Actualitat ICRA

Research Scientist, Technologies and Evaluation Area

Contact Details

 

 

Catalan Institute for Water Research, ICRA
email: lcorominas@icra.cat
Ph: +34 972 183 380
F: +34 972 183 248

Short Biography

 

Born in Girona, 10-5-1978
BsC in environmental sciences (UdG, 2000), MsC in environmental sciences (UdG, 2002), postgraduate on environmental engineering (UdG, 2006) and PhD on environmental sciences (2006).
Postdoctoral experience at modelEAU (Université Laval of Québec, Canada from 2007 until 2010).
Postdoctoral researcher Juan de la Cierva at ICRA (2010-2013).

Ramon y Cajal fellow (2014-2019)

Research Scientist (2019-present)

 

Research interests 

 

- Wastewater-based epidemiology
- Integrated management of urban wastewater systems and rivers
- Sustainability assessment (Life Cycle Assessment)

- Monitoring, modelling and control of urban wastewater systems
 

Funding acquisition

 

4.6M€ (2010-2021)

2M€ as PI or Co-PI (2010-2021)

3,9M€ (2016-2021)

1.8M€ as PI or Co-PI (2016-2021)

 

Running projects (March 2021) with my involvement

 

Related to wastewater-based epidemiology:

SCOREwater (https://www.icra.cat/projectes/smart-city-observatories-implement-resilient/135),
ESAR-NET (https://www.esarnet.es/),
SCHEME (http://www.icra.cat/projects/scheme-sewage-chemical-information-mining/150),
SARSAIGUA (https://sarsaigua.icra.cat/),
VIRWASTE.

 

Related to the digitalization of the water sector:

SCOREwater (https://www.icra.cat/projectes/smart-city-observatories-implement-resilient/135),

Digital Water Cities (https://www.icra.cat/projectes/digital-water-city-european-project/154),

 

Related to integrated management of urban water systems:

INVEST (http://www.icra.cat/projects/integrated-adaptive-management-river-basins/140),

Ecoadvisor (http://www.icra.cat/projects/ecoadvisor-ecoadvisor-wise-leadin-water/172),

SANNAT (http://www.icra.cat/projects/sanitation-nature-nceas-snapp/176),

EESAM (http://www.icra.cat/projects/integraci-estat-ecol-serveis-ambientals/175),

TRAÇA (http://www.icra.cat/projects/traceability-sources-priority-substances-emerging/182),

 

Related to sustainability assessment:

ECAM (link a ECAMv3 que es generarà de nou),

NEWBIES (http://www.icra.cat/projects/life-newbies-nitrogen-extraction-from/148),

 

Related to Nature-based solutions:

EdiCitNet (http://www.icra.cat/projects/edicitnet-edible-city-solutions/147),

MultiSource (http://www.icra.cat/projects/multisource-modular-tools-integrating-enhanced/181)

 

Products (statistics as of march 2021)

 

I am co-creator (together with Joaquim Comas) of the Information Technologies (IT) lab at ICRA (IT ICRA Lab). The ICRA collects all IT products resulting from research projects. Each product has a description and the link to the source-code is provided to foster its usage by the research community (whenever the license allows for it). Following, you can find the list of products that resulted from my research activities, mainly in the form of web-based tools which translate generated knowledge into societal impact.

 

2020. Sarsaigua (role: co-leader). A web-based tool to disseminate the results of the circulation

of SARSCoV-2 in Catalonia through the analysis of wastewater; 18,000 users since its launch in Nov. 2020 and 40,000 visits. I am coordinator of the Sarsaigua network (sarsaigua.icra.cat).

 

2015-2021. ECAM (role: leader). ECAM has been developed by my team at ICRA within the scope of

the project “Water and Wastewater Companies for Climate Mitigation” (WaCCliM), a joint initiative between GIZ (Germany) the International Water Association (IWA). >100 water utilities are using ECAM (more than 50% in developing countries) and helped them reduce green house gas emissions by 20% on average. ECAM is being promoted by the United Nations Climate Change (UNFCCC.int).

