Alba Ceballos-Escalera has been awarded with 2024 Extraordinary Award of UdG Doctoral Program in Water Science and Technology

Alba Ceballos-Escalera has been awarded with 2024 Extraordinary Award of UdG Doctoral Program in Water Science and Technology for her doctoral thesis, entitled “Electro-bioremediation of nitrate-contaminated groundwater: from laboratory to on-site pilot plant”

This doctoral thesis focuses on nitrate removal by means of water electro-bioremediation. This emerging technology takes advantage of microorganisms having the capacity of exchanging electrons with a solid material. Thus, nitrate is reduced to nitrogen gas using a cathode as electron donor.

Such innovative process avoids the addition of chemical reagents as reducing agents (a common practice in conventional treatments to remove nitrates from polluted waters). Moreover, the energy demand is very low.