SHORT SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC LIFE
Javier Guerrero Camacho (Sabadell, 1985) is a chemical engineer (UAB, 2008) and PhD in Environmental in Science and Technology with the thesis entitled “Improving EBPR stability in WWTPs aiming at simultaneous carbon and nutrient removal” awarded with Cum Laude and UAB Honors (UAB, 2014). This work was conducted in GENOCOV group, which is part of the Department of Chemical Engineering of UAB, and supervised by PhD Albert Guisasola and PhD Juan Antonio Baeza (PI). The topic of his research was to understand the underlying mechanisms of Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal (EBPR) process deterioration due to nitrate presence in the anaerobic phase and studying alternatives to minimise its causes, for example the development of low-cost advanced control strategies. During this period, he was visiting during three months the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering (Technical University of Denmark) to improve his knowledge on biochemical models development for wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) simulation and to develop advanced and optimised control strategies to improve WWTP operation. Prof. Krist Gernaey was in charge of his supervision during this research stay. In the last thesis year, he combined his thesis writing with a position as Process Engineer in Ahidra, agua i energia, S.L., which is an engineering company focussed on “turnkey” projects, with advanced technologies in waste energy recovery and wastewater treatment. After his PhD thesis, he moved again to UAB as postdoctoral researcher in the research group headed by PhD. Albert Guisasola (PI) and PhD. Juan Antonio Baeza, which is focussed on the study of Bioelectrochemical systems for the valorization of wastewaters.
Javier’s research interests for this period were:
- Development and optimization of novel configurations for an efficient and stable biological nutrient (i.e. organic matter, nitrogen and phosphorus) removal of urban/industrial wastewaters in terms of high removal efficiency with the minimum operational costs
- Design and optimization of novel advanced control strategies to improve biological nutrient removal: from model-based development to practical implementation and validation
- Use of modelling tools for a better understanding of biological nutrient removal processes
- Scaling-up of bioelectrochemical systems in view of favour energy recovery together with wastewater treatment
- Understanding the mechanisms for microbial electrosynthesis of organic compounds through CO2 capture.
As a result of his research, he has contributed so far to the publication of 10 international peer-reviewed papers with a high impact factor. According to SCOPUS (04/12/14) he has 83 citations. He was also awarded with “Premi Idea” granted by Catalan Biotechnology Reference Network for the project entitled: In-situ flotation settling system, a novel approach for bulking minimisation in WWTP.
PUBLICATIONS
- Guerrero, J., Guisasola, A., Vilanova, R., Baeza, J.A., 2011. Improving the performance of a WWTP control system by model-based setpoint optimisation. Environmental Modelling and Software 26, 492-497.
- Guerrero, J., Guisasola, A., Baeza, J.A., 2011. The nature of the carbon source rules the competition between PAO and denitrifiers in systems for simultaneous biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal. Water Research 45, 4793-4802.
- Guerrero, J., Guisasola, A., Comas, J., Rodríguez-Roda, I., Baeza, J.A., 2012. Multi-criteria selection of optimum WWTP control setpoints based on microbiology-related failures, effluent quality and operating costs. Chemical Engineering Journal 188, 23-29.
- Guerrero, J., Tayà, C., Guisasola, A., Baeza, J.A., 2012. Understanding the detrimental effect of nitrate presence on EBPR systems: effect of the plant configuration. Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology, 1508-1511.
- Guerrero, J., Tayà, C., Guisasola, A., Baeza, J.A., 2012. Glycerol as a sole carbon source for enhanced biological phosphorus removal. Water Research 46 (9), 2983-2991.
- Tayà, C., Guerrero, J., Guisasola, A., Baeza, J.A., 2013. Methanol-driven enhanced biological phosphorus removal with a syntrophic consortium. Biotechnology and Bioengineering 110(2), 391-400.
- Ostace, G.S., Baeza, J.A., Guerrero, J., Guisasola, A., Cristea, V.M., Agachi, P.S., Lafuente, J., 2013. Development and economic assessment of different WWTP control strategies for optimal simultaneous removal of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. Computers and Chemical Engineering 53, 164-177.
- Guerrero, J., Flores-Alsina, X., Guisasola, A., Baeza, J.A., Gernaey, K.V., 2013. Effect of nitrite, limited reactive settler and plant design configuration of the predicted performance of simultaneous C/N/P removal WWTPs. Bioresource Technology 136, 680-688.
- Guerrero, J., Tayà, C., Guisasola, A., Baeza, J.A., 2014. Eliminación biológica de fósforo: avances en el estudio de su deterioro por recirculación de nitrato. TecnoAqua 6, 58-65.
- Guerrero, J., Guisasola, A., Baeza, J.A., 2014. A novel control strategy for an efficient biological phosphorus removal with carbon-limited wastewaters. Water Science and Technology 70(4), 691-697.