Last Tuesday, May 2^nd, 2017, students of the Chemical Engineering Degree who follow the courses Wastewater Treatment and European Project Semester, within the Faculty members Raquel Ibáñez, Eugenio Bringas, María Margallo and Marcos Fallanza visited the WWTP located at San Román and the company Lunagua Ltd.

The students had the opportunity to observe conventional and advanced technologies for the sanitation of urban and industrial wastewaters and had a dialogue with the process engineers responsible of both facilities.

Dr. Adrián Rodríguez has joined the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department as  Juan de la Cierva post-doctoral researcher. Adrián will work with TAB research group under the supervision of Prof. Ane Urtiaga.

Carlos Javier Escudero is currently performing his second predoctoral research internship at the Department of Chemistry in the Division of Nature and Exact Sciences of the University of Guanajato in Mexico, under the supervision of Dr. Juan Manuel Peralta Hernández. During this period, from April to June 2017, he will work in the field of electrochemical and photocatalytic treatment of organic compounds.

Arantza Basauri and Juan Corredor will incorporate to the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department of the University of Cantabria, next May 1^st, 2017 in the frame of the FPI grants of the projects “Aplicaciones avanzadas de separación. Modelado y validación experimental” and “Nuevos desarrollos en fotocatálisis para aplicaciones medioambientales”, respectively.

This grant will give them the opportunity to develop their thesis during a period of 4 years. Arantza will work under the supervision of Inmaculada Ortiz and Marcos Fallanza, and Juan will also work under the supervision of Inmaculada Ortiz and María José Rivero.

Alfredo Ortiz attended the Iberoamerican Meeting on Ionic Liquids – IMIL 2017, celebrated in Santos (Brazil) last April 5-7, 2017, where he presented the work “Ethane/ethylene separation through facilitated transport ionic liquid composite membranes”.

Antoniel Campos has recently been incorporated to the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department of the University of Cantabria to develop his PhD, under co-supervision of the Rio de Janeiro State University and the University of Cantabria. Dr. Alfredo Ortiz, will supervise his work during his stay at UC, April 2017 – March 2018, about Waterborne poly(urethane urea) nanocomposites films with systems of Ag NP/Ionic Liquids for separation of light olefin/paraffin. This opportunity to develop the doctorate is in the frame of a Brazilian Government grant.

The last meeting of the Advisory Board of project LIFE WIRE took place in Barcelona last March 29th, 2017. Prof. Ane Urtiaga was one of the international experts that in the field of industrial water reuse was providing scientific and technical advice on the project results. The project was coordinated by CETAQUA, and received funding from the LIFE EU program, that supports environmental, nature conservation and climate action projects.

Last April 7th, 2017, Dr. Audrey Luiz from the University of Sidney (Australia) visited the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department after attending the 3rd International Conference on Desalination using membrane technology, held in the Canary Islands (Spain). During her visit, she presented the main research projects currently developed by the Department of chemical and Biomolecular Engineering of the University of Sydney, as well as her current work, with the presentation “Treatment of Bio-refinery effluents by electrodialysis”. Members of the department attended her presentation followed by questions from the audience and a visit to the department facilities.

Diego Cilla is currently developing a research stay at the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department of the University of Cantabria. He is a PhD. student of the University of La Rioja and he works in the field of pesticides removal, under the supervision of María Teresa Martínez Soria. During his stay at UC, April to June 2017, he will work in the application of photo-catalysis technology to pesticides removal, under the supervision of Dr. María José Rivero.

Last April 2-5, 2017, Marta Herrero, Carolina Fernández and Raquel Ibáñez attended the 3rd International Conference on Desalination Using Membrane Technology – MEMDES 2017, celebrated in Gran Canaria, Spain.

On Monday, Carolina Fernández gave the oral presentation “Enhancing the performance of polyethylene based anion exchange membranes using nanomaterials for desalination of water by electrodialysis”. On Tuesday, Marta Herrero gave the presentation “Powering a BMED process for the production of HCl and NaOH from brines using a photovoltaic solar simulator”. On Wednesday, Raquel Ibáñez gave the oral presentation “Techno-economic feasibility analysis for minor elements valorization from SWRO concentrates” and presented the posters “Nanofiltration for calcium/sodium separation. Application to reverse osmosis concentrates” and “The potential of natural and waste brines as draw solutions in forward osmosis applications”.