SHORT SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC LIFE

Carlos Antonio Ramos Quiroz (Rancagua, Chile (1983)) is bioprocess engineer (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (PUCV) (2006)), Master in Science in Biochemical Engineering (PUCV, 2010) and PhD in Environmental Science and Technology (UAB). During his scientific/professional carrier, he has applied the environmental biotechnology as a powerful engineering-solution to overcome several problems associated to solid and liquid waste treatment. His undergraduate degree project was related to the research and application of anaerobic digestion as an alternative to treat urban wastewaters, instead of conventional activated sludge. Later, during the MSc studies, he worked with solid wastes to produce hydrogen and/or methane through anaerobic digestion; 4 scientific publications were obtained with this work and a research internship during 5 months in the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). In 2015, he finished successfully the PhD studies, awarding the international doctoral research mention and Cum Laude distinction. The title of the PhD thesis was “Treatment of complex industrial wastewaters through biological process with granular reactors” and 5 scientific publications had been accepted, 1 manuscripts are under review and a research internship during 3 months in the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UPC) (Porto, Portugal) were obtained with this work. The topic of his doctoral research was the application of a fully biological process to treat wastewaters composed by high ammonium and recalcitrant/toxic organic and inorganic compounds; to achieve this goal, granular biomass and biological nitrogen removal process via nitrite have been successful applied. After he finished the PhD, he started to work as post-doctoral researcher in the UAB in an European project: LIFE SAVING-E “Two-Stage Autotrophic N-remoVal for maINstream sewaGe trEatment”. The main objective of this project is to propose a novel technology to transform the current urban wastewater treatment plants from being energy-consumers to be energy-producers. The SAVING-E technology is a two-stage process based on the application of a high-rate activated sludge system to redirect the organic carbon to anaerobic digestion and autotrophic biological processes to remove nitrogen via nitrite: a partial nitritation reactor followed by an anammox reactor. The SAVING-E technology will be demonstrated at pilot scale, treating urban wastewater. More information is available on http://saving-e.eu.

Carlos’s research lines are:

• Application of aerobic granular biomass to treat wastewaters composed by toxic/recalcitrant organic compounds, such as aromatic hydrocarbons.
• Biological Nitrogen Removal (BNR) process via nitrite: partial nitrification, heterotrophic denitrification via nitrite and Anammox.
• Anaerobic digestion of solid and liquid wastes.
• Aerobic degradation of wastewaters.

Carlos has participated in Chilean, Spanish and European research projects and has published 9 international peer-reviewed papers.

PUBLICATIONS

• C. Ramos, M.E. Suárez-Ojeda, J. Carrera. 2016. Biodegradation of a high-strength wastewater containing a mixture of ammonium, aromatic compounds and salts with simultaneous nitritation in an aerobic granular reactor. Process Biochemistry 51 (3): 399-407.
• C. Ramos, M.E. Suárez-Ojeda, J. Carrera. 2016. Denitritation in an anoxic granular reactor using phenol as sole organic carbon source. Chemical Engineering Journal 288: 289-297.
• C. Ramos, M.E. Suárez-Ojeda, J. Carrera. 2016. Long-term performance and stability of a continuous granular airlift reactor treating a high-strength wastewater containing a mixture of aromatic compounds. Journal of Hazardous Materials 303: 154-161.
• C. Ramos, M.E. Suárez-Ojeda, J. Carrera. 2015. Long-term impact of salinity on the performance and microbial population of an aerobic granular reactor treating a high-strength aromatic wastewater. Bioresource Technology 198: 844-851.
• C. Ramos, I. Fernández, M.E. Suárez-Ojeda, J. Carrera. 2015. Inhibition of the anammox activity by aromatic compounds. Chemical Engineering Journal 279: 681-688.
• C. Ramos, G. Buitrón, I. Moreno-Andrade, R. Chamy. 2012. Effect of the initial total solids concentration and initial pH on the bio-hydrogenproduction from cafeteria food waste. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 37: 13288-13295.
• R. Chamy, C. León, E. Vivanco, P. Poirrier, C. Ramos. 2012. Anaerobic monodigestion of poultry manure: determination of operational parameters for CSTR. Water Science and Technology 65 (1): 53-59.
• R. Chamy, C. Ramos. 2011. Factors in the determination of methanogenic potential of manure. Bioresource technology 102: 7673-7677.
• R. Chamy, E. Vivanco, C. Ramos. 2011. Anaerobic mono-digestion of turkey manure: efficient revaluation to obtain methane and soil conditioner. Journal of Water Resource and Protection 3 (8): 584-589. Available on: http://www.scirp.org/journal/Home.aspx?IssueID=975#6987