The demand for clean water has continuously increased over the past decades due to industrialization, population growth, and intensive agriculture and livestock farming. Currently, a large portion of the wastewater generated comes from animal farming for human consumption, necessitating sustainable technologies aligned with the circular economy to treat this water while producing valuable products.

Among these technologies, wastewater treatment with microalgae and the use of microbial fuel cells are emerging and face significant challenges. On one hand, the use of microalgae allows for wastewater treatment while producing valuable biomass that can be used in agriculture, for feed formulation, or for biofuel production. However, this technology recovers a large portion of the nutrients from the water but has difficulty consuming all the organic matter present.

On the other hand, microbial fuel cells are capable of utilizing and eliminating organic matter while producing energy in the form of electricity. A challenge for the coming years is to efficiently and techno-economically sustainably couple both technologies.

Successful candidates will work under the supervision of Dr. Ana Sánchez Zurano in this project. Our group offers a friendly atmosphere where the student has the opportunity of working with cut-edge green technologies.

Research Area: Chemistry (CHE), Environmetal Sciences and Geology (ENV), Life Sciences (LIF)

Interested candidates, please send your CV and a brief outline of the proposed research project (1 page maximum) to Dra. Ana Sánchez Zurano (azurano@um.es) before July 15th 2024.

Please note that applicants must comply with the eligibility criteria of the MSCA PF 2024 call (must have a PhD degree at the time of the application deadline; must have a maximum of 8 years experience in research and should comply with MSCA PF Mobility Rule, available in the “2.3.2. Recruited researchers” section, p.121/142 of the MSCA Work Programme 2023-2024)