Macarena Munoz is Ramón y Cajal fellow in the Chemical Engineering Department at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). The researcher graduated in Environmental Sciences in June 2008 at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM). She started her experience as full-time researcher in the Chemical Engineering Section of UAM in October 2008, with a competitive UAM Scholarship. In July 2009 she was awarded with the FPU-PhD fellowship (2008-0092). Her PhD Thesis was focused on the understanding of chlorophenols removal by catalytic hydrodechlorination, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) and their combination. During her PhD studies, she was a guest researcher at the Clausthal Institute of Environmental Technology (CUTEC Institute, Germany) for three months, working on the application of different AOPs, under the supervision of Prof. Sievers. In September 2012, she obtained her PhD in Chemical Engineering (European mention) with the distinction Cum laude. She continued working as postdoc researcher at UAM funded by contracts associated to R&D projects focused on the degradation of non-biodegradable pollutants in different real industrial wastewaters. She also completed a postdoctoral stay for 3 months at Aveiro University (2013, Portugal), under the supervision of Prof. Coutinho, where she explored the application of Fenton oxidation to the treatment of ionic liquids-bearing aqueous wastes. In 2014, she took up a post-doctoral position for 18 months at Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) (Germany), under the supervision of Prof. Etzold. Within this period, the researcher was focused on the development of novel and well-defined catalysts, mainly colloidal nanoparticles, advanced carbon materials and ionic liquids-based catalysts (SILP and SCILL), for their application in processes of industrial interest. In 2015, she obtained the Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación fellowship (IJCI-2014-19427), coming back to the Chemical Engineering Section of UAM. Two years later, she obtained the Ramón y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2016-20648), position that she holds since January 2018. Her current research line is focused on the intensification of advanced oxidation processes in order to make them more cost-efficient, sustainable and technically feasible. The application of these processes is intended to the elimination of pollutants of emerging concern and cyanotoxins. In 2019, the researcher has started a new line of research dealing with the elimination of microplastics from water.
The scientific production of Dr. Munoz encompasses more than 60 JCR publications, 2 journal covers, 1 edited book, 4 book chapters and more than 70 contributions to conferences, including a plenary talk (more than 2400 citations, h factor of 26). She has been involved in 13 competitive research projects (1 European project, 1 Ibero-American project, 5 National projects and 6 Regional projects), being IP of one of them. Regarding technology transfer, she is the first author of six patents and acts as IP of three contracts (art.83) with companies (AQUALIA and CAPTOPLASTIC). In 2020, she launched as founding partner a spin-off focused on the removal of microplastics from water (CAPTOPLASTIC).
Scopus ID: 37111242500
Google scholar: Macarena Munoz
FEATURED RESEARCH PROJECTS (last five years)
INDUSTRY COLLABORATIONS
PATENTS
START-UPs
CAPTOPLASTIC S.L. is a knowledge-based company of Universidad Autónoma de Madrid , founded by BEABLE CAPITAL S.L. It is working on the development of a procedure to separate microplastics from aqueous matrices. The system can be applied for the elimination of microplastic in aqueous streams and also for the quantification and characterization of microplastics in waters.
CAPTOPLASTIC has received two awards in 2021: eAwards Spain 2021 (Fundación Everis, 20.000€) and Global eAwards 2021 (NTT Data Foundation, 80.000€). The company currently counts with the funding of two competitive projects (CaptH20PlasticDemo - S-2020/L1-633, Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional para el desarrollo de jóvenes empresas innovadoras de base tecnológica (Start-up’s) y pymes de alta intensidad innovadora- Comunidad de Madrid 2020 (60.000€); y PSQ - SNEO-20211265, NEOTEC CDTI 2021 (325.000€)).
Lines of researchRESEARCH LINES
Keywords: environmental engineering, catalysis, advanced oxidation processes, catalytic hydrodehalogenation, emerging pollutants, microplastics
Innovative technologies for the removal of micropollutants from water (MICROWATER)
Here you can see a video with a short review (InnoUAM Conference) of the research lines developed in our research group: Video
GRADO EN CIENCIAS AMBIENTALES
GRADO EN INGENIERÍA QUÍMICA
2021
Palladium-based Catalytic Membrane Reactor for the continuous flow hydrodechlorination of chlorinated micropollutants. J Nieto-Sandoval, E Gomez-Herrero, M Munoz, ZM de Pedro, JA Casas, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 120235.
Overview of toxic cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins in Ibero-American freshwaters: challenges for risk management and opportunities for removal by advanced technologies. Macarena Munoz, Samuel Cirés, Zahara M de Pedro, José Ángel Colina, Yineth Velásquez-Figueroa, Javier Carmona-Jiménez, Angela Caro-Borrero, Anthony Salazar, Mónica-Cecilia Santa María Fuster, David Contreras, Elvira Perona, Antonio Quesada, Jose A Casas, Science of The Total Environment, 143197.
