EMU granted in process 2017/10118-0: total organic carbon analyzer (TOC)
Abstract
INCT-DATREM aims to form a national network of research groups active in the search for innovative technologies for the evaluation of chemical, toxicological and radioactive micropollutants, as well as the search for more efficient technologies for the treatment of waste, sewage, effluents and catchment waters, contributing to the evaluation of risk, environmental preservation, human health and control of the safety and quality of export and import products. According to international standards, in the coming decades Brazil will face extremely restrictive export regulations and will no longer be able to launch chemicals in its sources without a risk assessment of proven toxic / genotoxic compounds and emerging pollutants, requiring a clear mapping of its toxicity / mutagenicity properties, distribution, bioavailability, persistence, radioactivity and the like. This Institute intends to meet the need of basic and technological research and human resources arising from the challenge of re-evaluating the risk of launching at least 5000 compounds generated as tailings or by-products from the production processes, as well as their removal. Great focus will be given to pharmaceuticals and their metabolites, personal care products, pesticides and repellents, herbicides, hormones and endocrine modulators, flame retardants, insecticides, biocides, colorants, aromatic amines, plasticizers, by-products and some radioactive materials. in low concentration are suspected to cause adverse ecological effects and damage to human health. The activities to be developed integrate the goals of Research, Development and Innovation in strategic areas for sustainable production and product improvements. Alternative, economical, fast and highly sensitive analytical methods will be validated to detect low levels of concentration in complex matrices, contributing to actions and policies aimed at harmonizing economic development with the socio-environmental question. To this end, a research, teaching and extension infrastructure will be created that will bring together the pre-existing scientific and technological competence in the laboratory of most Brazilian Universities in the areas of development and validation of analytical methods for the detection and removal of pollutants with industrial needs and foreign / domestic trade, with a view to contributing to production and processes using cleaner technologies. In this context, we intend to develop innovative analytical methods based on chromatographic techniques with different detectors (UV, DAD, ED and masses) and construction of versatile and economical devices using various nanostructured materials capable of being used for simplified diagnostics of qualification and quantification in complex matrices. The study of mutagenic, genotoxic, ecotoxicological and toxicological properties will focus on the generation of non-existent data on the degree of toxicity / mutagenicity of many micropollutants generated in the modern world, as well as the correlation of their occurrence in the environment, providing an adequate risk assessment and the future establishment of water quality criteria to be adopted in the Brazilian legal norms. It is also hoped to overcome the analytical difficulties related to the increasing presence of radionuclides in water resources due to technological processes, or manufactured radioactive sources developing new methods to evaluate the radioactivity of these effluents and waters to be served to the population. Finally, we propose to study more efficient and low-cost alternatives for the removal of these residues and to develop high-performance reactors using photoelectrochemical processes, photo-fenton, ozonization and individual or coupled biological reactors with the aim of promoting total degradation of the micropollutant and total toxicity. (AU)