The International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering – CHISA 2021 took place virtually on March 15-18, 2021. Researchers of the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Departament attended the congress and presented the following works:

Keynote lecture: Photocatalytic degradation of triclosan: study of the operating conditions and assessment of potential formation of organo-chlorinated by-products. S. Schröder, M. F. San Román, I. Ortiz.

Visible-light driven CO₂ reduction to methanol at Mo₂C-doped TiO₂ surfaces. J. Albo, G. García

Coupling of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium cation based room temperature ionic liquids with membrane contactor; post combustion CO₂ capture. S. Qazi, L. Gómez-Coma, J. Albo, S. Druon-Bocquet, A. Irabien, J. Sanchez-Marcano 

Electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide to formate in the absence of liquid electrolyte: Bi and Sn-based electrodes. G. Díaz-Sainz, M. Alvarez-Guerra, J. Solla-Gullón, L. García-Cruz¹, J. Albo, V. Montiel, A. Irabien. 

TiO₂ nanoparticles synthesized in supercritical medium for continuous CO₂ photoelectrocatalytic conversion. S. Castro, J. Albo, V. Rodríguez, R. Camarillo, J. Rincón, A. Irabien.

Study of nickel and copper recovery from industrial acid solutions by chelating weak base resins. L. Ulloa, E. Bringas, M. F. San Román.

On March 12^th, 2021, the Local Chemistry Olympiad took place virtually. This edition, organized by the Association of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of Cantabria – AQUIQÁN in collaboration with Cantabria Section of the RSEQ, was attended by 41 students of Cantabria region. The results were published on AQUIQÁN website on March22^nd, 2021 (https://web.unican.es/departamentos/ingquimica/Documents/OLIMPIADA%20QUIMICA/OLIMPIADA%202021/ACTA%20Olimpiada%20de%20Qu%c3%admica%20de%20Cantabria%202021.pdf).

And the winners were:

1^st prize: Iván Jesús Melero López (IES Jose María de Pereda, Santander)

2^nd prize: Estíbaliz Sáez de Astiazu Mañes (IES Ocho de Marzo, Castro Urdiales)

3^rd prize: Ángela González Vecilla (IES Muriedas, Camargo)

4^th mention: Victoria Álvarez Méndez (IES Muriedas, Camargo)

5^th mention: Paula Turégano Girón (IES Muriedas, Camargo)

6^th mention: Sandra Gutierrez Fernández (Colegio San José – Niño Jesús, Reinosa)

Prof. Inmaculada Ortiz has recently been named full member of the Royal Academy of Sciences. She will receive medal number 19, assigned to the Physical and Chemical Sciences section, out of the fifty or so medals currently assigned to experts in different fields.

Congratulations Inma!

Dr. María José delivered the conference “Avances y Retos en la eliminación fotocatalítica de contaminantes emergentes” as invited lecturer in the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara (México). The event took place virtually on February 26^th, 2021.

On February 16th, 2021 the LIFE 3-E monitoring meeting took place. Raquel Ibañez and Lucia Gómez attended the meeting, on behalf of the University of Cantabria team. The event was celebrated virtually, through Teams app.

Researchers of the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Department participate in the initiative “Científicas del pasado a nuestros días” organized by the UCC+i of the University of Cantabria to conmemorate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.  

The researchers explain their research interests in the following microvideos:

Andrea Arguillarena: https://youtu.be/P4VFiPiUuC8

Carmen Barquín: https://youtu.be/cQVYTYvAVgw

Cristina Campos https://youtu.be/70fnaXKC9JU

Ana Fernández: https://youtu.be/Z5zL76lvvOc

Belén García: https://youtu.be/tXtZYTBIMX8

Lucía Gómez: https://youtu.be/pof3RaBxeV0

Carlota Guati: https://youtu.be/D_y_9AgP3-Y

Ana Hernández: https://youtu.be/QNo954D8Zjw

Marián Mantecón: https://youtu.be/Zx19bF3YQ9M

Deva Pelayo: https://youtu.be/vy60Om2aXl8

Laura Rancaño: https://youtu.be/Pz-4UMPl57Q

Marta Romay: https://youtu.be/FLcWXHFUsJ8

Marta Rumayor: https://youtu.be/usH37WiZ108

Sophie Schröder: https://youtu.be/mCwxIISJWeA

Carolina Tristán: https://youtu.be/d8xSFwSWtb8

The work “Mobile learning in chemical engineering: An outlook based on case studies”, developed in the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Department by Raquel Ibáñez, María José Rivero, Lucía Gómez, Víctor Manuel Ortiz, Guillermo Díaz and Gema Pérez has recently been published in the journal Education for Chemical Engineers.

The Cantabria Regional Government organized a launching event for the project “LIFE 3E”, on January 28th, 2021, in the WWTP of Comillas. The event was chaired by the Environment Advisor, Mr. Guillermo Blanco. Prof. Raquel Ibañez attended as a member of the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Department of the University of Cantabria, which is involved in this project, coordinated by MARE, that is aimed at reuse water and recovery of energy from wastewaters.

Marta Herrero, PhD. in Chemical Engineering, Energy and Processes, has recently joined the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Department, thanks to a posdoctoral contract Augusto González de Linares. Marta will work in the valorization of brines for HCl and NaOH production by electrodyalisis with bipolar membranes, under the supervision of Prof. Raquel Ibáñez.

The Transfer Unit SOSPROCAN successfully passed the follow-up audit of its quality management system ISO 9001:2015, certified for the scope: Determination of organic compounds by GC and elemental analysis by ICP-MS. The audit took place last January 21^st, 2021.

You can check the complete offer of analysis on: https://web.unican.es/departamentos/ingquimica/servicios/