2020
Fast oxidation of the neonicotinoid pesticides listed in the EU Decision 2018/840 from aqueous solutions. E Serrano, M Munoz, ZM de Pedro, JA Casas, Separation and Purification Technology, 235, 116168
CWPO intensification by induction heating using magnetite as catalyst. M Munoz, J Nieto-Sandoval, E Serrano, ZM de Pedro, JA Casas, Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 8 (5), 104085
2019
Degradation of widespread cyanotoxins with high impact in drinking water (microcystins, cylindrospermopsin, anatoxin-a and saxitoxin) by CWPO. M Munoz, J Nieto-Sandoval, S Cirés, ZM de Pedro, A Quesada, JA Casas, Water research 163, 114853
Efficient removal of the pharmaceutical pollutants included in the EU Watch List (Decision 2015/495) by modified magnetite/H2O2. E Serrano, M Munoz, ZM de Pedro, JA Casas, Chemical Engineering Journal 376, 120265
2018
Highly efficient removal of pharmaceuticals from water by well-defined carbide-derived carbons. Silvia Álvarez-Torrellas, Macarena Munoz, Jan Gläsel, Zahara M De Pedro, Carmen M Domínguez, Juan García, Bastian JM Etzold, Jose A Casas, Chemical Engineering Journal 347, 595-606
Antibiotics abatement in synthetic and real aqueous matrices by H2O2/natural magnetite. M Munoz, J Conde, ZM de Pedro, JA Casas, Catalysis Today 313, 142-147
2017
Application of CWPO to the treatment of pharmaceutical emerging pollutants in different water matrices with a ferromagnetic catalyst. Macarena Munoz, Francisco J Mora, Zahara M de Pedro, Silvia Alvarez-Torrellas, Jose A Casas, Juan J Rodriguez, Journal of hazardous materials 331, 45-54
Naturally-occurring iron minerals as inexpensive catalysts for CWPO. M Munoz, P Domínguez, ZM de Pedro, JA Casas, JJ Rodriguez, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 203, 166-173
2016
Application of intensified Fenton oxidation to the treatment of hospital wastewater: Kinetics, ecotoxicity and disinfection. M Munoz, P Garcia-Muñoz, G Pliego, ZM de Pedro, JA Zazo, JA Casas, Juan J Rodriguez, Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 4 (4), 4107-4112
Size-controlled PtNi nanoparticles as highly efficient catalyst for hydrodechlorination reactions. M Munoz, S Ponce, GR Zhang, BJM Etzold, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 192, 1-7
2015
Preparation of magnetite-based catalysts and their application in heterogeneous Fenton oxidation–a review. M Munoz, ZM De Pedro, JA Casas, JJ Rodriguez, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 176, 249-265
Ionic liquids breakdown by Fenton oxidation. M Munoz, CM Domínguez, ZM de Pedro, A Quintanilla, JA Casas, JJ Rodriguez, Catalysis Today 240 (Part A), 16-21
2014
Application of intensified Fenton oxidation to the treatment of sawmill wastewater. M Munoz, G Pliego, ZM de Pedro, JA Casas, JJ Rodriguez, Chemosphere 109, 34-41
Degradation of imidazolium‐based ionic liquids in aqueous solution by Fenton oxidation. CM Domínguez, M Munoz, A Quintanilla, ZM de Pedro, SPM Ventura, JAP Coutinho, JA Casas, JJ Rodriguez, Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology 89 (8), 1197–1202
2013
A ferromagnetic γ-alumina-supported iron catalyst for CWPO. Application to chlorophenols. M Munoz, ZM de Pedro, N Menendez, JA Casas, JJ Rodriguez, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 136, 218-224
Chlorophenols breakdown by a sequential hydrodechlorination-oxidation treatment with a magnetic Pd–Fe/γ-Al2O3 catalyst. M Munoz, ZM de Pedro, JA Casas, JJ Rodriguez, Water Research 47 (9), 3070-3080
2012
Chlorinated byproducts from the Fenton-like oxidation of polychlorinated phenols. M Munoz, ZM de Pedro, G Pliego, JA Casas, JJ Rodriguez, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 51 (40), 13092-13099
Triclosan breakdown by Fenton-like oxidation. M Munoz, ZM De Pedro, JA Casas, JJ Rodriguez, Chemical Engineering Journal 198, 275-281
2011
Assessment of the generation of chlorinated byproducts upon Fenton-like oxidation of chlorophenols at different conditions. M Munoz, ZM de Pedro, JA Casas, JJ Rodriguez, Journal of Hazardous Materials 190 (1-3), 993-1000
COVER GALLERY
OUTREACH ACTIVITIES
La startup que brotó del laboratorio para atajar la ‘plaga’ de los microplásticos
Científicos españoles desarrollan un catalizador magnético para tratar aguas residuales industriales
La UAM halla una técnica para eliminar los fármacos de las agua residuales
La UAM descubre cómo eliminar microcontaminantes clorados en aguas de consumo
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