microbial activity. This is the reason why the study of a suitable draw solution (DS) is very important in the overall performance of the reactor. This study compares the process performance using two draw solutions: a 53 g L-1 NaCI solution and a real waste water solution (waste water from an absorption column consisting mainly of SO42- and NH4-N with concentrations of 153 g L-1 and 19 g L-1, respectively). The comparison is focused on the salt reverse flux during the reactor operation, the mixed liquor characteristics, the membrane fouling and the overall performance. The results indicated that the industrial wastewater showed a higher salt reverse flux, but also a less severe fouling and a higher the osmotic pressure difference in comparison with the NaCl solution. In terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies, both draw solutions attained values higher than 80%, though the efficiency was slightly lower when the industrial effluent was used as DS. This was related to the higher conductivity reached in the bioreactor when the industrial effluent was used as draw solution. In spite of it, the use of this industrial effluent as draw solution is strongly recommended because of the high permeate fluxes yielded, the low membrane fouling and the lack of necessity of regenerating the draw solution. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved., This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Spain) through the project RTC-2015-3582-5-AR.

[EN] The fermentation brines from table olive processing (FTOP) are hypersaline effluents (conductivities higher than 75 mS·cm-1) with high organic matter concentrations (COD around 10 g·L-1), which also include phenolic compounds (between 700 and 1500 mg TY·L-1). In this work, an integrated process for the FTOP reuse as brine in the table olive processing has been evaluated. This integrated process consisted of a biological treatment followed by a membrane system, which included ultrafiltration (UF) plus nanofiltration (NF). The biological treatment was carried out by 6 L laboratory sequencing batch reactor (SBR). UF and NF were performed in laboratory plants for flat membranes of 0.0125 and 0.0072 m2, respectively. Each stream generated during the FTOP treatment (SBR effluent, and UF and NF permeates) were evaluated. The SBR eliminated around 80% of COD and 71% of total phenols concentration. In the final NF permeate the COD concentration was lower than 125 mg·L-1; while the turbidity, colour and phenolic compounds, were completely removed., The authors of this work thank the financial support of CDTI (Centre for Development Technological Industrial) depending on the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

[EN] Sludge production in wastewater treatment plants is nowadays a big concern due to the high produced amounts and their characteristics. Consequently, the study of techniques that reduce the sludge generation in wastewater treatment plants is becoming of great importanceIn this work, four laboratory sequencing batch reactors (SBRs), which treated municipal wastewater, were operated to study the effect of adding the metabolic uncoupler 3,30,40,5-tetrachlorosalicylanilide (TCS) on the sludge reduction, the SBRs performance and the microbial hydrolytic enzymatic activities (MHEA)., This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (CTM2014-54546-P).

[EN] Biological treatment of fermentation brines from table olive processing (FTOP) entails many difficulties due to their very high salinity and high COD concentration, which include some phenolic compounds. These extreme conditions limit the biodiversity of the microbial population. Experiments treating FTOP were performed in laboratory sequencing batch reactors (SBR) changing operating conditions during their operation, in order to study the effects on the SBR performance and on the protist population. The statistical study showed that the SBRs with high influent COD, pH and volatile solids and low influent phenol concentration, hydraulic retention time and temperature achieved the highest COD removal efficiencies. These operational conditions also provided the highest ciliate population and the lowest flagellate presence. (C) 2017 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved., The authors of this work thank the financial support of CDTI (Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnologico Industrial) depending on the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. We also gratefully acknowledge Pedro Cuesta (Apoyo a la Docencia y la Investigacion. UCM) for his suggestions and help with the statistical analysis and the use of SPAD v8.0 software.

[EN] Cost reduction and minimization of environmental impacts, based on by-product recovery, is the objective of applying the ultrafiltration technology for the treatment of cheese whey. In this work, ultrafiltration process was studied in an integrated way (filtration and membrane cleaning), focusing especially on the membrane cleaning. Membrane cleaning experiments were carried out with and without ultrasounds to evaluate the effect of ultrasounds on the membrane cleaning efficiency and, as a result, to reduce the consumption of chemicals. Tests were performed with two ultrafiltration polymeric membranes with molecular weight cut-offs of 30,000 Da (UH030) and 5000 Da (UP005). Fouling experiments were carried out with Renylat whey protein concentrate solutions and CaCl2 addition at a transmembrane pressure of 2 bar and cross flow velocity of 2 m/s during 2 h. Results showed that the presence of calcium increased the membrane fouling of both membranes. For UH030 membrane the reversible fouling prevailed over the irreversible fouling, meanwhile for UP005 membrane the irreversible fouling was the predominant one. Cleaning efficiency results demonstrated that ultrasounds application is an effective technique to clean ultrafiltration membranes after being fouled with whey protein concentrate solutions and may have a paramount importance on the overall process efficiency., This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CTM 2010-20.186).

