Young researchers from the ULL present their work on ecological transition and energy efficiency funded by the Cepsa Foundation

Cepsa's research center and several scientific groups from the University of La Laguna held an intense morning of work today, December 5th, to present more than a dozen expressions of interest that clearly demonstrate the fluid research relationship between the two entities through the Chair of Ecological Transition and Innovation which both institutions maintain, in a clear commitment to boosting the research careers of young people.

Thus, the projects stemming from the foundation's call for proposals for the 2022/23 academic year, which have already concluded, were presented first thing in the morning, while the second part of the day featured the presentations of the projects recently awarded for this academic year. These are mostly small projects that lead to undergraduate and master's theses, allowing students to lead teams and solidify their beginnings as researchers.

Joana Frontela, director of the Cepsa Research Center, emphasized that these expressions of interest allow them to identify projects and select those most aligned with the objectives of the university chair. In addition to this selection process, the research center, located in Madrid, noted that they are open to new proposals and attentive to any requests.

Javier González Sálamo.

The session began with a presentation by Javier González Sálamo, a researcher with the Viera y Clavijo program, on his project 'Determination of emerging contaminants in Tenerife wastewater using automated extraction techniques'. In his work, he proposed the need to conduct analyses of emerging contaminants. He was followed by Cristina del Mar García, who presented the project 'Boosting the circular economy in the Canary Islands through the selective capture and valorization of CO2 using new porous materials derived from biopolymers from industrial waste'.

The other two expressions of interest presented had to do with the revaluation of expired drugs, by Nayra Concepción Peña, and with 'Evaluation of the safety of by-products of the banana sector for their revaluation using green analytical protocols', by Bárbara Socas and Antonio Vicente Herrera.

After the break, there was an opportunity to learn about the projects that have been selected in the new call, a total of six, which will now begin to be developed, and which deal with artificial intelligence for the detection of polluting spills; the potential and benefits of the integration of medium and high enthalpy geothermal energy in isolated systems and its application to the case of the Canary Islands or the functionalization of conductive materials at the molecular level for the reversible capture of CO2.

Also initially presented were the projects 'One problem, one opportunity: valorization of orange peel waste for obtaining bipesticides', 'Recovery of water contaminated with phenolic compounds using two-dimensional carbides modified with food colorings' and 'Carbon storage in the eastern islands'.

The day concluded with a seminar for researchers on ecological transition and innovation entitled 'R&D as a lever for the energy transition', whose speaker was Begoña Lamothe, head of Advanced Analysis at the Cepsa Research Centre.