Departament d'Enginyeria Química

Recent Submissions

Integration of advanced wastewater treatment and reclamation technologies for organic micropollutants removal and promote water reuse 

Echevarría Díez-Canedo, Carlos (Date of defense: 2022-07-14)

(English) Climate change and overpopulation are responsible for more frequent droughts, and the imbalance in the water resources management leads to a greater competition in the exploitation of freshwater sources. The ...

Poly(lactic acid) blends and copolyesters with advanced properties for biomedical applications 

Martínez Cutillas, Alfredo (Date of defense: 2022-06-13)

(English) Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is a biobased, biodegradable and biocompatible polymer. Because of that, it is a polymer that generates a great interest in the research and development of new advanced materials. Among ...

Zirconium oxide conversion coating and biobased organic coatings for aluminum protection 

Bonamigo Moreira, Vitor (Date of defense: 2022-01-13)

(English) During the past century the way humans relate to the environment has undergone important changes, and currently it is a global consensus that our well-being should not be achieved at the expense of enlarging our ...

Gadolinia-doped UO2 reactivity and redox-sensitive radionuclides mobility: implications for long-term safety of deep geological repositories 

García Gómez, Sonia (Date of defense: 2024-03-08)

(English) High-level radioactive waste, such as spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from nuclear power plants, remains dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years. To manage them properly and avoid harm to human health and the ...

Sustainable evaluation of Boron recovery for seawater desalination brines valorisation: integration of membrane processes and ion exchange resins 

Figueira Alves, Mariana (Date of defense: 2023-12-19)

(English) According to the European Green Deal, the European Union (EU) must become climate-neutral by 2050. However, many raw materials needed for this green transition are supplied by non-EU countries. To ensure the ...

Nitrogen recovery from wastewater treatment effluents by liquid-liquid membrane contactor for fertilizers production 

Sheikh, Mahdi (Date of defense: 2023-11-27)

(English) Changing wastewater treatment plants into wastewater and resource recovery facilities represents a paradigm shift in wastewater management. Resources such as water, energy, and nutrients are becoming scarcer, ...

Design of catalysts based on hydroxyapatite for carbon and nitrogen fixation 

Sans Milà, Jordi (Date of defense: 2022-04-08)

(English) Permanently polarized hydroxyapatite (p-HAp) has been recently proposed as a novel green catalyst. p-HAp is obtained by applying an electrical and thermal stimulation polarization process (TSP), which consists ...

Nano-enabled screen-printed electrodes for the determination of trace elements in aqueous environmental samples 

Torres Rivero Andrade, Karina Victoria Alejandra (Date of defense: 2023-07-12)

(English) Acid mine drainage (AMD) is a wastewater originated from complex oxidation processes that has become one of the most challenges facing the global mining industry due to its acidity, high content of SO42- and other ...

Lingnin-based nanoparticles with antibacterial properties and their nanocomposite materials for wound healing 

Morena Gatius, Ángela Gala (Date of defense: 2023-03-10)

(English) Lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant renewable resource considered a suitable carbon raw material for the synthesis of chemicals and as an alternative to fossil fuels energy supply source. Cellulose, hemicellulose, ...

Preparation and characterisation of bimetallic catalysts for the steam reforming of methane 

Braga, Andrea (Date of defense: 2024-01-25)

(English) Heterogeneous catalysis is one of the most important chemical technologies available today to produce most chemicals at the basis of industrial production. The transition to a greener energy production demands ...

Evaluation of nutrient recovery from urban wastewater for sustainable fertilizer production 

Mayor Pillado, Álvaro (Date of defense: 2023-12-15)

(English) The 20th-century introduction of the Haber-Bosch nitrogen fixation process significantly disrupted the nitrogen cycle in ecosystems, contributing to environmental issues and nutrient loss. The heavy reliance on ...

Investigación en nuevas técnicas de microencapsulación biodegradables de fragancias para el sector de detergencia que eviten la liberación de microplásticos al medio ambiente 

López Hernández, Arianne (Date of defense: 2023-12-20)

(English) Getting to give added value in the different products that are nowadays in the market has not been easy. Since many years ago we have worked on the addition of fragrances in different articles. This added value ...

Obtaining micro- and nanotextured functional surfaces on thermoplastics via injection moulding techniques using laser textured metallic inserts and NIL (nano-imprint lithography) -textured polymeric films 

Sáez Comet, Carlos (Date of defense: 2023-10-06)

(English) Surfaces with special functionalities owed to their surface topographies or textures are present all around us in nature. Millions of living organisms around us profit from those special functionalities thanks ...

Partial oxidation of methane into syngas at low temperature 

Fazlikeshteli, Shiva (Date of defense: 2023-10-27)

(English) Syngas (a mixture of H2 and CO) is a versatile feedstock that can be used to produce a wide range of chemicals and fuels. For that reason, there is a great interest to optimize and explore new routes for its ...

Risk analysis of jet fires thermal effects 

Foroughi, Vahid (Date of defense: 2023-09-20)

(English) The historical analysis performed has shown that jet fires have been the origin of a high number of domino effect accidents, both in the process industry and in the transportation of flammable fluids by pipelines ...

Lignocellulosic wastes and chitosan composites applied to recover rare earth elements by liquid-solid separation 

Lapo Calderón, Byron Gonzalo (Date of defense: 2023-07-12)

(English) Rare earths elements (REE) are crucial elements to the future of technology, particularly to the power generation and road transport. One of the most sustainable processes to recover rare earths is biosorption. ...

Mechanochemical preparation of TiO2-based photocatalysts for hydrogen production 

Chen, Yufen (Date of defense: 2023-05-19)

(English) Metal clusters and single atoms have been considered as effective cocatalysts for the enhancement of photocatalytic hydrogen production dueto their singular geometric structures, electronic properties and unique ...

Fire risk analysis framework at the wildland-urban interface 

Vacca, Pascale (Date of defense: 2023-07-20)

(English) Wildfires that reach the border between the wildland and urban areas, defined as the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI), have rapidly expanded in frequency and severity over the past few decades, and the number of ...

Simulación y desarrollo de reactores catalíticos de membrana para la tecnología del hidrógeno 

Cifuentes López, Alejandro (Date of defense: 2023-01-19)

(English) This thesis focuses on the study of the catalytic production of hydrogen from methanol and water. Catalytic production is carried out in a catalytic membrane reactor which manages to produce and purify hydrogen. ...

Del mur romànic al museu. La tècnica de la pintura mural romànica i del seu traspàs amb morters de caseïna 

Oriols Pladevall, Núria (Date of defense: 2022-11-17)

(English) An important collection of Romanesque wall paintings, detached from their original places at the beginning of the 20th century, is now preserved and exhibited in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. To define ...