CRETUS STAFF

Miguel Mauricio Iglesias

I am associate professor of Chemical engineering at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. By training, I am a Chemical Engineer (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 2006) and hold a PhD in Food Technology (Université de Montpellier, 2009). After a 4-year postdoctoral period at the Technical University of Denmark, I joined the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela as a Marie Curie IEF fellow in 2014.
My research career has consistently focused on modelling approaches for solving real problems in chemical, process and bioprocess engineering. I strongly believe in the importance of joining modelling and experimentation; models orientate the experimenter and interpret results while experiments are the ultimate test for a model, algorithm or design. A big part of my research deals with the biological production of chemicals from organic waste, relies both on metabolic modelling and experimental fermentation to achieve a viable biorefinery process and, ultimately, a real circular bioeconomy.

Research Lines
• Waste to chemicals. Selective production of VFA from wastes
Mixed-culture open fermentations can potentially convert residues into chemicals, such as acidogenic fermentation to yield carboxylic acids. Due to the complexity of the open fermentations, the product spectrum is very uncertain when varying the substrate and operational conditions. This research line integrates closely experimental work and modelling at metabolic level in order to engineer real waste-to-chemical processes.

• Data analysis in efficiency and LCA-decision making
Data analysis can be exploited and integrated with models in order to assess efficiency and environmental impacts in complex processes. As an example, using tools such as data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) led to an identification of the causes of inefficiency in wastewater treatment and the quantification of corrective measurements. Other developments include the integrated application of metabolic models in biorefinery design, such as the whole biopolymer production value chain.
This research line applied to energy efficiency in wastewater treatment plants gave place to the ENERWATER methodology, which became in December 2020 the European standard CEN/TR 17614:2021 ”Standard method for assessing and improving the energy efficiency of waste water treatment plants”