Dr Fernando Climent Barba

Fernando Barba.jpg

Fernando graduated in Environmental Sciences (BSc) at University of Girona (Spain), specialising in Environmental Technology and Management. He concluded these studies under the Erasmus programme in Prague (Czech Republic), submitting the following dissertation: Research on two types of olive pits from Spain as biomass. After that, he completed the MSc in Renewable Energy Technologies at Cranfield University (UK), where oxy-combustion technologies were reviewed as group project. His MSc Thesis was based on the effect of physical and biological pre-treatments in the anaerobic digestion of food/garden wastes. Fernando is currently in the last year of the Integrated MSc/PhD in Bioenergy, supervised by Prof. John Blacker, Dr. Richard Bourne and Prof. Nik Kapur. His research focuses on the transition of batch to continuous systems for the enzymatic hydrolysis of an organic waste-pulp (Fiberight Ltd.) into fermentable sugars. This project works towards the proof-of-concept (PoC), a continuous hydrolysis reactor via an inter-disciplinary approach: contamination control, rheology, reactor design etc... During the second year, a placement stage at University of Louisville (US) took place, where an alternative reactor configuration (scraped surface) was tested.   In parallel, he is collaborating with two granted projects (MSW India/UK and OPTOMS) that aim to improve the valorisation of monomeric sugars into high-added value products.       

Publications

  1. MASON, P. E.; HIGGINS, L.; CLIMENT BARBA, F.; CUNLIFFE, A.; CHEFFINS, N.; ROBINSON, D.; JONES, J. M. An Assessment of Contaminants in UK Road-Verge Biomass and the Implications for Use as Anaerobic Digestion Feedstock. Waste and Biomass Valorization, DOI: 10.1007/s12649-018-00557-x, 2018.

  2. CLIMENT BARBA, F.; MARTíNEZ-DENEGRI SáNCHEZ, G.; SOLER SEGUí, B.; GOHARI DARABKHANI, H.; ANTHONY, E. J. A technical evaluation, performance analysis and risk assessment of multiple novel oxy-turbine power cycles with complete CO2 capture. Journal of Cleaner Production, v. 133, p. 971-985, 2016.