NEWS

Mónia Martins distinguished by the European Federation of Chemical Engineering

April 29, 2019

Mónia Martins won the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE) Excellence Award for the Best Doctoral Thesis in the area of Thermodynamics and Transport Properties. The work entitled Studies for the Development of New Separation Processes with Terpenes and Their Environmental Distribution gave new insights on separation processes for this class of compounds of enormous relevance in cosmetic, pharmaceutical or food industries.

The award-winning work, guided by Prof. João Coutinho from CICECO at UA, and Prof. Simão Pedro Pinho from LSRE-LCM/CIMO at IPB, is related to the extraction of terpenes from natural sources and their subsequent separation and purification as well as to their fate in the environment. The evaluation committee highlighted the originality of the studied topic and methodology followed, innovation, industrial relevance, and scientific impact of the work.

Dr. Mónia Martins is currently Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Associate Laboratories LSRE-LCM and CICECO - Institute of Materials of Aveiro where she has been developing new solvents with applications on metal extraction or for the separation and purification of bioactive compounds.

The 2019 Excellence Award will be presented next June at the 26th Thermodynamics Conference, in Huelva, where Dr. Mónia Martins will deliver an invited talk.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

PUBLICATIONS

J.L. Figueiredo. A Relevância da Indústria Química e o seu Contributo para a Sociedade. Princípia Editora, Lda., Cascais, 2022

APPROVED PROJECTS

ERA-ARE - A new ERA for Environmental Risk Assessment: Chirality as a tool towards environmentally safe pharmaceuticals. Reference: ERC - 101039270. Funded by: European Comission, Horizon Europe | ERC | STARTING GRANTS. Starting Date: 2023/12/31. Duration: 60 months.
F-CAT - A catalytic tool for the defluorination of PFAS in drinking water into degradable organics. Reference: 2022.03874.PTDC. Funded by: FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, . Starting Date: 2023/03/01. Duration: 18 months.
STAR - STereoselective environmental processes in Antibiotics: role for Resistance. Reference: 2022.02842.PTDC. Funded by: FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, . Starting Date: 2023/03/01. Duration: 36 months.
DRopH2O - Drinking water quality: early warning and removal of microcontaminants by innovative carbon-based materials. Reference: 2022.08738.PTDC. Funded by: FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, . Starting Date: 2023/03/01. Duration: 36 months.
SuN2Fuel - Photo-assisted production of green ammonia-based fuels. Reference: 2022.04682.PTDC. Funded by: FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, . Starting Date: 2023/03/01. Duration: 36 months.
CO2-to-CH4 - Cutting-edge solar-to-heat technology to foster photo-thermocatalytic CO2 methanation towards a climate-neutral economy. Reference: 2022.01176.PTDC. Funded by: FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, . Starting Date: 2023/03/01. Duration: 18 months.
H2O-3DCapture - Water harvesting – sustainable solution based on a gas-adsorption process using innovative 3D-printed hybrid materials. Reference: 2022.01973.PTDC. Funded by: FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, . Starting Date: 2023/03/01. Duration: 18 months.

THESIS DEFENSES

André Tiago Torres Pinto
Optimised 2D Carbon Materials Activated by Artificial Light and Electrical Current for Catalytic Water and Wastewater Treatment
Larissa Oliveira Paulista
Solar-Driven Thermo-Photocatalytic CO2 Valorisation into Value-Added Fuels
Isabel Sousa Fernandes
Multiphase Flow in NETmix: mixing studies and applications
Rute Agostinha Gomes Seabra
Separation of light hydrocarbons by Simulated Moving Bed
Rafael Gomes Morais
Noble-metal free carbon-based materials for energy conversion
Pedro Henrique Presumido
Membrane Processes for Tertiary Treatment of Urban Wastewaters: Photocatalytic Membrane Reactor and Ozone Membrane Reactor