Implementation of a Transversal and Multidisciplinary Sustainability Project for the Development of Student’s Final Projects at the Engineering School of Bilbao, UPV/EHU (Spain)

A crosscutting project between teaching and research has been developed by a multidisciplinary team to involve students, teaching and research staff, and administration and services staff in research with application in sustainability and circular economy. The topic to investigate has been the production of activated carbon for the elimination of antibiotics from wastewater using waste biomass from the university campus. The students have been able to apply previously studied technical knowledge and have been trained in new competencies related to sustainability. The knowledge acquired by the teaching and research staff has allowed them to reorient the teaching content of the subjects they teach in terms of sustainability, especially in circular economy. In addition, the participation of the administration and services staff increased their awareness of the need to recover and valorise the waste generated at the university. The research result of the collaboration between these three groups was the production of carbonaceous adsorbents capable of eliminating more than 60% of the antibiotics present in water.