2. Main achievements

The following items summarizes main achievements of Prof. Rodrigo:
• 489 publications in SCOPUS with an h-index of 68 and more than 18200 citations (according to SCOPUS as for January 5th 2021) in the technological frontiers among electrochemistry -energy -environment. According to SCOPUS, main relevance is in the topics 1) “Electrochemical Oxidation; Diffusion Electrodes; Soil Washing” (Topic Field-Weighted Citation Impact (TFWCI): 1.41, 97publications) 2) “Biocathodes; Regenerative Fuel Cells; Bioelectricity” (TFWCI 1.40, 35 publications) 3) “Electrokinetics; Contaminated soil; Reactive barrier“ (TFWCI 0.91, 41 pub.) 4) “Polybenzimidazole; PEMFC; Proton conductivity” (TFWCI 1.17, 9 pub.) and “Electrocoagulation; Textile wastewater and decolorization” (TFWCI 1.23, 9 pub.)
• Development and scale up of electrochemical water and wastewater treatment processes combining fundamental and applied research on electrocoagulation and electrochemical advanced oxidation processes. First demonstration of the role of hydroxyl radicals with boron doped diamond electrodes (Journal of the Electrochemical Society 150 (3), D79-D83, 2003, with more than 725 citations), opening ways to full scale applications (Journal of Environmental Management 90(1), 410-420, 2009 with more than 270 citations) and development of new applications for industrial (Journal of Hazardous Materials 151 (1), 44-51, 2008 with more than 160 citations) and urban wastewater (Electrochimica Acta 55(27) 8160-8164 with more than 70 citations). Currently developing new technologies for the treatment of gases including pressurized electrochemical cells and new electro-absorbers (Chemical Engineering Journal 395, 125096, 2020).
• Development of new processes for the manufacturing of oxidants from hydrogen peroxide to peroxophosphates with very high efficiencies (Electrochemistry Communications 71, 65-68, 2016 with more than 50 citations) using diamond technology. Development of electrodisinfection applications based on the production of oxidants (Chemical Engineering Journal 211-212, 463-469, 2012). Demonstration scale applications made in the context of European projects (https://safewaterafrica.eu/).
• Development and scale up of microbial fuel cell technology being one of the first to demonstrate robustness of the technology (Journal of Power Sources 169, 198-204, 2007 with more than 180 citations) and achieving large production of electricity enough to light on 220 LEDs simultaneously during several weeks (Electrochimica Acta 274, 152-159, 2018).
• Development and scale up of electrochemically assisted soil remediations processes with proposal and assessment of new processes based on the combination of electrochemical technology with other processes such as adsorption, biological, phyto (Chemical Engineering Journal 285, 128-136, 2016) and evaluation of the effect of scale up for full scale implementations (Chemosphere 166, 549-555, 2017) with prototypes cells of 32 cubic meters. Currently applying the technology in an industrial consortium for a real site remediation based on electrochemistry.
• Development of more sustainable electrochemical processes by combining them with solar panels and wind turbines developing automation systems for optimum management of energy (Science of the Total Environment Volume 754, Article number 142230, 2021; Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 270,118857, 2020).
• Development of catalyst and membranes beyond the state of the art for high temperature PEM fuel cells with relevant works related to PBI (Journal of Membrane Science 306, 47-55, 2007 with more than 190 citations).
• Co-editor of two extensive books about application of electrochemical technology to remediate water & wastewater (ELSEVIER Butterworth-Heinemann, 2018, ISBN: 978-0128131602) and soil (SPRINGER, 2021, ISBN: 978-3030681395).

Professor in Chemical Engineering / Catedrático de Ingeniería Química