Professor of the Master's Degree in Materials Technology and Industrial Processes and of the Graduate Degree Program in Environmental Quality from Feevale University, Marco Antonio Siqueira Rodrigues, is going to participate in a technical mission to Canada in September. The mission, which takes place from 7 to 19, aims to establish research contacts in the water treatment area and effluents at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. The invitation came from Professor Marcello Veiga from the Canadian institution and aims at developing technologies for decontaminating water with toxic metals and cyanide. 

A technical visit to the Lakeview Water Treatment Plant in Lake Ontario will also be part of the mission, at the invitation of the engineer Jeff Hennings, director of the Water Division. This water treatment plant produces 1150 million liters per day, which makes it one of the biggest facilities of water treatment processes through membranes in the world. On that occasion, the membranes developed by Feevale’s project Development of ion-selective membranes and flow separators for electrodialysis system and its application in water treatment of public supply and industrial effluents will be presented. This project is promoted by the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES).

 

The mission to Canada integrates another project from Feevale: Products and processes: development and application of clean technology to environmental sanitation, in which the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) also collaborates, in agreement signed with Studies and Projects Funding (Finep). Professors Alvaro Meneguzzi and Andréa Moura Bernardes, UFRGS, and Amado Franco Dani Rico, State University of Santa Cruz, Bahia (UESC-Ba) will also travel to Canada.

 

 

Coordinated by Professor Rodrigues, the research aims to synthesize membranes and polymeric flow separators to be used in electrodialysis system (ED), besides the technology transfer of the knowledge generated at the University for the industrial sector, providing technological development to the country. The electrodialysis is a method of treating sewage and wastewater that uses ion-selective membranes, flow dividers and electric field of direct current, having improved efficiency in removing persistent pollutants of small size, for example, heavy metals. This method provides a high quality treated effluent, allowing its reuse by the industry, and also the recovery of metal ions. The research, which was initiated in partnership with Université Laval, also from Canada, aims to develop domestic technology for the production of membranes which today need to be imported.