Optimizing the environmental sustainability of alternative post-harvest scenarios for fresh vegetables: A case study in Spain.

The aim of this research is to define different scenarios that optimize the environmental sustainability of the post-harvest stage of vegetable products (cauliflower and brassicas mix). These scenarios considered different packaging materials; energy generation technologies for the processing plant (standard electricity mix vs. renewable options); organic waste management (composting, anaerobic digestion, and animal feeding); and refrigerated transportation (local, national, and international, using diesel, natural gas, and hybrid trucks and railway).

The Contribution of MCDM to SUMP: The Case of Spanish Cities during 2006-2021.

Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP) are increasingly popular planning tools in cities with environmental issues where numerous actions are usually proposed to reduce pollution from urban transport. However, the diagnosis and implementation of these processes requires broad consensus from all stakeholders and the ability to fit them into urban planning in such a way that it allows the proposals to become realistic actions. In this study, a review of the sustainable urban mobility plans of 47 cities in Spain during the last 15 years has been carried out, analyzing both the diagnosis and proposal of solutions and their subsequent implementation.

Effect of ciprofloxacin antibiotic on the partial-nitritation process and bacterial community structure of a submerged biofilter.

A partial-nitritation bench-scale submerged biofilter was used for the treatment of synthetic wastewater containing a high concentration of ammonium in order to study the influence of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin on the partial-nitritation process and biodiversity of the bacterial community structure. The influence of ciprofloxacin was evaluated in four partial-nitritation bioreactors working in parallel, which received sterile synthetic wastewater amended with 350 ng/L of ciprofloxacin (Experiment 1), synthetic wastewater without ciprofloxacin (Experiment 2), synthetic wastewater amended with 100 ng/L of ciprofloxacin (Experiment 3) and synthetic wastewater amended with 350 ng/L of ciprofloxacin (Experiment 4). The concentration of 100 ng/L of antibiotics demonstrated that the partial-nitritation process, microbial biomass and bacterial structure generated by tag-pyrosequencing adapted progressively to the conditions in the bioreactor.

Influence of sludge retention time and temperature on the sludge removal in a submerged membrane bioreactor: comparative study between pure oxygen and air to supply aerobic conditions.

Performance of a bench-scale wastewater treatment plant, which consisted of a membrane bioreactor, was monitored daily using pure oxygen and air to supply aerobic conditions with the aim of studying the increases of the aeration and sludge removal efficiencies and the effect of the temperature. The results showed the capacity of membrane bioreactor systems for removing organic matter. The alpha-factors of the aeration were determined for six different MLSS concentrations in order to understand the system working when pure oxygen and air were used to supply aerobic conditions in the system.

Removal and degradation characteristics of quinolone antibiotics in laboratory-scale activated sludge reactors under aerobic, nitrifying and anoxic conditions.

This work describes the removal of 6 quinolone antibiotics from wastewaters under different redox conditions (aerobic, nitrifying and anoxic) through batch experiments in laboratory scale activated sludge reactors using mixed liquor from a membrane bioreactor pilot plant (MBR). The main removal pathways for antibiotics from wastewaters involved in each treatment are described. Mass balances indicated that sorption on sludge played a dominating role in the elimination of antibiotics.