Margarida Ribau Teixeira has been teaching at the University of the Algarve (UAlg) since 1997, in the field of Environmental Engineering, and since 2020 she is Associate Professor. She has been coordinating the Sustainable Water and Resources Recovery thematic area of the research center CENSE - Center for Environmental and Sustainability. She conducts research in the areas of water management, drinking water and wastewater treatments, optimising treatment processes to study eco-efficient solutions that promote the circular economy in the water sector, and developing new products for water/wastewater treatment. The research activity has always been closely related to teaching activity, in terms of advanced and initial training, so she supervised several PhD and Master students. She published over 70 articles in indexed international journals and 8 book chapters and is co-author of 2 patents, one European and one national. She coordinated or co-coordinated several scientific research projects as well as participated as a researcher in scientific research projects, all with external funding. She has also been involved in the dissemination of science and technology through lectures by the UAlg Team, aimed at 3rd cycle and secondary school students, participation in a national network and communications and opinion articles.
CENSE’s vision was collaboratively crafted by our team in a strategic foresight process, setting our future organisational trajectory. CENSE is a centre for excellence on inter- and transdisciplinary research and advanced education in sustainability. In an atmosphere of collaboration and freedom to innovate, new pathways for building a sustainable society and explored. As a scientifically acknowledged centre, it integrates international and national networks, in a vibrant environment that attracts engaged students and researchers. CENSE produces knowledge that informs decisions, co-creating novel approaches and solutions to societal challenges, through science that makes a difference.
Two main areas are developed in UAlg: Sustainable Water and Resources Recovery area and Computation for Sustainability areas. In the Sustainable Water and Resources Recovery area we work in resource efficiency by ‘closing the loops’ through greater recycling and reuse, which is a cornerstone of sustainability policies where wastes and water are seen as resources. Our investigation includes advanced research on sustainable products for water treatment; optimisation of anaerobic digestion in wastewater treatment systems; removal of emergent compounds and particles at micro and nano scales; and testing of new methods to assess the risks induced by wastewater discharge to surface waters, in particular of priority and emergent substances. In the Computation for Sustainability area we work to assure the R&D underlying a major initiative for the development of the Internet of Everything (IoE). This area also inspires a skunk work atmosphere for software and hardware creation. Both the strategic “Man in the Moon” type project for the IoE and the craftsmanship associated with more experimental projects translate in targeted outcomes, embodied in this area’s strategy namely in patents, Creative Commons software licenses, doctoral theses and scientific publications, as appropriate. The area follows an Apprenticeship model in students’ training and will continue the successful technology transfer by working with listed companies it created in the past such as YDreams Global, Ynvisible and Azorean, as well as companies still in stealth mode such as the disruptive Aromni The organization of a major international conference on Green Internet is also in the works.
Water treatment technologies (coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, flotation, membrane technology), HPLC, zeta potential.
Ana Paula de Carvalho Silva, Margarida Ribau Teixeira, Luis Miguel Nunes (2026). Transdisciplinarity in Water Management: A Systematic Review of Concepts, Practices, and Challenges. Environmental Science and Policy 176, 104317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104317.
Luís Madeira, Margarida Ribau Teixeira, Sérgio Nunes, Adelaide Almeida, Fátima Carvalho (2024). Reuse of treated slaughterhouse wastewater from immediate one-step lime precipitation and atmospheric carbonation to produce aromatic plants in hydroponics. Water 16(11), 1566. https://doi.org/10.3390/w16111566.
Margarida Ribau Teixeira, Abdullah Ismail, Bruno Medronho, Luís Alves, Jorge F.S. Pedrosa, Paulo J.T. Ferreira, Vânia Serrão Sousa, Ana M. Rosa da Costa (2024). Nanofibrillated cationic cellulose derivatives as flocculants for domestic wastewater treatment. Journal of Water Process Engineering 58, 104817. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwpe.2024.104817.
Etiele Greque de Morais, José Carlos Amaro Marques, Ricardo Cerqueira, Cláudia Dimas, Vânia de Sousa, Nuno Gomes, Margarida Ribau Teixeira, Luís Miguel Nunes, João Varela, Luisa Barreira (2022). Tertiary urban wastewater treatment with microalgae natural blooms in pilot novel photobioreactors. Journal of Cleaner Production 378, 134521. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.134521.
Nadia Morin-Crini, Eric Lichtfouse, Guorui Liu, Vysetti Balaram, Ana Rita Lado Ribeiro, Zhijiang Lu, Friederike Stock, Eric Carmona, Margarida Ribau Teixeira, Lorenzo A. Picos-Corrales, Juan Carlos Moreno-Piraján, Liliana Giraldo, Cui Li, Didier Hocquet, Abhishek Pandey, Giangiacomo Torri, Grégorio Crini (2022). Worldwide cases of water pollution by emerging contaminants. A review. Environmental Chemistry Letters 20, 2311–2338. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-022-01447-4.