RESEARCH LINES
Universidad de Castilla – La Mancha. Ciudad Real
Treatment of industrial effluents by Advanced Oxidation Processes.
The objective of this research line is to carry out a study at different scales (laboratory, pilot plant and semi-industrial prototype) of the removal of pollutants present in industrial effluents (thermal power plants, textiles, oil
mills, wine industry, pharmaceutical laboratories) by applying photocatalysis processes using ultraviolet light and solar radiation.
Thus, the degree of mineralization and the reduction in toxicity in the presence of oxidants such as H2O2 and homogeneous catalysts are analyzed, studying the effect of different variables.
Modeling of Diesel Particulate Matter emissions in engines.
In this project, a kinetic diagnostic model has been developed. It allows predicting both gaseous and particulate emissions produced by diesel engines depending on their
operating conditions or fuel type.
This allows a complete knowledge of the evolution of the species in the cylinder and the final emissions of pollutants, thus helping to propose reduction schemes once their origin is known.
Recovery of heavy metals from contaminated water and soils.
The recovery of inorganic Mercury and Nickel present in water from metallurgical processes by ion exchange operations and in contaminated soils using phyto-remediation techniques has been studied.
The operating conditions have been optimized and a crandallite type compound has been synthesized as an ion exchanger.
Purification of polluted water in the third world through solar photocatalysis and pasteurization.
The main purpose of this research line is to develop a compact water purification system for the third world countries using sunlight.
This equipment, on the one hand, has to remove toxicity from water used for human consumption using solar photocatalysis, and in addition, it has to completely disinfect microbiologically the water treated in the previous stage by pasteurization with solar energy. The final objective is to build a portable equipment with a minimum cost, which could be around 300-400 euros, so that a family could obtain 20 L/day of drinking water.