Chemical and Environmental Engineering Group

David Alique (Madrid, 1981) reached a degree in Chemical Engineering from Rey Juan Carlos University in 2004. After working in practice for a short period in Repsol S.A. oil refinery located in Cartagena, Murcia (Spain), he started his Ph.D. studies that were completed in 2014 with the maximum grade of “Sobresaliente Cum Laude” and Extraordinary Doctorate Mention. His main research is based on the development of H2-selective Pd-dense membranes and their application in independent separators or membrane reactors. His mobility experience includes four months in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Mining and Environmental Technologies of the University of Bologna (Bologna, Italy) and 6 months in the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energies and Sustainable Economic Development (Frascati-Roma, Italia). He has participated in 13 competitive research projects, being the main investigator in some of them. Moreover, he has also participated in multiple tasks for dissemination of the scientific results, including more than 50 communications in International conferences, thirty publications in high-quality international journals with a JCR index, and four book chapters. His activity as a reviewer of more than two hundred scientific manuscripts for diverse international journals also deserves to be highlighted.
Related to his teaching experience, he has taught more than 2,400 hours in both practice and theoretical courses for multiple official engineering grades including, among others, Chemical, Energy, Environmental, Industrial Technologies, Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace. Moreover, he supervised multiple final degree/master's projects and participated in pre-university programs promoted by Rey Juan Carlos University. Finally, it should be mentioned his participation in various activities of teaching innovation to improve his daily work as a professor.



  • Producción de bioaceite e hidrogeno a partir de microalgas mediante procesos de licuefacción hidrotérmica y reformado con vapor en reactores de membrana

    Funding : Ministerio de economía y competitividad (ENE2017-83696-R)
    Start / End Years : 2018 - 2020
    Principal Investigator : Calles Martín, José Antonio y Carrero Fernández, Alicia
    Research Team : - Alique Amor, David - Calles Martín, José Antonio - Carrero Fernández, Alicia - Martínez Díaz, David - Sanz Villanueva, Daniel - Vicente Crespo, Gemma - Vizcaíno Madridejos, Arturo J. 

      Show summary: The controversy generated by the use of agricultural edible crops for energetic applications has increased the interest of microalgae for biofuels production. Microalgae do not need large fields for its cultivation and can grow quickly. Microalgae are a renewable, sustainable and non-polluting feedstock that contribute to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions because they use CO2 in their growth. For these reasons, the overall aim of this project is the sustainable production of hydrogen and bio-oil from microalgae.
      The microalgae hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) requires lower temperatures than pyrolysis and high pressures to maintain liquid water. This is an advantage because a highly energy demand step like microalgae drying is not needed in liquefaction with the subsequent cost saving. Based on the previous results achieved by the research group (CTQ2013-44447-R project) the bio-oil obtained from one step HTL contains high oxygen (10-20 %) and nitrogen (1-8 %) amounts which are responsible of bio-oil low stability and also of the NOx emissions during bio-oil combustion. To solve these problems, a two-step HTL process is planned in this project. The first step is carried out at low temperature (T< 200 ºC) and provides an aqueous stream by decomposition of proteins and short chain carbohydrates. Next, the solid fraction undergoes a second stage of HTL at higher temperature (T = 250-350°C) with the aim of achieving a bio-oil with low content of nitrogen and oxygen. The second stage of liquefaction also produces a gas stream mainly containing carbon dioxide that may be recirculated to the cultivation of the microalgae.
      The aqueous fractions from both stages of liquefaction can be revalued through the production of high purity hydrogen by catalytic steam reforming in a membrane reactor. Hydrogen can be used as fuel using conventional technologies (combustion engines) or in development ones (fuel cells). Additionally in this project, oxidative steam reforming reactions will be done in order to reduce the energy needs of the process and to avoid catalysts deactivation by coke deposition.
      From the environmental point of view, the project will use tools like the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) to assess the emissions and energy balances, checking that they conform to a model of sustainable development.













