LABPROSEM

Prof. Quijada´s  work is focused on the design, development and evaluation of new green solvents which can be applied to separation technologies, specially, the selective separation and purification of valuable metal ions. The design and development start at the molecular level (DFT and COSMO-RS calculations) followed by an experimental evaluation to finalize with a conceptual process design in metal operations.

He has developed many projects regarding metal solvent extractions for the recovery of molybdenum, rhenium, rare earth, copper, lithium, and cobalt/nickel using ionic liquids and lately hydrophobic deep eutectic solvents. Also, projects regarding the recovery of valuable organics via liquid-liquid extractions, developments of new microextraction techniques for the capture of persistent pollutants, and the use of membranes for the treatment of liquid food towards the removal of pollutants.

Currently, he is the head of the Laboratory of Separation Processes Intensification (SPI), dedicated for the development of new solvents for hydrometallurgy and other liquid-liquid extractions and for process intensification in which currently three PhD students, two master students and many undergraduate students develop their thesis.

Prof. Quijada organized the Iberoamerican Meeting on Ionic Liquids (IMIL 2021) in Santiago de Chile (online), a series of 23 IMIL Webinars during the COVID19 pandemic, he has served as a guest editor for the journals Fluid Phase Equilibria (Elsevier) and Minerals (MDPI) and he has been invited for keynote presentations in different international congresses such as ISEC 2017 and ILSEPT 2019.