Biological treatment of hypersaline wastewaters such as fermentation brine from table olive processing (FTOP), was carried out using four sequential biological reactors (SBRs). These wastewaters were characterized by conductivities higher than 90 mS·cm-1 together with COD and total phenols concentration values of more than 15 g·L-1 and 1000 mg·L-1, respectively. In order to increase the organic removal efficiency and to reduce the hydraulic retention time (HRT), extra nutrients were added and pre-treatment by adsorption was performed. Results showed that the COD/N/P relationship, in the FTOP, of 250/5/1 was appropriate for the biological process reaching COD removal efficiencies of around 80%. The FTOP adsorption pre-treatment with powder activated carbon for the reduction of phenols concentration to 400 mg·L-1 led to a HRT reduction from 40 to 15 days, maintaining the COD and total phenols removal percentages around 78% and 97%, respectively. On the other hand, γ-Proteobacteria was the main bacterial class, representing around 74% of the microbial community in the reactors., The authors of this work thank the financial support of CDTI (Centre for Industrial Technological Development) depending on the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Authors also thank Chiemivall for providing the activated carbons.

Nowadays cost reduction is a very important issue in wastewater treatment plants. One way, is to minimize the sludge production. Microorganisms break down the organic matter into inorganic compounds through catabolism. Uncoupling metabolism is a method which promote catabolism reactions instead of anabolism ones, where adenosine triphosphate synthesis is inhibited. In this work, the influence of the addition of para-nitrophenol and a commercial reagent to a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) on sludge production and process performance has been analyzed. Three laboratory SBRs were operated in parallel to compare the effect of the addition of both reagents with a control reactor. SBRs were fed with synthetic wastewater and were operated with the same conditions. Results showed that sludge production was slightly reduced for the tested para-nitrophenol concentrations (20 and 25 mg/L) and for a LODOred dose of 1 mL/day. Biological process performance was not influenced and high COD removals were achieved. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved., This work was supported by Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Project reference: PAID-05-12).

The aim of this study was to investigate the behavior of two ultrafiltration (UF) membranes after their fouling with different fouling solutions and cleaning with a surfactant, including the application of ultrasounds (US). Thus,two UF membranes (UH030 and UP005) were fouled with three different whey model solutions that consisted of bovine serum albumin (BSA) with a concentration of 1% (w/w), BSA (1%, w/w) plus CaCl2 with a concentration of 0.17% (w/w) and whey solution (Renylat 45) with a concentration of 2.22% (w/w). Chemical cleaning was carried out with P3 Ultrasil 115 solution at temperatures between 25 ◦C and 45 ◦C and concentrations in the range between 0.5% (v/v) and 0.9% (v/v). US were applied in some ofthe tests at a frequency of 20 kHz and nominal power of 300W. The results demonstrated that US cleaning was effective to enhance the permeability recovery, although this enhancement was only up to 9%. Concerning fouling, results from resistances calculations showed that for UH030 membrane prevails the reversible fouling whereas for UP005 membrane predominate irreversible fouling, This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CTM 2010-20.186).

Table olive processing wastewaters (TOPW) have high salt concentration and total phenolic content (TPC) causing many environmental problems. To reduce them, ultrafiltration (UF) was applied for treating TOPW. However, NaCl, which is the main responsible of salinity in TOPW, and phenols are small molecules that cannot be separated by conventional UF membranes. They have serious problems caused by fouling, which can be overcome using membrane modification techniques. For these reasons, photomodification may be an effective technique to obtain a stream rich in TPC due to the changes in membrane surface properties. UV-modification in the presence of two hydrophilic compounds (polyethylene glycol and aluminium oxide) was performed to achieve membranes with high reductions of organic matter and to keep the TPC as high as possible. Commercial polyethersulfone (PES) membranes of 30 kDa were used. Surface modification was evaluated using FTIR-ATR spectroscopy and membrane performance was studied by calculating the rejection ratios of colour, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and TPC. Results demonstrated that UF is a useful pre-treatment to reduce organic matter from TOPW, obtaining a permeate rich in TPC. PES/Al2O3 membranes displayed superior antifouling properties and rejection values, keeping high the TPC (>95%). Therefore, UF using modified membranes is an appropriate and sustainable technique for treating TOPW., The authors thank the financial support of CDTI (Centre for Industrial Technological Development) depending on the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. The authors also thank the Center for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering (Universitat Politecnica de Valencia) for FTIR-ATR and contact angle measurements.