 

2019-2021. SNAPP (role: co-leader) Science for Nature and People partnership. Funded by The Nature Conservancy, Wildlife Conservation Society and NCEAS (US). A webbased tool to promote the usage of nature-based solutions for water sanitation. To be launched in April 2021.

 

2019- present. EdiCitNet toolbox (role: participant) It is a social network for connecting activities at the city level for sustainable food production, transformation and distribution. It has already 105 users and 190 edible city solutions registered since it was launched in Feb 2021.

 

2018-2020. Ecoadvisor for wise leading water management (role: leader) Funded by “Aigues de Catalunya” water utility. A web-based tool for water utilities and water authorities to manage urban water infrastructure and rivers in an integrated manner. Ecoadvisor offers “Aigues de Catalunya” an advantage in tenders for the management of sewer systems. Aigues de Catalunya is part of Global Omnium, a leading national and international business group with more than 125 years of history, technologically leading, serving more than 300 municipalities and more than six million people, with

presence in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America.

 

2016-2019. GESTOR (role: leader) A web-based digital twin used for wastewater networks planning;

the tool is undergoing through IPR process with the water company FACSA. GESTOR offers FACSA an advantage in tenders for the management of sewer systems. Source to corroborate the impact:

Video of the company FACSA (manages 260 wastewater treatment plants, 10M€ turnover per year) talking about ICRA developments in the development of the GESTOR platform.

 

2013-2021. SENVES (role: co-leader) A device to monitor the frequency and duration of combined sewer overflows in wastewater networks; its origin comes from the patent described in previous section, and it is currently being converted into a commercial product within the DWC H2020 project.

 

 

Publications (2016-2021, citations as of march 2021)

 

Castellar, J.A.C., Popartan, L.A., Pueyo-ros, J., Atanasova, N., Langergraber, G., Säumel, I., Corominas, L., 2021. Science of the Total Environment Nature-based solutions in the urban context : terminology , classi fi cation and scoring for urban challenges and ecosystem services. Sci. Total Environ. 779, 146237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146237. IF: 6.551, C: 0, Q1.

Escolà Casas, M., Schröter, N.S., Zammit, I., Castaño-Trias, M., Rodriguez-Mozaz, S., Gago-Ferrero, P., Corominas, Ll., 2021. Showcasing the potential of wastewater-based epidemiology to track pharmaceuticals consumption in cities: Comparison against prescription data collected at fine spatial resolution. Environ. Int. 150, 106404. doi.org/10.1016/j. envint.2021.106404; IF: 6.551, C: 0, Q1.

Forés, E., Bofill-Mas, S., Itarte, M., Martínez-Puchol, S., Hundesa, A., Calvo, M., Borrego, C.M., Corominas, Ll., Girones, R., Rusiñol, M., 2021. Evaluation of two rapid ultrafiltration-based methods for SARS-CoV-2 concentration from wastewater. Sci. Total Environ. 768, 144786. doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144786; IF: 6.551, C: 0, Q1.

Corominas, L., Gimeno, P., Constantino, C., Daldorph, P., Comas, J., 2021. Can source control of pharmaceuticals decrease the investment needs in urban wastewater infrastructure? J. Hazard. Mater. 407, 124375. doi.org/10.1016/j. jhazmat.2020.124375; IF: 9.038, C: 0, Q1.

Poch, M., Garrido-Baserba, M., Corominas, L., Perelló-Moragues, A., Monclús, H., Cermerón-Romero, M., Melitas, N., Jiang, S.C., Rosso, D., 2020. When the fourth water and digital revolution encountered COVID-19. Sci. Total Environ. 744, 140980. doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140980; IF: 6.551, C: 0, Q1.

