UNIDAD DE APLICACIONES SOLARES TÉRMICAS

Research interest

Dr. Guillermo Zaragoza is a senior researcher in CIEMAT. His main research is focused on the application of solar thermal energy to desalination and brine concentration, with special focus on membrane distillation technologies.

Track record

Guillermo Zaragoza has a PhD in Physics, has held academic positions at the University of Oxford, the Spanish Research Council and the greenhouse research facility of Cajamar Foundation. He has a long academic record (>90 papers, 5 books and 11 book chapters) and extensive experience in international R&D projects (>40), teaches in a master course on Solar Energy at the University of Almería and in international courses on Solar Desalination organized by the European Desalination Society, of which he has been board director. He is ambassador of the Water Europe platform and leader of the Working Group on Renewable Energy Desalination.

Research interest

His profile is mainly connected to R+D projects related to water treatment with advanced oxidation processes. He has participated as researcher in 9 national projects, 16 EU projects (IV, V, VI, VII and H2020 FP) and 5 research contracts with private companies related to the development of Solar Energy Technologies for the treatment of industrial waste waters and desalination.

Track record

From 2002 to present, he has been working as a Tenured Scientist at Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA)-CIEMAT. He is author of 6 books in national publishing and co-author of 18 books in international publishing, co-author of 112 articles in scientific journals, 120 contributions to international congresses and symposiums and several contributions to national congresses. H index (june 2022) = 50.

Research interest

Lidia Roca scientific career is focused on modelling, control and optimization of systems powered by solar thermal energy, especially solar thermal desalination such as multi-effect distillation and membrane distillation. Her scientific interest is to make the solar thermal applications more competitive by applying appropriate control techniques and provide scientific culture to society.

Track record

She received the academic degree in Electronic Engineering by the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Granada (2004), Master's in Solar Energy by the University of Almería (2007) and the PhD. degree in the University of Almería (2009), granted by the Extraordinary Doctorate Award in Engineering. Currently she belongs to the Solar Thermal Applications Unit at the Plataforma Solar de Almería. She has published 41 papers in scientific journals with impact index, 43 contributions to international conferences and 2 books. She has been involved in 17 national and international R&D projects.

Research interest

Her main research lines are: the Modelling and Simulation of Concentrated Solar Power and Desalination (CSP+D) plants, high-efficient MED plants coupled with pretreatments that remove bivalent ions to increase the operation temperature of MED, integration of MED plants with thermal-vapor compression into high temperature power cycles of solar central towers and water saving in CSP plants by the use of hybrid cooling methods. She has participated as a researcher in 17 international projects, 3 national projects and 8 reserach contracts.

Track record

Since 2014 she works as postdoctoral researcher at the Solar Thermal Applications Unit at PSA. She is author of 2 books and of 3 book chapters. She is co-author of 42 papers in SCI journals and 4 publications in technical journals and she has presented 50 contributions to different International Conferences. She has directed 2 doctoral thesis and has 1 currently ongoing. She has directed 3 Master Thesis and 1 Degree Final Project. H-index (June 2022): 20.

Research interest

His work is focus on R+D projects related to the application of automation techniques (modeling, simulation and optimization) to the design, operation and maintenance of renewable systems, an in particular to solar thermal systems, with the aim to improve efficiency and performance.

Track record

From 2007, he has been doing research at Plataforma Solar de Almería – CIEMAT where he has been involved in national, as well as European, research projects. He has contributed with publications in national and international conferences and authored 22 scientific papers in JCR Impact Factor Journals. He also supervised several final degree projects and two PhD. Dissertations.

Research interest

His profile is mainly connected to R+D projects related to solar water desalination, in particular with multi-effect distillation technology. He has also worked with membrane-based desalination processes and salinity gradient power technologies. He has participated as a researcher in four EU projects (H2020, Interreg Atlantic Area Programme), one national project (Retos) and one international project (Qatar National Research Fund).

Track record

From 2016 to 2018, he has been working as a research fellow at the University of Palermo (Italy) within the EU project RED-Heat-to-Power, which is related to power production through a closed-loop reverse electrodialysis heat engine. In 2019, he joined the 'Desalación Solar' group TEP-026 at the University of Seville, where he investigated the forward osmosis and pressure retarded osmosis processes. In 2020, he was contracted by the University of Almería as a postdoctoral researcher to work within the EU Project SOLWARIS, in modeling activities. Since 2021, he is a research fellow within Solar Thermal Applications Unit at Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA)-CIEMAT. By June 2022, he is co-author of 17 scientific articles (first author in 10 of them), co-author of one book in international publishing, and has 12 contributions to international congresses. H-index = 12.

Research interest

Track record

Research interest

Isabel Requena has studied a degree on Industrial Chemical Engieneering at the University of Almería, Spain (2016) and a Master´s Degree of Chemical Engieneering (2018). At the moment, she is a PhD student at CIEMAT-Plataforma Solar de Almería, and studies membrane distillation desalination for the concentration of brines, under the direction of Dr. Guillermo Zaragoza and Dr. Juan Antonio Andrés Mañas, both from CIEMAT-PSA.

Research interest

Juan Miguel Serrano was born in Almeria on September 14, 1997, as a child he moved to the municipality of Nijar where he completed his basic education. In 2015 he began his studies in Industrial Electronic Engineering at the University of Almeria completing them four years later, a year later he completed the double degree agreement with the Università degli Studi di Brescia obtaining the degree of "Dottore in Ingegneria dell'Automazione Industriale". In 2020 he completed his master's degree in Industrial Engineering and in February of the following year he obtained a contract to do his doctorate with CIEMAT at the Plataforma Solar de Almeria where he is currently working.

Research interest

Fernando Aparicio has studied the degree in Chemistry at the University of Murcia, Spain (2020). In 2021 he worked at the University of Almería, in the Analytical Chemistry of Contaminants group. Currently, he is working in desalination at CIEMAT-Plataforma Solar de Almería.

Research interest

Alba Ruiz-Aguirre has developed her research activity in the line Solar Treatment of Water with Cutting Edge Technologies, specifically: i) membrane distillation for decentralized desalination; ii) applications of solar-powered membrane technology to the recovery of valuable compounds iii) production of sustainable fuels and chemical compounds from wastewater in reduction photocatalytic atmospheres.

Track record

Alba Ruiz-Aguirre completed her PhD (extraordinary award) (2017) at University of Almería (UAL) with a predoctoral contract UAL-PSA. She was subsequently hired by the University of Palermo (2017-2019). Since 2020, she has been working as a researcher at PSA thanks to obtaining several competitive contracts (JdC, PAIDI and permanent position). A date of 2024, she has participated in a total of 5 national and 10 international R&D projects. The transfer of her knowledge has been done by publishing 25 articles in indexed articles, 1 book and 4 book chapters. She is currently supervising 1 PhD Dissertation (2021-2025).