Desalination and Photosynthesis
Description and lines of research
The Desalination and Photosynthesis unit develops two parallel lines of work: desalination and water treatment using membrane systems (membrane distillation and solar-powered reverse osmosis), and the production of microalgae and products of interest through solar biorefineries (SABANA Platform).
Strategic lines
- Development of solar desalination and membrane-based water treatment systems
- Application of solar energy to the treatment of hypersaline solutions
- Recovery of valuable compounds from brines and hypersaline effluents
- Design of photobioreactors and novel devices of interest for microalgae cultivation
- Applications of microalgae in the treatment of urban and industrial wastewater
- Valorization of microalgal biomass following sustainable processes based on the biorefinery concept
Principal investigators
ORCID: 0000-0002-1923-7214 · Scopus Author ID: 55860933400. Tomás Lafarga earned a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Almería, Spain (2010), and a PhD in Agriculture and Food Science and Technology from University College Dublin, Ireland (2016). He is a Ramón y Cajal researcher in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Almería. His scientific work includes more than 120 papers in high-impact journals and book chapters, three edited books, and over 60 presentations at national and international conferences, all focused on industrial biotechnology and chemical engineering. He has taken part in 16 projects, serving as principal investigator on seven, and has collaborated on six industry contracts, acting as principal investigator on two. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Society for Applied Phycology (ISAP), as well as RENUWAL (Ibero-American Network for the Treatment of Effluents with Microalgae) and SOLABIAA (Latin American Society for Algal and Environmental Biotechnology). Since 2018, he has been included in Stanford University’s list of the world’s most influential researchers.
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4452-9980 · Scopus Author ID: 6701505211. Guillermo Zaragoza holds a PhD in Applied Physics from the University of Granada, Spain (1996). He has held academic positions at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the University of Oxford and the Las Palmerillas Experimental Station (Fundación Cajamar). He is a senior scientist in CIEMAT’s Department of Energy at the Plataforma Solar de Almería, where he currently leads the Solar Thermal Energy Applications scientific unit. He has published more than 95 peer-reviewed international journal articles, presented over 150 papers at international conferences, and authored 11 book chapters and co-authored five books. He teaches on international courses in solar desalination organised by the European Desalination Society (EDS) and on CIESOL’s Master’s Course on Solar Energy. He leads the Renewable Energy Desalination Working Group at Water Europe and is also its ambassador.