Villez, K., Vanrolleghem, P.A., Corominas, L., 2020. A general-purpose method for Pareto optimal placement of flow rate and concentration sensors in networked systems – With application to wastewater treatment plants. Comput. Chem. Eng. 139, 106880. doi.org/10.1016/j.compchemeng.2020.106880; IF: 4.000, C: 1, Q1.

Acuña, V., Bregoli, F., Font, C., Barceló, D., Corominas, Ll., Ginebreda, A., Petrovic, M., Rodríguez- Roda, I., Sabater, S., Marcé, R., 2020. Management actions to mitigate the occurrence of pharmaceuticals in river networks in a global change context. Environ. Int. 143, 105993. doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2020.105993; IF: 7,577, C: 1, Q1.

Senta, I., Rodríguez-Mozaz, S., Corominas, L., Petrovic, M., 2020. Wastewater-based epidemiology to assess human exposure to personal care and household products – A review of biomarkers, analytical methods, and applications. Trends Environ. Anal. Chem. 28, e00103. doi.org/10.1016/j.teac.2020.e00103; IF: 7.059, C: 1, Q1.

Garrido-Baserba, M., Corominas, L., Cortés, U., Rosso, D., Poch, M., 2020. The Fourth-Revolution in the Water Sector Encounters the Digital Revolution. Environ. Sci. Technol. 54, 4698–4705. doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b04251; IF: 7.864, C: 3, Q1.

Morera, S., Santana, M.V.E., Comas, J., Rigola, M., Corominas, L., 2020. Evaluation of different practices to estimate construction inventories for life cycle assessment of small to medium wastewater treatment plants. J. Clean. Prod. 245, 118768. doi org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118768; IF: 7.246, C: 9, Q1.

Corominas, L., Byrne, D.M., Guest, J.S., Hospido, A., Roux, P., Shaw, A., Short, M.D., 2020. The application of life cycle assessment (LCA) to wastewater treatment: A best practice guide and critical review. Water Res. 184, 116058. doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2020.116058; IF: 9,130, C: 12, Q1.

Santana, M.V.E., Cornejo, P.K., Rodríguez-Roda, I., Buttiglieri, G., Corominas, L., 2019. Holistic life cycle assessment of water reuse in a tourist-based community. J. Clean. Prod. 233, 743–752. doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.05.290; IF: 7.246, C: 4, Q1.

Radinja, M., Comas, J., Corominas, L., Atanasova, N., 2019. Assessing stormwater control measures using modelling and a multi-criteria approach. J. Environ. Manage. 243, 257–268. doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.04.102; IF: 4.865, C: 14, Q1.

Ribera-Guardia, A., Bosch, L., Corominas, L., Pijuan, M., 2019. Nitrous oxide and methane emissions from a plug-flow fullscale bioreactor and assessment of its carbon footprint. J. Clean. Prod. 212, 162– 172. doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.11.286; IF: 6.395, C: 8, Q1.

Gimeno, P., Severyns, J., Acuña, V., Comas, J., Corominas, L., 2018. Balancing environmental quality standards and infrastructure upgrade costs for the reduction of microcontaminant loads in rivers. Water Res. 143, 632–641. doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2018.07.002; IF: 7.913, C: 7, Q1.

Hofer, T., Gruber, G., Corominas, L., Muschalla, D., 2018. A robust and accurate surrogate method for monitoring the frequency and duration of combined sewer overflows. Env. Monit Assess 190:209, 1–18. doi.org/10.1007/s10661-018-6589-3; IF: 1.959, C: 3, Q2.

Juan-García, P., Kiser, M.A., Schraa, O., Rieger, L., Corominas, L., 2018. Dynamic air supply models add realism to the evaluation of control strategies in water resource recovery facilities. Water Sci. Technol. 78, 1104–1114; IF: 1.624, C: 3, Q2.

Corominas, L., Garrido-Baserba, M., Villez, K., Olsson, G., Cortés, U., Poch, M., 2018. Transforming data into knowledge for improved wastewater treatment operation: A critical review of techniques. Environ. Model. Softw. 106, 89–103. doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2017.11.023; IF: 4.552, C: 47, Q1.

