Acronym REM-AQUA
Category
Aquaculture
Title Remediation of aquaculture effluents through degradation using photosensitizers Programme Nat. Programme (supported by ESIF)
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National-European Coordinator Diana Luísa Duarte de Lima Coordinator email NA
Coordinator institution
CESAM - Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (Portugal)
Institutions involved
NA
Start year 2018 End year 2021 Funding (€) € 217,833 Website https://www.cesam-la.pt/projetos/rem-aqua-remediacao-de-efluentes-de-aquacultura-atraves-da-degradacao-com-recurso-a-fotosensibilizadores/ Summary Aquaculture has developed strongly in recent decades, giving rise to highly sophisticated fish farms, making considerable use of feed, hormones and antibiotics, with a recognised environmental impact. To ensure the economic sustainability of the sector, production has been intensified using water recirculation systems and appropriate treatments to optimize the use of this valuable resource that is water. Public health concerns related to the use of antibiotics have encouraged the emergence of strict standards controlling their use, leading to only a few being authorised in aquaculture. Of the anesthetics, only tricaine is authorized by the Food and Drug Administration. The World Health Organization warns of the misuse of antimicrobial drugs and the fact that new resistance mechanisms are "rendering the latest generation of antibiotics virtually ineffective." To the best of our knowledge, the removal of pharmaceuticals from aquaculture effluents has not yet been tested. Photodegradation is an important mechanism in the degradation of compounds, containing, inter alia, aromatic rings or photoactive functional groups, as is the case with most drugs. The photosensitizers (which can be the drugs themselves or other species) absorb the light transferring it to the dissolved oxygen or to another substrate of the medium generating reactive oxygen species (ROS), or in the case of salt water can promote the formation of reactive halogen species (RHS), responsible for the degradation of the target compounds. This project focuses on the development of a "green" technology for water treatment, aiming at photodegradation with solar radiation, through the production of ROS originated under irradiation, of drugs used in aquacultures. Photocatalysts, such as carbon nanomaterials, carbon dots, will be synthesized and tested as photosensitizers, as they have been reported as promising in increasing the rate of photodegradation and in the complete removal of drugs from wastewater, due to their low cost and moderate reaction conditions. Knowledge of photodegradation products is essential, not only for academic reasons, but also for their biological properties. The identification of these main products through mass spectrometry techniques, as well as the evaluation of their antibacterial activity and toxicity will be goals to be achieved in this project. This project is part of Horizon 2020, the European Union's largest ever Research and Innovation programme, which includes the need to optimise and boost marine biotechnologies to foster "blue" growth. It is a multidisciplinary project, encompassing environmental chemistry, biology and organic/inorganic chemistry. Collaboration with the aquaculture industry through SEA8 will be extremely important and will allow access to its effluents.
Keywords
Land-based aquaculture;
Fish;
Recirculating systems;
Technology;
Wastes;
Waste water;
Marine Region
0
NA
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