Julio López
Location: Barcelona, Cataluya, Spain
Position: Early Career Researcher at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Biography: Julio López is an accomplished chemical engineer who pursued his academic journey at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, earning a BSc in Chemical Engineering in 2014. Julio continued to advance his expertise with an MSc in Chemical Engineering from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. His passion for research and sustainable engineering led him to achieve a PhD in Chemical Process Engineering at the same institution in 2019.
Today, Julio is involved in cutting-edge research at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. His work primarily focuses on the recovery of critical raw materials from secondary sources and the development of sustainable processes for waste valorisation. As part of the SEArcularMINE project, Julio has significantly contributed to two major research areas: the recovery of trace elements from brines using ion-exchange resins, and the utilization of electrodialysis with bipolar membranes for the in-situ generation of chemicals from waste brines. These innovative approaches have demonstrated the feasibility of selectively recovering low-concentration elements and significantly concentrating them, as well as maintaining process circularity through efficient waste brine management.
Julio considers the most rewarding moment of his work on SEArcularMINE as seeing the pilot plants operating at the Trapani saltworks. Looking forward, Julio is committed to working within academia, where he plans to continue working on resource recovery.
