National Institute of Science and Technology on Sustainable Sewage Treatment Plants Case Study Presentation Dr. Maira Ruggi, RCE Curitiba-Parana 8th Americas Regional Meeting 23-25 September, 2019, Burlington, USA

1. RCE Curitiba Paraná
Regional Centre of Expertise on
Education for Sustainable Development

2. CRIE - RCE CURITIBA - PARANÁ - BRAZIL
Created in 2007
Main goal - create a task force: fostering ESD (Education for
Sustainable Development) and empowering the educators to
lead changes for a sustainable future
The mobilization has to involve education institutions,
companies and government and then flow to the community,
generating a cascade effect through all levels of education
ACTIVE PARTNERS:
ISAE | PUC- PR | UFPR | UTFPR

3. Projects in Progress
1. Care About Water in Curitiba, Brazil: Educational and
Environmental Practices at School
2. Sustainable Entrepreneurship in School
3. Ciclovida – Phase II
4. Freshwater Chondrichthyan Biodiversity and
Interactions with Humans: danger under the surface?
5. National Institute of Science and Technology for
Sustainable Sewage Treatment Stations – INCT ETEs
Sustentáveis

4. National Institute of Science
and Technology on
Sustainable Sewage
Treatment Plants
In partnership with: UFMG, UFPE, UFRP, USP, UFCE, UFMS, ISAE
Some of the institutions at the network: UTFPR, UFPR, UP, UEPG,
Sanepar

5. o LA&C countries reached 86%
urban coverage for sanitation;
o 18 million people still practice open
defecation (2.9% of the total
population)
o only 20% of the population have
acess to some kind of improved
sanitation facility
The present sanitation scenario
in Latin America and Caribbean

6. Urban coverage –
Percentage of
population by region
Scenario in Brazil
Sewage
collected and
non-treated
Sewage
collected and
treated
Individual
systems
Non-treated
Sewage
43%
12%
18%
27%

7. Brazil existing sewage treatment plant | STPs
o Design based only on environmental protection
laws
o No clear perception of possible financial return,
social benefits and other environmental gains:
expenditures with final disposal of sludge; biogas
is wasted (burned into atmosphere) and the
treated effluent is disposed of in receiving water
bodies, many times adding up undesired
residuals of pollutants and contaminants.
o If well designed, built and operated, conventional
STPs can achieve high removal efficiencies (OM,
nutrients and pathogens), fulfilling primary goal
of water pollution control.

8. Current goals
Relevant aspects:
o Reducing process and energy costs and
GHG emissions
o Improving final effluent quality
Domestic
sewage
Water
reuseSTP
Energy
recovery
By-products
recovery: sludge,
nitrogen, phosphor
o Increasing the efficiency of the treatment process
o Recovery of:
o Water
o Energy
o Resources

9. How INCT is doing
User
awareness,
workers
capacitation
Patents,
Prototypes,
softwares
Technical
events,
books,
articles
Basic and
applied
research,
cooperation
agreements

10. The results
so far
 5 workshops
 1 national seminar
 1 special journal
 1 small course
 3 technical visit
 8 books chapters
 15 articles

11. And maybe
we might
have a more
sustainable
sewage
treatment
plant

12. Thanks!