Lunch seminar: Household waste streams valorisation by biological conversion: targeted fatty acid production

WaterCentre@KTH proudly presents a lunch seminar with Leonor da Quinta Lobo!

Wastewater treatment allows for water reuse and its introduction back into the environment. However, wastewater contains a wide variety of compounds that can be recovered or even transformed into products with higher value. Future circular cities are investing in developing and implementing biorefineries where waste streams can be converted by biological processes into marketable products, for example, methane (energy) and volatile fatty acids (VFA as platform chemicals). 

The market demand for these last products is increasing every year, and the current production methods rely on petroleum, therefore highlighting the importance of alternative sustainable methods to meet the market requirements. In cooperation with the waste bioconversion efforts, source separation of wastewater is another suggested approach to improve both wastewater treatment and product formation from waste in cities. 

 In this seminar, the topic of biological volatile fatty acid production from source-separated household waste streams will be described, and initial results of experiments at varying temperatures will be presented. 

The first 20 to arrive will get a vegetarian wrap and a soft drink!

Leonor da Quinta Lobo is a PhD student at KTH, in the Department of Industrial Biotechnology under the supervision of Zeynep Cetecioglu, leader of the Bioconversion group. After completing her bachelors in Medical Biotechnology in Portugal, she moved to Sweden to pursue a master’s degree in Molecular Life Sciences. Her current research focuses on studying bioaugmentation as a strategy for targeted fatty acid production from blackwater and food waste.

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