Juan-García, P., Butler, D., Comas, J., Darch, G., Sweetapple, C., Thornton, A., Corominas, L., 2017. Resilience theory incorporated into urban wastewater systems management. State of the art. Water Res. 115, 149-161 doi.org/10.1016/j. watres.2017.02.047; IF: 7051, C: 44, Q1.

Montserrat, A., Hofer, T., Poch, M., Muschalla, D., Corominas, L., 2017. Using the duration of combined sewer overflow events for the calibration of sewer hydrodynamic models. Urban Water J. 14, 782–788. doi.org/10.1080/1573062X.2016.1254255; IF: 2.744, C: 7, Q2.

Aymerich, I., Acuña, V., Ort, C., Rodríguez-Roda, I., Corominas, L., 2017. Fate of organic microcontaminants in wastewater treatment and river systems: An uncertainty assessment in view of sampling strategy, and compound consumption rate and degradability. Water Res. 125, 152–161; IF: 7.051, C: 9, Q1.

Ferrando-Climent, L., Gonzalez-Olmos, R., Anfruns, A., Aymerich, I., Corominas, L., Barceló, D., Rodriguez-Mozaz, S., 2017. Elimination study of the chemotherapy drug tamoxifen by different advanced oxidation processes: Transformation products and toxicity assessment. Chemosphere 168, 284–292. doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2016.10.057; IF: 4427, C: 26, Q1.

Gimeno, P., Marcé, R., Bosch, L., Comas, J., Corominas, L., 2017. Incorporating model uncertainty into the evaluation of interventions to reduce microcontaminant loads in rivers. Water Res. 124, 415–424. doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2017.07.036; IF: 7.051, C: 9, Q1.

Morera, S., Corominas, L., Rigola, M., Poch, M., Comas, J., 2017. Using a detailed inventory of a large wastewater treatment plant to estimate the relative importance of construction to the overall environmental impacts. Water Res. 122, 614–623. doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2017.05.069; IF: 7.051, C: 16, Q1.

Aymerich, I., Acuña, V., Barceló, D., García, M.J., Petrovic, M., Poch, M., Sabater, S., Rodriguez-Mozaz, S., Rodríguez-Roda, I., vonSchiller, D., Corominas, L., 2016. Attenuation of pharmaceuticals and their transformation products in a wastewater treatment plant and its receiving river ecosystem. Water Res. 100, 126–136. doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2016.04.022; IF: 6.942, C: 54, Q1.

Boithias, L., Terrado, M., Corominas, L., Ziv, G., Kumar, V., Marqués, M., Schuhmacher, M., Acuña, V., 2016. Analysis of the uncertainty in the monetary valuation of ecosystem services – a case study at the river basin scale. Sci. Total Environ. 543, 683–690. doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.11.066; IF: 4.900, C: 40, Q1.

Garcia, X., Corominas, L., Pargament, D., Acuña, V., 2016. Is river rehabilitation economically viable in water-scarce basins? Environ. Sci. Policy 61, 154–164. doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2016.04.011; IF: 3.751, C: 9, Q1.

Hadjimichael, A., Comas, J., Corominas, L., 2016. Do machine learning methods used in data mining enhance the potential of decision support systems? A review for the urban water sector. AI Commun. 29, 747–756. doi.org/10.3233/AIC-160714; IF: 0.654, C: 11, Q3.

Hadjimichael, A., Morera, S., Benedetti, L., Flameling, T., Corominas, L., Weijers, S., Comas, J., 2016. Assessing urban wastewater system upgrades using integrated modeling, life cycle analysis and shadow pricing. Environ. Sci. Technol. 50, 12548–12556. doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b05845; IF: 6.198, C: 8, Q3.

