Last September 18th, we welcomed in our department Omar González coming from Aguascalientes Institute of Technology (Mexico). Omar is going to perform a 6 month research secondment in the research group “Advanced Separation Processes” under the supervision of Prof. Imnaculada Ortiz and Dr. Eugenio Bringas.

During the morning of September 20th, 2017 the Chem-e-car team official presentation took place.

The eight students of the degree in Chemical Engineering that form the “Chem-E-Car” team are members of “Universidad de Cantabria Student Chapter of AIChE”.  The team has been supervised by professors of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and with the financial help of the company Aditya Birla Carbon, they have been able to develop a prototype of a car that is powered and stopped by chemical reactions.

The prototype will be presented in the Chem-e-car competition that will take place next October during the 10th World Congress of Chemical Engineer in Barcelona.

Sandra Sánchez is performing a research stay at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering in the University of Oxford, in the frame of a grant given by The European Molecular biology Organization (EMBO) an organization that promotes excellence in the life science. During this period, September 15^th – December 15^th, 2017 she will carry out biocompatibility analysis in order to demonstrate the viability of the already fabricated membranes by assays of neuronal cell culture, under the supervision of Dr. Hua Ye.

Zoila Gándara Barreiro, doctor in organic chemistry (University of Vigo) has recently been incorporated to the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Department to work in the project “Gradisal: Aplicación en Cantabria de la tecnología EDR (Electrodiálisis reversa) a la obtención de energía renovable marina mediante gradiente salino. Fase I: viabilidad técnico-económica (RM16-XX-046-SODERCAN-FEDER), led by Prof. Inmaculada Ortiz.

Our colleagues Olga Oliván and Jose Antonio Otero will retire soon. Their colleagues of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department want to acknowledge them for their dedication during these years and wish them a healthy and successful future!

Thanks Olga and Jose Antonio! Enjoy your retirement!

Nazely Diban attended the 28th Annual Conference of the European Society of Biomaterials celebrated in Athens, Greece, las September 4 – 8, 2017, where she presented the work “Highly nutrient permeable PCL scaffolds functionalized with Graphene-based nanomaterials for perfusion bioreactors in Neural Tissue Engineering”.

Murilo Leite Alcântara, PhD. student of the Universidade Federal da Bahia, UFBA, Salvador, Brasil, has obtained a grant of the Capes, foundation subordinated to the Education Department of Brasil, for a pre-doctoral research placement in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department of the University of Cantabria, from September 2017 to September 2018, under the supervision of Dr. Alfredo Ortiz. During this period Murilo will work in the development of new high selective membranes for the separation of CO₂ using ionic liquids.

Alfredo Ortiz attended the 11th International Congress on Membranes and Membrane Processes, celebrated in San Francisco, California, USA, last July 29th – August 4th, 2017, where he gave two oral presentations entitled “High performance facilitated transport composite membranes for real industrial olefin/paraffin separation” and “Fuel cell performance of membrane electrode assembly based on innovative polymeric ionic liquids”.

Gabriel Zarca and Raúl Zarca joined a research placement at the Chemical Engineering Department of Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA. During the stay, 12 June 2017-21 July 2017, they were working in the field of membrane process optimization, under the supervision of Prof. Lorenz T. Biegler.

Albert Barceló defended his doctoral thesis “Contribución al proceso de industrialización de la tecnología de pertracción evaporativa para el ajuste de grado alcohólico de vinos blancos y tintos”, developed at the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department under the supervision of Prof. Inmaculada Ortiz and Dr. Nazely Diban, last July 24^th, 2017. The evaluation committee was formed by Prof. Javier Bilbao (University of Basque Country), Prof. Ángel Irabien (University of Cantabria) and Prof.  Jose Manuel Benito (University of Burgos).