Ricard Garcia Valls
- Associate Professor
- Director of the Department of Chemical Engineering
- Avda. Països Catalans, 26. 43007, Tarragona
- Office 225 (Director’s office)
- +34977559611
- ricard.garcia(ELIMINAR)@urv.cat
- Research group web page
- Keywords / Research areas: Membranes, Encapsulation, Fuel cells, Hydrogen, CCU
Bio
I obtained my doctorate from the Universitat Autònoma de of Barcelona in 1995 and I did my postdoctoral stay at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, MA, USA (1996-1998). In 1998 I arrived at the URV, at the Department of Chemical Engineering, in a research group where I started the line of research on membranes from my arrival. Since 1991 my main research is the development, production and characterization of membranes and microcapsules and multiple application fields. During my PhD studies, the main topic was the selective liquid membranes for the purification of lanthanides that ended in the first production of polymeric membranes including selective components for lanthanides. In the post-doctorate, at MIT, the research activity was about the application of lignin to the chelation of metal ions, in collaboration with a newly created US company. At the URV, I started to combine lignin and membrane technology for its purification. Then I began to work deeply in the synthesis of membranes and applications, including microcapsules. Some of the latest applications focus on fuel cells, with special interest in systems related to artificial photosynthesis, hydrogen, CO2 capture and use and medical applications. As for managing tasks I have been director of the School of Chemical Engineering (ETSEQ) of the URV for 4 years, and deputy director for almost 4 years, in addition to being responsible for international relations and responsible for a Master of Chemical Engineering, which also had an international agreement with other European universities: INPL (France) and ICTP (Czech Republic). I have 22 years’ experience teaching in Chemical Engineering and I have been the course coordinator and project leader of the integrated design project in the degree of Chemical Engineering. I have been responsible for the pilot plan of a Master of Chemical Engineering in the European system of Bologna and responsible for the development and implementation of the ECTS system (2004). From July 2008 to 2011 I was director of the CIDEM / COPCA METEOR innovation center, the only center specialized in this area in the network. It was afterwards integrated in the CTQ (Technological Center of Chemistry) where I was responsible for the area of membranes and microcapsules. In autumn 2019 the center was integrated into a large technological center of Catalonia, Eurecat. The unit is called Chemical Technology Unit, of which I am the director since January 2020.