[EN] Recently, there is an emergence of endocrine-disrupting compounds, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products (EDC/PPCPs) as important pollutants to remove from drinking water and reclaimed wastewater. In this work, the efficiency of removing pharmaceuticals (PCs) from model aqueous solutions and raw wastewater with ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), activated carbon adsorption (AC), biological methods (SBR) and oxidation with ClO2 was investigated. Some treatments have also been used as combined processes: UF + NF, UF +AC, SBR + ClO2. Ibuprofen, Acetaminophen, Diclofenac, Sulfamethoxazole, Clonazepam, and Diazepam were selected as model compounds. In order to evaluate their removal, PC solutions were also considered at several operating conditions (pH, conductivity, concentration, and temperature), andoptimal conditions were obtained. Experiments wereperformedatusual PCconcentrations in wastewaters: 1000 ng/L for Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen, 300 ng/L for Diclofenac, Sulfamethoxazole, Clonazepam, and Diazepam. Separation was evaluated by liquid chromatography¿mass spectroscopy. Results indicated that the removal efficiency depends on their Log KOW, which is intrinsically related to their hydrophobicity and then,to their adsorption onto the surface (UF, NF, andAC).Also, NF,AC, and combined processes (UF + NF, UF +AC) were the most suitable separation techniques to obtain high removal efficiencies for most of the PCs used, except for Acetaminophen (which showed great removal efficacy using SBR). UF presented low removal yields for all PCs tested. ClO2 treatment was more effective at high concentration (50 mg ClO2/L). Furthermore, results also showed that there are significant differences on the performance of the processes applied and which treatment is the most effective for each PC analyzed. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved., The authors of this work wish to gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the project CTM2013-42342-P.

The goal of this paper was to study the cleaning of two polyethersulfone (PES) membranes of different molecular weight and fouled with BSA solution. Ultrafiltration (UF) membranes were tested in a flat sheet module. Fouling experiments were carried out at a transmembrane pressure of 2 bar and cross flow velocity of 2 m/s during 2 h. Cleaning experiments were performed at 1 bar and 2.2 m/s. To compare the efficiency of different cleaning solutions (NaOH and P3-Ultrasil 115), quantification of residual pro-teins on the membrane was carried out by FTIR ATR. To have a better understanding of the cleaning pro-cess, characteristics of the feed solution and of the membranes were considered and contact angle of the membranes before and after the cleaning was measured. Membrane resistances were also calculated at the different stages. Results from resistances showed that reversible fouling prevail over irreversible fouling for both membranes. P3-Ultrasil 115 was a better cleaning agent than NaOH solution since cleaning efficiencies (CE) of 100% for both membranes were achieved for P3-Ultrasil 115 solution. Residual pro-teins on the membrane after the cleaning were measured both by FTIR ATR and Pierce-BCA method. Results showed that 100% of permeability recovery did not imply the complete BSA removal from the membrane. However, these measurements corroborated that P3-Ultrasil 115 had removed a higher amount of proteins than NaOH solution., This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CTM 2010-20.186).

The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of ultrasounds (US) on the flux recovery of ultrafiltration (UF) membranes fouled with bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution. Chemical cleaning was carried out with NaOH solution. The effect of ultrasonic frequency in the cleaning step was evaluated. Tests were performed in a laboratory plant equipped with a flat sheet module for two membranes. The membranes used were UH030 and UP005. Results showed that the lowest US frequency was the most effective one, producing an enhancement of 9 12% in the flux recovery of the membranes. On the other hand, neither pH nor temperature proved to be significant factors on the flux recovery. The use of US technique is an effective and promising approach to clean UF membranes after being fouled with BSA solution and may have a relevant influence on the overall process efficiency, This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CTM 2010-20.186).

[EN] Textile wastewaters are characterized by high organic matter concentration and colour presence. Conventional treatments do not remove completely the colour since the aerobic bacteria cannot degrade the azo-bond of the reactive dyes. However, their elimination is a requirement for wastewater reuse. In this study, it is proposed the reuse of textile wastewater as process water by a hybrid process combining a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) process with nanofiltration (NF) membranes. The aim is to evaluate the colour removal yield in the SBR and to study the influence of the addition of NF retentate on the SBR feed. The laboratory SBR was operated in cycles of 20h and was fed with a solution containing a mixture of three reactive dyes: Remazol Yellow RR, Remazol Blue RR and Remazol Red RR. Every day colour and COD removal efficiencies were determined. The NF retentate was stored in order to mix it with the synthetic wastewater for the SBR feed. Colour removal yield ranged from 85 to 90% for the red and blue dyes and from 70 to 75% for the yellow one when the SBR feed was only the textile synthetic wastewater. However, when the SBR feed was the mixture of 50% synthetic wastewater and 50% of NF rejection the colour removal efficiency was reduced between 10 and 15%., This work was supported by Generalitat Valenciana - Conselleria de Empresa, Universidad y Ciencia (Ref. GV06/393).

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (CTM2004-03130/TECNO).