Arantza Basauri defended her doctorate thesis “Advanced methodology for LPS capture from biofluids”, developed in the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Department of the University of Cantabria, under the supervision of Prof. Inmaculada Ortiz and Dr. Marcos Fallanza. The academic event took place on April 29^th, 2021 in the conference room of the ETSIIT. The evaluation committee was formed by Prof. Ángel Irabien (University of Cantabria, Spain), Prof. Manuel Arruebo (University of Zaragoza, Spain) and Prof. Loredana de Bartolo (University of Calabria, Italy).

Prof. Mark B. Shiflett, Foundation Distinguished Professor, Chemical and Petroleum Engineering of the University of Kansas (USA), delivered the talk “The history of refrigerants: What´s next? The event took place virtually on May 7th, 2021, and it was organized in the frame of the Doctorate in Chemical Engineering, Energy and Processes of the University of Cantabria.

The scientific work “Power-to-Ships: Future electricity and hydrogen demands for shipping on the Atlantic coast of Europe in 2050”, has recently been published in the journal Energy. This work has been developed in the frame of the Hylantic project by the researchers of the University of Cantabria, Rafael Ortiz Imedio, Alfredo Ortiz Sainz de Aja and Inmaculada Ortiz Uribe, in collaboration with researchers of the prestigious Institute (IEK-3) Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH (Germany).

The Chemical Engineer, Tamara Sampedro Pelayo, joins the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Departament to work in the research project “LIFE-3-E”, led by Prof. Inmaculada Ortiz.

It is a pleasure to announce the celebration of the Local Chemistry Miniolympiad 2021. This edition will be held virtually, via Moodle (virtual room of the University of Cantabria) next May 7^th, 2021.

More information is available on: https://web.unican.es/departamentos/ingquimica/aquiqan

The scientific work “Influence of QD photosensitizers in the photocatalytic production of hydrogen with biomimetic [FeFe]-hydrogenase. Comparative performance of CdSe and CdTe”,  developed in the frame of HYLANTIC project, has been recently published in the journal Chemosphere. This work has been developed by the researchers of the Chemical & Biomoelcular Engineering Department of the University of Cantabria Juan Corredor, María José Rivero and Inmaculada Ortiz, in collaboration with reserachers of the  Department of Physics and Center for Photochemical Sciences, Bowling Green State Univers (USA), Dulanjan Harankahag and  Mikhail Zamkov, and Frederic Gloaguen, from the CNRS, Universite de Bretagne Occidentale (Brest, France).

On April 12^th, 2021, the award ceremony of the AQUIQÁN award to the final projects of the Degree in Chemical Engineering took place. In this edition the winners were:

Pablo Sánchez Diz – “Modelado de un proceso híbrido de separación con membranas de pervaporación para la purificación de bio-butanol”

Gonzalo Moral Real – “Modelling and simulation of propylene purification processes using facilitated transport membranes”

Angel Herrero Álvarez – “Diseño conceptual de un prototipo de coche químico basado en pilas de combustible de ácido fórmico”

Students of the European Project Semester (EPS) of the Chemical Engineering Degree of the University of Cantabria had the opportunity to attend the master class, delivered by Prof. Nalan Kabay on March 29^th, 2021. Prof. Kabay, who is developing her activity on the Chemical Engineering Department of the Ege University (Izmir, Turkey) talked about membrane processes for wastewtaer reclamation to produce water for irrigation and industrial reuse. This activity was performed in the frame of the Project “Virtualización de la docencia como herramienta para la internacionalización y su implementación en el programa European Project Semester”, financed by the “VIII convocatoria de acciones de internacionalización” of the University of Cantabria. The University of Poznan (Poland), Ege (Turkey) and Sahmoon College of Engineering (Israel) are also involved in the project.

On March 18th, 2021 the AQUIQÁN Award for the Best Poster in Chemical Engineering, organized in the frame of the celebration of Saint Joseph ´s Day, took place. In this edition, celebrated virtually, 5 students of the Chemical Engineering degree participated with the following works:

• Membranes and spacers effect in gradient salinity energy by reverse electrodialysis technology – by Jose Antonio Abarca González
• Mixing evaluation in a spiral microreactor – by Gloria González Lavín
• Simulation of hydrogen streams performance in an internal combustion engine – by Fabián Musy Palacio
• Hydrogen recovery from industrial waste streams for fuel cell application – by Laura Ruiz Cuesta
• Selective recovery of refrigerant gases using ionic liquids – by Miguel Viar Fernández

During the meeting, all participants presented their posters and afterwards the election of the winners took place through a survey sent to all participants. And the winners were:

Best poster – Gloria González Lavín

Honorable Mention- Fabián Musy Palacio, Laura Ruiz Cuesta, Jose Antonio Abarca González and  Miguel Viar Fernández

Congratulations and thanks for your participation!

Stephanie Wettstein, associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Montana State University, (USA) delivered the talk “Using statistical modeling for increased chemical yields from biomass reactions”. The event took place virtually through Teams app last March 26^th, 2021. This conference was organized in the frame of the Doctorate in Chemical Engineering, Energy and Processes of the University of Cantabria.