Dr. José M. del Valle and dr. gonzalo núñez

Professional Bio

Dr. José M. del Valle was born in 1959 in Santiago (Chile). He received a B.Sc. in Industrial and Chemical Engineering from Pontificia Universidad Católica (UC) de Chile (Santiago) in 1986, an M.Sc. in Food Science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA) in 1989, and a Ph.D. in Food Science from University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada) in 1992. The Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering Department (DIQB) of UC hired Dr. del Valle in 1992, where he currently holds a position as Associate Professor. Dr. del Valle has developed considerable expertise on SuperCritical (SC) CO₂ extraction of vegetable and other biological substrates over the last twenty years. Four sabbatical leaves contributed to Dr. del Valle’s knowledge. In 2002-2003, he worked with Gerd Bunner from Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg (TUHH) (Germany) on SC-CO₂ extraction of solid substrates. In 2011-2012, he worked with María José Cocero from Universidad de Valladolid (Spain) on the solute partition between CO₂ and vegetable matrices, and with Joan Brennecke from University of Notre Dame (Indiana, US) on CO₂ solubility in ionic liquids. Finally, in 2018-2019 he aided the leader of the strategic research focus group on Emerging Technologies in Tecnológico de Monterrey (Tec) (Monterrey, Mexico), Jorge Welti-Chanes, on the development of research and development capabilities on separation processes for food and biological materials using SC-CO₂. In Chile, Dr. del Valle collaborates with Dr. Juan de la Fuente from Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (USM) (Valparaíso), who specializes in on phase equilibrium aspects of SC-CO₂ extraction and fractionation processes. Also, with Ph.D. advisee Edgar L. Uquiche from Universidad de La Frontera (Temuco) that specialized in microstructure-extractability relationships for biological substrates optimally conditioned for SC-CO₂ extraction processes. Finally, with co-author Núñez that specializes in mathematical modeling and simulation of industrial SC-CO₂ extraction plants for solid substrates. He has authored or co-authored 84 ISI publications and four book chapters.

Dr. Gonzalo A. Núñez was born in 1978 in Valparaiso (Chile). He received a B.Sc. in Industrial and Chemical Engineering in 2003, and an M.Sc. and Dr.-Ing in Chemical and Bioprocesses Engineering in 2013 from UC. He carried out part of his doctoral thesis under the supervision of Prof. Rudolf Eggers in TUHH, working on some aspects of industrial SC-CO₂ extraction processes, particularly cooling issues associated with the depressurization of extraction vessel. He was hired in 2013 by the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at USM (Santiago), where he currently holds a position as Assistant Professor. There, Dr. Núñez heads the High-Pressure Processes Laboratory. Besides the collaboration with co-author del Valle noted in the previous paragraph, Dr. Núñez carries research on high-pressure reactions to synthesize biofuels and biopolymers, SC-CO₂ extraction of high-value-added compounds, and high-pressure phase equilibrium. He has authored or co-authored 13 ISI publications.