The Forum provided an opportunity to learn about various water and waste recovery techniques to generate by-products that contribute to a circular economy.

Reusing wastewater, generating efficient cycles based on chemical and biological techniques, and considering the integration of the circular economy were the central themes of the international seminar “Valorization of Industrial Waste based on Chemical and Biological Techniques, considering Circular Economy Principles”, organized by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of the Universidad de Los Lagos.

The conference was held telematically and was attended by leading researchers in the area, headed by Dr. Silvia Bolado from the University of Valladolid, Spain; Dr. Oscar Monroy, from the Autonomous Metropolitan University of Mexico; Dr. Maria Eugenia Gonzalez from the University of La Frontera and Dr. Cynthia Urrutia from the ULagos of Chile. The series of presentations was conducted by the Director of the Department, David Silva Rodríguez. The presentations were attended by 65 people, including students from different engineering departments of the university, national and international researchers from Mexico, Colombia, and Peru, and salmon companies representing the socio-productive sector of the Los Lagos region.

The objective of the seminar was to learn about innovative techniques and applications from the chemical point of view, as well as from the area of microbiology with the intention of using new techniques from chemical reactions and environmental processes that point directly to a correlation in the regeneration of a circular economy, always maintaining the care of the environment and climate change.

David Silva, Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment at ULagos, pointed out the importance of the presentations. “For us, as a department, these seminars that we have held in recent years allow us to disseminate knowledge of the environmental area, it is relevant to bring together international researchers in the field of research in microalgae and environmental biotechnology as it is closely related to our lines of research, with the idea of bringing to the students a topic that has gained much application in today’s world. We also explore new knowledge and techniques to remediate certain processes by taking advantage of waste. Finally, we generate tools so that these wastes can contribute to the circular economy in the field of environmental sciences, to form a work that becomes cyclical”, said the Chemical Engineer of the state academy of the region.

Silva Rodríguez added that the international seminar “was aimed at students of environmental engineering and other engineering careers. In addition to bringing together researchers who follow this line of research on the reuse of wastewater, who work with waste from salmon farming companies, it also included professionals from companies in the socio-productive field who work closely with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of our University”, concluded the director and master’s degree in engineering sciences.

Dr. Cynthia Urrutia, ULagos academic, presented her paper on Biopurification and Biorefinery with the use of microalgae under the concept of circular economy, where she explained her doctoral thesis. “Within my line of research focused on biotechnology with the use of microalgae, in which I used the study for the purification of wastewater, and then with the waste generated I can present a potential biorefinery that can be obtained with some value-added by-product. The idea is to direct these by-products that are recovered from wastewater and that can be fertilizers for agriculture, nutrients for animal feed or biofuel, among others”, concluded the professor.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment of ULagos has planned and worked its research lines and the convergence of critical thinking regarding climate change and environmental care and contributes from the academy by promoting and researching the circular economy and the reuse of industrial waste and sewage.

This is what Dr. Cynthia Urrutia, ULagos academic, says, indicating that “I think we are contributing within the region to the development of this type of initiatives and these discussions for real applications in production processes, with the idea of reaching a total efficiency of zero emissions, which is the dream or what one thinks of reaching sometime in the use of all resources, especially nowadays with the climate crisis that the planet and the Los Lagos region are experiencing”, concluded the professor

The ULagos Environmental Engineering program continues to develop its different lines of research. They are currently working on a seed project with four Environmental Engineering students. In the project, the team analyzes and reuses wastewater from five industries in the area for the growth of microorganisms to generate value-added byproducts that can be used in agriculture as nutrients and generate a circular economy.