Comprehensive permeation analysis and mechanical resistance of electroless pore-plated Pd-membranes with ordered mesoporous ceria as intermediate layer

Martinez-Diaz. D.; Martínez del Monte, D.; García-Rojas, E.; Alique, D.; Calles, J. A.; Sanz, R.


Modeling of H2 permeation through electroless pore-plated composite Pd membranes using computational fluid dynamics

Fernández, A.; Casado, C.; Alique, D.; Calles, J.A.; Marugán, J.


Stability of electroless pore-plated Pd-membranes in acetic acid steam membrane-reformers for ultra-pure hydrogen production

Adduci, G.; Martinez-Diaz, D.; Sanz-Villanueva, D.; Caravella, A.; Calles, J. A.; Sanz, R.; Alique, D.


Pre-activation of SBA-15 intermediate barriers with Pd nuclei to increase thermal and mechanical resistances of pore-plated Pd-membranes

Sanz-Villanueva, D.; Alique, D.; Vizcaíno, A.J.; Sanz, R.; Calles, J.A.


Membrane gas-liquid contactor for tritium extracton from Pb-Li alloys

Tosti, S.; Pozio, A.; Farina, L.; Incelli, M.; Santucci, A.; Alique, D.


Ultra-pure hydrogen via co-valorization of olive mill wastewater and bioethanol in Pd-membrane reactors

Alique, D.; Bruni, G.; Sanz, R.; Calles, J. A.; Tosti, S.


Stability of pore-plated membranes for hydrogen production in fluidized-bed membrane reactors

Tosto, E.; Alique, D.; Martinez-Diaz, D.; Sanz, R.; Calles, J.A.; Caravella, A.; Medrano, J.A.; Gallucci, F.


Pd-thickness reduction in electroless pore-plated membranes by using doped-ceria as interlayer

Martinez-Diaz, D.; Alique, D.; Calles, J.A.; Sanz, R.


Influence of Si and Fe/Cr oxides as intermediate layers in the fabrication of supported Pd membranes

Maroño, M.; D'Alessandro, G.; Morales, A.; Martinez-Diaz, D.; Alique, D.; Sánchez, J.M.


Preliminary equipment design for on-board hydrogen production by steam reforming in palladium membrane reactors

Holgado, M.; Alique, D.


On the energy efficiency of hydrogen production processes via steam reforming using membrane reactors

Bruni, G.; Rizzello, C.; Santucci, A.; Alique, D.; Incelli, M.; Tosti, S.


H2 permeation increase of electroless pore-plated Pd/PSS membranes with CeO2 intermediate barriers

Martínez-Díaz, D.; Sanz, R.; Calles, J. A. Alique, D.


Hydrogen production in a Pore-Plated Pd-membrane reactor: Experimental analysis and model validation for the Water Gas Shift reaction

Sanz, R.; Calles, J. A.; Alique, D.; Furones, L.; Ordóñez, S.; Marín, P.


Thermal stability and effect of typical water gas shift reactant composition on H2 permeability through a Pd-YSZ-PSS composite membrane

Calles, J. A.; Sanz, R.; Alique, D.; Furones, L.


H2 production via water gas shift in a composite Pd membrane reactor prepared by the pore-plating method

Sanz, R.; Calles, J. A.; Alique, D.; Furones, L.


Modelling and simulation of permeation behaviour on Pd/PSS composite membranes prepared by "pore-plating" method

Sanz, R.; Calles, J. A.; Ordóñez, S.; Marín, P.; Alique, D.; Furones, L.


New synthesis method of Pd membranes over tubular PSS supports via "pore-plating" for hydrogen separation processes

Sanz, R.; Calles, J. A.; Alique, D.; Furones, L.


Influence of the type of siliceous material used as intermediate layer in the preparation of hydrogen selective palladium composite membranes over a porous stainless steel support

Calles, J. A.; Sanz, R.; Alique, D.


Preparation, testing and modeling of hydrogen selective Pd/YSZ/SS composite membrane

Sanz, R.; Calles, J. A.; Alique, D.; Furones, L.; Ordóñez, S.; Marín, P.; Corengia, P.; Fernández, E.


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