BRICS meeting at Porto Alegre
From Marth 19th to 26th 2024, in line with development of activities of the DRUG-FREE WASTEWATER project, part of the international consortium met in Brazil; which includes the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and Feevale University (Brazil), TIPS RAS (Russia), Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute (India), Zhejiang University (China) and University of South Africa (South Africa).
The program was related to visits to the laboratories of NESA-IPH (Prof. Salatiel) and LACOR-EE (Prof. Andréa) at UFRGS. Visits to Feevale laboratories (Prof. Marco Antônio) and visits to a landfill leachate treatment station using membranes. A hybrid meeting of the consortium was also held.
On March 19th, 2024, groups from all BRICS countries attended a hybrid meeting where the progress of the project was presented and discussed, as well as the schedule for the next stages. From China side, Prof. Tao presented advances in the design and preparation of high flux polymeric nanofiltration membranes with narrow pore size distribution for trace-antibiotics removal from wastewater. After, Dr. Alexey Yushkin presents the advances of the Russian side in the development of laboratory methods for preparation of chemically resistant NF membranes based on cellulose from its solvents (NMMO/Ionic liquids), for the removal of antibiotics. Dr. Swachchha Majumdar, from India side, presents the development of ceramic nanofiltration membranes for the removal of antibiotics/pharmaceutical molecules from wastewater and biodegradation/ of concentrated molecules. Whereas, from the South Africa side, Prof. Tshimangadzo Munonde presents their advances in the detection and potential removal of emerging organic contaminants in wastewater. Prof. Salatiel from Brazil side group, presents the advances in their proposal area, organic pollutants removal by advanced oxidation processes. After the presentations, the project members debated about the topic presented, asking questions about methodology, scalability, results and discussed the next steps of the Drug-Free Wastewater BRICS group. A new meeting in South Africa was agreed at the end of April 2024. If all groups are not present, hybrid meetings will be held.
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During the other days, the BRICS consortium visited the laboratories of Prof. Salatiel (UFRGS), Prof. Andréa (UFRGS) and Prof. Marco Antônio (FEEVALE) where it was possible to show the bench and pilot scale equipment, as well as the analytical equipment. Based on this, the progress of the project and new partnerships was discussed. The group also visited the CRVR/BR landfill and the wastewater treatment station (landfill leachate) which operates with aerated and anoxic ponds, physical-chemical (coagulation and flotation) and polishing using polymeric membranes. The concentrate returns to the pounds while the permeate is sold as reuse water for the coal mining process.
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| Visiting NESA-IPH-UFRGS. | Visiting LACOR-EE-UFRGS. |
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| Visiting labs from Feevale University. (a) membrane equipment (b) membrane producing | |
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| Visiting the landfill leachate treatment station using membranes from CRVR/BR. | |
