INTEC presents research in scientific congress on sargassum in Guadalupe
SANTO DOMINGO. -Ulises Jáuregui-Haza y Rolando Liranzo, coordinator and student, respectively, of Doctorate in Environmental Sciences, and Pamela Tejada, graduated of the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) presented ten academic research in the Caribbean Science and Innovation Congress, made in the University of the Antilles, in Guadalupe.
In the activity, organized by CariComScience and Caribbean Academy of Sciences, INTEC representatives spoke about the arrival of sargassum in the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean, quantification of heavy metals in sargassum and degradation of diazepam in synthetic solutions and wastewater.
In the Caribbean, cooperation must be developed to find the correct scientific answers and ecologically guarantee friendly management to deal with sargassum, since massive deposits have had a negative socioeconomic impact on the productive activities (tourism, fishing and maritime transport) of communities that live on the coast, since the arrival of sargassum has a regional reach.
This was stated by the representatives of INTEC during the presentation of their research. In addition, they stated that an alternative for this problem is the sargassum collection y subsequent evaluation as an economic resource.
Among the options to evaluate, they mentioned the use as biomass for power generation, activated carbon production, biofertilizer or as cattle feed independently or in integral formulations along with other sources of biomass.
In relation to the research that evaluates the presence of heavy metals in the sargassum of the Dominican coast, they stated that the results found indicate that the Heavy metal levels in sargassum do not represent a potential health hazard and the environment; opening the possibility of using algae biomass for various applications.
"Degradation of diasepam in synthetic solutions and wastewater by high frequency ultrasound, gamma radiation and UV radiation" was the third research presented by the teacher and the intencianos, which highlights that different studies report the presence of several drugs in surface waters and underground, where the contamination comes from the improper manufacture and disposal of these products from a defocalized emission, through the excess thrown by human consumption.
"One of the main problems with this type of pollutant is its resistance to conventional wastewater treatment processes, so it is essential to resort to other technologies that allow its elimination as advanced oxidation processes," the research highlights.
The report highlights that the integration of each process with the Fenton procedure (an advanced oxidation process) in the reagent guarantees the total elimination of drugs at five minutes in the synthetic matrix and more than 90% in real wastewater.
The other investigations that were presented were:Hexavalent chromium adsorption of water using activated activated seaweed carbons","Nanoaggregates of chlordecone with cyclodextrins as an alternative for the treatment of contaminated water"And"In silico development of new radiopharmaceuticals for positronic emission tomography from rapamycin mechanistic target inhibitors (MTOR)".
Too, "Valorization of sargassum and modeling of the adsorption of emerging microcontaminants in activated carbon","Adsorption of diazepam on activated carbon: understanding the contaminant-adsorbent interaction at the nanoscale level","Theoretical study of the interaction of organochlorine pesticides with activated activated carbon with acidic and basic groups at different pH conditions", And"Mapping the scientific collaboration of the Caribbean, can researchers' mobility help?"
The event was attended by researchers, professors and PhD students from France, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, United States, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Spain, Guyana, Romania, Jamaica, Switzerland, among others.