Morera, S., Remy, C., Comas, J., Corominas, L., 2016. Life cycle assessment of construction and renovation of sewer systems using a detailed inventory tool. Int. J. Life Cycle Assess. 21, 1121–1133. doi.org/10.1007/s11367-016-1078-9; IF: 3.173, C: 12, Q1.

Snip, L.J.P., Flores-Alsina, X., Aymerich, I., Rodríguez-Mozaz, S., Barceló, D., Plósz, B.G., Corominas, L., Rodriguez-Roda, I., Jeppsson, U., Gernaey, K. V., 2016. Generation of synthetic influent data to perform (micro)pollutant wastewater treatment modelling studies. Sci. Total Environ. 569–570, 278–290. doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.05.012; IF: 4.900, C: 10, Q1.

Villez, K., Vanrolleghem, P.A., Corominas, L., 2016. Optimal flow sensor placement on wastewater treatment plants. Water Res. 101, 75–83. doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2016.05.068; IF: 6.942, C: 13, Q1.

Garcia, X., Barceló, D., Comas, J., Corominas, L., Hadjimichael, A., Page, T.J., Acuña, V., 2016. Placing ecosystem services at the heart of urban water systems management. Sci. Total Environ. 563–564, 1078-1085. doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.05.010; IF: 4.900, C: 25, Q1.

Morera, S., Corominas, L., Poch, M., Aldaya, M.M., Comas, J., 2016. Water footprint assessment in wastewater treatment plants. J. Clean. Prod. 112, 4741–4748. doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.05.102; IF: 5.715, C: 61, Q1.

 

Thesis Supervised

 

Pau Juan García. The resilience of wastewater treatment to multiple stress conditions, Feb 2019, cum laude unanimously excellent; Directors: J. Bagnall (Atkins, UK), L. Corominas; defended with 3 papers published.

Ignasi Aymerich. Attenuation of pharmaceuticals and their metabolites in a wastewater treatment plant and its receiving river system, Jan 2019, cum laude unanimously excellent; Directors: L. Corominas, I. Rodríguez-Roda (ICRA), V. Acuña (ICRA); 9 papers.

Pau Gimeno. Assessment of environmental and socio-economical implications of urban wastewater systems upgrading, Jan 2019, cum laude unanimously excellent; Directors: L. Corominas, J. Comas (ICRA); 3 papers.

Antonia Hadjimichael. Integration of environmental and socio-economic criteria into urban wastewater systems decisionmaking, March 2016, cum laude unanimously excellent; Directors: J. Comas (ICRA), L. Corominas; 3 papers.

Serni Morera. Life Cycle Assessment in urban wastewater systems: modular and detailed comprehensive inventories, Jan 2016, cum laude unanimously excellent; Directors: J. Comas (ICRA), L. Corominas; 7 papers.

Albert Montserrat Royuela. Towards better management of combined sewer systems – a methodology based on lowcost monitoring, 2015, cum laude unanimously excellent; Directors: L. Corominas, M. Poch (UdG); 4 papers.

Pau Prat Busquets. Integrated management of urban wastewater systems: a model-based approach, cum laude unanimously excellent, 2012; Directors: J. Comas (UdG) and L. Corominas; 3 papers.

Commissions of trust
 
Dec 2019 – present. Senior member of the management committee of the Modelling and Integrated Assessment (MIA) Specialist group from the International Water Association (IWA) (http://iwa-mia.org/management-committee/)

2013 – present. Chair of the IWA (International Water Association) Working Group for Life Cycle Assessment of Water and Wastewater Treatment (LCA-Water WG).

 

2014 – present. Editor of the journal Water Practice & Technology (IWA publishing).

 

Links 

 

Linked-in: es.linkedin.com/pub/lluis-corominas/6/108/b9

Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lluis_Corominas

Scholar: http://scholar.google.es/citations?user=5gkpb8QAAAAJ&hl=ca&oi=ao

LCA-Water WG: http://www.iwahq.org/1y3/networks/specialist-groups/list-of-groups/modelling-and-integrated-assessment/workinggroup-lca.html