UPC

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) is a public institution dedicated to higher education and research, specialised in the fields of engineering, architecture and science. With 2500 academic and 1500 non-academic staff, it hosts around 29000 bachelor students, 2500 master students and 2500 doctoral students. The research Group of Environmental Engineering and Microbiology (GEMMA), coordinated by Prof. Joan García, is dedicated to interdisciplinary research, innovation, knowledge transfer and education in environmental engineering. The goal of research activities is to develop and promote sustainable and innovative water, wastewater and sludge treatment technologies, capable of removing a wide range of contaminants, including emerging pollutants. The main research topics are: (i) natural low-cost bioprocesses for wastewater and sludge treatment; (ii) algal based technologies for wastewater treatment and biomass production;; (iii) biogas generation from residual biomass; (iv) microbial fuel cells; (v) phosphorous recovery from wastewater; (vi) water reuse; ; (vii) Life Cycle Assessment and economic evaluation of products and technologies; (viii) numerical simulation of bioprocesses. Together with the research Group on Cooperation and Human Development (GRECDH), it has particular experience with the development and implementation of low-cost technologies for energy and resource recovery in developing countries.