Dr.

ALFREDO ORTIZ
Assistant Professor
University of Cantabria
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Av. de los Castros s/n
39005 Santander
Cantabria
Espaa
Telephone: +34 942 206778
Email : ortizal@unican.es

RESEARCH TOPICS
My research interests focus on membrane separation technologies, in the group
Advanced Separation Processes led by Prof. Inmaculada Ortiz. I mainly work on the
separation of gas mixtures by reactive absorption using Room Temperature Ionic Liquids
as reactive solvents in different contactors.
DESCRIPTION
Light olefins such as ethylene and propylene are important chemical precursors that
play an essential role in many chemical syntheses and industrial processes. Common
low-temperature distillation technology for separation of olefins from paraffin streams
represents one of the most important, but also the most costly, processes in the
petrochemical industry. Development of economically viable propylene/propane
separation processes is becoming increasingly important, but it is extremely challenging
due to the physico-chemical similarities between those two molecules. Among a
number of alternatives separation processes, reactive absorption process carried out in
a suitable gas-liquid contactor with the selective formation of reversible complexes
olefin-silver in room temperature ionic liquid media may be attractive in this respect.
PROJECTS
i)

Funded by public institutions:

Research and Development of Reactive Separations. Contribution to
Sustainable Technological Development (CTQ2008-00690/PPQ).
Sustainable Production based on the Intensification and Integration of
Processes (PROSOS).
Optimal design of an olefin/paraffin separation process based on the use of
selective membranes.
Research and development of pervaporation advanced separation
processes: Modelling and scale-up.

ii)

Collaborative projects with companies:

Reprocessing of trivalent chromium spent passivated baths by ion
exchange.

PUBLICATIONS
Room temperature ionic liquid with silver salt as efficient reaction media for
propylene/propane separation: Absorption equilibrium, Alfredo Ortiz, Alicia Ruiz, Daniel
Gorri, Inmaculada Ortiz, Separation & Purification Technology 63 (2008) pages 311-318.
Selective iron removal from spent passivation baths by ion exchange, Iaki FernandezOlmo, Alfredo Ortiz, Ane Urtiaga, Inmaculada Ortiz, Journal of Chemical Technology
and Biotechnology 12 (2008) 1616.
Modelling of iron removal from spent passivation baths by ion exchange in fixed-bed
operation, Alfredo Ortiz, Iaki Fernandez-Olmo, Ane Urtiaga, Inmaculada Ortiz, Industrial
& Engineering Chemistry Research 48 (15) (2009) pages 7448-7452.
The use of ionic liquids as efficient extraction medium in the reactive separation of
cycloolefines from cyclohexane, Daniel Gorri, Alicia Ruiz, Alfredo Ortiz, Inmaculada
Ortiz, Chemical Engineering Journal 154 (2009) pages 241-245.
Kinetics of reactive absorption of propylene in RTIL-Ag+ media, Alfredo Ortiz, Lara Mara
Galn, Daniel Gorri, Andr de Haan, Inmaculada Ortiz, Separation & Purification
Technology (in press, March 2010, DOI 10.1016/j.seppur.2010.03.008).
Separation of propylene/propane mixtures using Ag+- RTIL solutions. Evaluation and
comparison of the performance of gas-liquid contactors, Alfredo Ortiz, Daniel Gorri,
Angel Irabien, Inmaculada Ortiz, Journal of Membrane Science (accept, May 2010,
DOI 10.1016/j.memsci.2010.05.013)
Reactive ionic liquid media for the separation of propylene/propane gaseous mixtures,
Alfredo Ortiz, Lara Mara Galn, Daniel Gorri, Andr de Haan, Inmaculada Ortiz,
Industrial& Engineering Chemistry Research (accept, May 2010)
OTHER RESULTS