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Hydraulics and Environment Department Hydraulics and Environment Department
Urban Water Unit
Urban Water Unit

Operational Units

UQTA - Water Quality and Treatment Laboratory

Elsa Coutinho Mesquita
Elsa Coutinho Mesquita
Assistant Researcher


Phone: 218 443 624
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The Water Quality and Treatment Laboratory (UQTA) of LNEC - EM is integrated in the Urban Water Unit of the Hydraulics and Environment Department of LNEC.

Since 2006, UQTA has been carrying out experimental activities to support R&D&I projects/studies of the Urban Water Unit on water quality and treatment of drinking water, urban wastewater and reclaimed water.

The tests conducted at UQTA aim at providing assistance to:

  • the development of strategies for the removal of contaminants resistant to the conventional treatment adopted in most water and wastewater treatment plants (WTP and WWTP): natural and anthropogenic organic matter, priority substances, contaminants of emerging concern (endocrine disruptors, pharmaceutical compounds, cyanotoxins) chemical oxidation by-products and resistant biological forms (viruses and protozoa oocysts);
  • the management and safety of both drinking water and reclaimed water supply;

and comprises:

  • water quality characterization through laboratory analysis of conventional physicochemical and microbiological parameters, microcystins (cyanotoxins) and other parameters that are likely to influence the safety of water, such as organic matter (total and dissolved organic carbon, hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity, molar mass distribution, UV-Vis absorption and fluorescence emission spectra);
  • Chlorine decay tests and assessment of disinfection by-products and biofilm formation potentials;
  • tests on water treatment technologies at lab and/or pilot scale (powdered activated carbon adsorption, biofiltration on granular activated carbon, coagulation/flocculation/sedimentation and membrane or hybrid adsorption/membrane processes.

More information here