Field of expertise:
The Group of Environmental Engineering and Biotechnology is part of the Department of Chemical Engineering from the School of Engineering of the University of Santiago de Compostela. It can be considered as one of the best groups of Environmental Engineering at Spanish level according to the number of research projects and SCI publications obtained in the last years. In the period 2005-2006 the group has participated in 24 national, 28 regional and 13 European research projects. In addition, 91 contracts with companies have been signed, where the group collaborated in research activities that the company couldn’t accomplish itself due to lack in RTD potential. The publication capacity of the group lead to 33 publications in 2006, from which 15 were SCI publications. Publications at national level are written in order to disseminate the results in the national and industrial sector. Last year, the group has been recognized as a high quality, competitive group by the regional government.
The five research areas that have been maintained in the last years are a) Production and application of ligninolytic enzymes for degradation of recalcitrant compounds; b) Development, operation and control of equipments for treatment of wastewaters; c) Environmental Management; d) Soil Bioremediation; e) Technology transfer for wastewater treatment and bioprocesses.The research program “Environmental Management” combines the application of minimization techniques in origin such as clean technologies, with a more holistic perspective by means of the use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).During the last years, the research group has taken part in several projects related to the application of LCA, such as “Life cycle assessment of primary transformation factories: Chipboard manufacture”, “Environmental assessment and technological innovation in strategic food sectors by the application of Life Cycle Assessment”.

Role in the project:
USC, experts in LCA, will lead of WP5, Identification of Optimum Life Cycle Assessment that aims to determine which available techniques and procedures are optimal to be implemented to decrease environmental impacts and enhance biomass potential. Furthemore, USC will contribute in the determination of main aspects to be considered for the implementation of sustainable Biomass and Bio-Products Production.
Moreover, USC will support USRIEP in the development of the Report of Current Research within the Consortium.Besides, USC will support to CENTIV in the development of the “White Book for Biomass in Europe”.
Finally, USC will be the responsible of the Life Cycle Assessment Seminar for the dissemination of knowledge in LCA.