Reactores de catálisis química y bioquímica basados en nanopartículas de óxidos metálicos, enzimas inmovilizadas y clusters atómicos para la eliminación de contaminantes (MODENA)

The MODENA project aims to develop and implement a feasible technology for the removal of emerging pollutants based in catalysts supported onto magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). A wide range of catalysts will be explored: the laccase enzyme, MNPs as heterogeneous Fenton catalysts, and magnetically separable nanostructured metal oxides decorated with atomic metal clusters as novel and highly efficient photocatalysts. On the basis of chemical and biochemical catalysis, this project will make significant advances in the design of different reactor configurations under a common perspective: the integration of a reaction system coupled with a magnetic separation unit to ensure the catalyst retention. Therefore, the application of these water treatment processes would have beneficial effects on the reduction of the environmental impact of effluents from industrial facilities, contributing to improve the integral and sustainable management of water resources. The results of the techno-economic and environmental assessment of the processes proposed in this project will be a relevant task to determine the further exploitation of the technology arising from this work.

To fulfill such ambitious approach, the complementary skills of two research groups from the University of Santiago de Compostela will be integrated. The Magnetism and Nanotechnology group (NanoMag), from the Department of Physical Chemistry and Department of Applied Physics, will be responsible of the production of nanosize metal oxides, nanoparticles and atomic clusters, as well as the development of the magnetic separation systems required in the different reactor configurations. On the other side, the biochemical tasks (enzyme immobilization and biocatalyst characterization) and application of the new reactor configurations based on magnetic nanosize metal oxides, enzyme nanoparticles and atomic clusters for the removal of recalcitrant pollutants will be carried out by the group of Environmental Biotechnology (Biogroup), from the Department of Chemical Engineering.

In this project it has been developed this magnetic sequential batch reactor operated with nanoparticles.