Luis Javier Lozano Blanco

NUEVOS PROCESOS DE SEPARACIÓN BASADOS EN MEMBRANAS LÍQUIDAS IÓNICAS SOPORTADAS

In this review an overview is given of recent advances in supported membranes based on ionic liquids. Novel processes based on supported liquid membranes have been proposed as effective methods for the selective separation of different chemical species in a wide variety of processes. However, the industrial use of supported liquid membranes based on organic solvents is limited by their relative instability and short lifetime. The use of ionic liquids as a liquid membrane phase could overcome these inconveniences due to their negligible vapour pressure, their greater viscosity and the possibility of minimizing their solubility in the surrounding phases by adequate selection of the cation and anion. The possibility of designing suitable ionic liquids for specific separation problems has also opened up new fields of application of supported ionic liquid membranes.

PILAS DE COMBUSTIBLE MIRCROBIANAS: UNA TECNOLOGÍA PROMETEDORA

ABSTRACT: Recent studies show that microbial fuel cells are a potential alternative to fossil fuels. Due to the current energy crisis, this technology has drawn increasing attention from the scientific community. Research efforts have been focused on improving the performance of these devices and reducing their cost, in order to make it possible the feasibility of MFC designs. Promising results have been achieved but much improvement is still needed. This work looks into the latest advances in the MFC field, covering materials, types of substrate, configuration and operating conditions, among other issues. Thanks to these new developments, which are key to understand MFC design and optimization, microbial fuel cells have become increasingly efficient systems. Keywords: microbial fuel cells, electrodes, separator, substrate, operation conditions, MFC models, ionic liquids.

PILAS DE COMBUSTIBLE MICROBIANAS: FACTORES CLAVE PARA SU DISEÑO

RESUMEN: En los ultimos anos, las pilas de combustible microbianas se han convertido en el centro de estudio de numerosas investigaciones debido a la necesidad de encontrar fuentes de energia limpias y eficientes. Los resultados muestran que en un futuro estos sistemas podrian ser la alternativa perfecta a los combustibles fosiles ya que producen electricidad a partir de diferentes tipos de residuos, tales como aguas residuales urbanas, de la industria cervecera o del papel, lo que permite su aprovechamiento. El auge de las energias renovables y las numerosas ventajas que ofrece la tecnologia de pilas de combustible microbianas ha hecho que el estudio de estos sistemas adquiera una notable importancia en la ultima decada, recogiendose en la bibliografia cientifica numerosos estudios encaminados sobre todo a la reduccion de costes de sus componentes y al aumento de la eficacia de estos sistemas. Este trabajo recoge el estado del arte de la tecnologia de pilas de combustible microbianas, haciendo especial hincapie en aspectos tales como tipos de sustratos empleados, componentes de pilas de combustible microbianas (electrodos, membrana, etc.) y nuevas configuraciones Keywords: pilas de combustible microbiana, electrodo, separador, sustrato, condiciones de operacion, liquido ionico, nanomateriales

LA VAINA DEL ALGARROBO COMO NUEVA MATERIA PRIMA PARA LA PRODUCCIÓN DE BIOETANOL

Due to the progressive deplection of fossil energetic sources and the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, new research are focusing in biofuels development mainly these feedstocks which are not competitive with animal or human feeding. In this work, carob pod is suggested as a new feedstock for bioethanol production. A tecno-economic study and life cycle assessment of the production process have been done.