Actualitat ICRA

Research scientist (Ramon y Cajal), Technologies and Evaluation Area

Contact Details
Catalan Institute for Water Research, ICRA
email:mpijuan@icra.cat
Ph:+34 972183380
F: +34 972183248
 

Short Biography
Maite received her PhD in Environmental Engineering at the University Autonomous of Barcelona in 2004. After its completion she moved to the University of Queensland (Australia) to take a postdoctoral research position at the Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC).During her postdoctoral career she focused her research in aerobic granulation for the treatment of wastewater and nutrient removal optimization in conventional systems. In 2010, she joined ICRA with a Ramon y Cajal Research fellowship.

Research interests
- Greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater systems.
- Nitrogen cycle in wastewater treatment
- Biological nutrient removal and recovery
- In-sewer biotransformations
- Microbial ecology in engineered systems
- Micropollutant biodegradation

Current projects
- GEISTTAR: Understanding Fugitive Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Wastewater Transport and Treatment Systems. Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), CTM2011-27163. Principal Investigator: M. Pijuan.

- NITRI-GHG: Exploring novel nitrifier pathways to minimise direct greenhouse gas emissions from WWTPs. EU-Marie Curie CIG, PEOPLE-2011-CIG 303946. Principal Investigator: M. Pijuan
- Sustainable and Integrated Urban Water Management (SANITAS–ITN). EU FP7-People-2011 Marie Curie Initial Training Network (Code 289193). Principal Investigator: I. Rodriguez-Roda

Key publications
- Pijuan M, Torà J, Rodriguez-Caballero A, Cesar E, Carrera J, Perez J.2014. Effect of process parameters and operational mode on nitrous oxide emissions from a nitritation reactor treating reject wastewater. Water Research. 49 (1), 23-33.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2013.11.009

- Rodriguez-Caballero A,Ribera A, Balcázar JL, Pijuan M. 2013. Nitritation versus full nitrification of ammonium-rich wastewater: Comparison in terms of nitrous and nitric oxides emissions. Bioresource Technology 139, 195 - 202. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2013.04.021

- Rodriguez Caballero A and Pijuan M. 2013. N2O and NO emissions from a partial nitrification sequencing batch reactor: Exploring dynamics, sources and minimization mechanisms. Water Research 47 (9), 3131 - 3140. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2013.11.009

- Pijuan M, Wang Q, Ye L, Yuan Z. 2012. Improving secondary sludge biodegradability using free nitrous acid treatment. Bioresource Technology 116, 92 – 98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2012.04.016

- Pijuan M, Werner U, Yuan Z. 2011. Reducing the startup time of aerobic granular sludge reactors through seeding floccular sludge with crushed aerobic granules. Water Research 45 (16), 5075 - 5083. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2011.07.009

- Pijuan M, Ye L, Yuan Z. 2010. Free nitrous acid inhibition on the aerobic metabolism of Poly-phosphate Accumulating Organisms. Water Research 44 (20), 6063 - 6072. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2010.07.075

- Pijuan M, Werner U, Yuan Z. 2009. Effect of long term anaerobic an intermittent anaerobic/aerobic starvation on aerobic granules. Water Research 43 (14), 3622-3632.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2011.07.009

- Seviour T, Pijuan M, Nicholson T, Keller J, Yuan Z. 2009. Understanding the properties of aerobic sludge granules as hydrogels. Biotechnology and bioengineering 102 (5), 1483-1493. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bit.22164/abstract

- Zhou Y,Pijuan M, Zeng R, Yuan Z. 2008. Free nitrous acid (FNA) inhibition on nitrous oxide (N2O) reduction by a denitrifying enhanced biological phosphorus removal sludge. Environmental Science and Technology 42, 8260-8265. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es800650j

- Zhou Y, Pijuan M, Yuan Z. 2007. Free nitrous acid inhibition on the phosphorus uptake and denitrification by polyphosphate accumulating organisms. Biotechnology and Bioengineering. 98 (4), 903-912. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bit.21458/abstract

- Pijuan M, Saunders A, Guisasola A, Baeza JA, Casas C, Blackall LL. 2004. Enhanced biological phosphorus removal in a sequencing batch reactor using propionate as a sole carbon source. Biotechnology and bioengineering. 85 - 1, pp. 56 - 67. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bit.10813/abstract

Thesis
Completed at The University of Queensland:
- Yan Zhou, completed April 2008. Development and understanding of a Novel 2-sludge, 3-stage system for biological nutrient removal.
- Thomas Seviour, completed March 2011. Macromolecular associations in aerobic sludge granules derived extra-cellular polymeric substances.
- Marieska Verawaty, completed February 2014. Development and understanding of aerobic granular sludge for the treatment of domestic wastewater.
Ongoing at ICRA:
- Adrian Rodriguez-Caballero. Understanding N2O emissions during nitrification.
- Anna Ribera. Electron competition during nitrogen transformations
- Olga Auguet. Microbial activity and diversity in sewer biofilms.
- Elissavet Kassotaki. Micropollutant biodegradation.

Honours/Awards
- July 2010- currently: Honorary Research Fellow at the Advanced Water Management Centre (UQ)
- March 2012-currently: Core member of the Task Group on Modelling Greenhouse Gas emissions from wastewater systems of the International Water Association, in charge of its dissemination and outreach activities.

Links:
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/maite-pijuan/42/b95/89
Research Gate:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maite_Pijuan/?ev=hdr_xprf
Google scholar: http://scholar.google.es/citations?user=xV6GMrEAAAAJ&hl=es
AWMC website: http://www.awmc.uq.edu.au/index.html?page=68450

Full CV in pdf