On July 3, 2024 the agreement Circular Economy in Engineering was signed with the Department of Sustainability of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa. This agreement includes two lines of work in which GMT will participate. Firstly, we will continue with the study of textile waste, analyzing physicochemical processes of textile waste recycling. In addition, we will evaluate the possibility of incorporating different renewable and recycled materials in the manufacture of the motorcycle that is being developed at the Engineering Faculty Gipuzkoa within the framework of the MotoStudent project.

Dr. Gordobil has participated as an invited speaker in the WWSC Summer workshop 2024 held in Kolmarden (Sweden) and organized by the Wallenberg Wood Science Center. She has presented her research “Impact of emulsification parameters and ingredients on the characteristics of O/W Pickering emulsions stabilized by colloidal lignin particles”.

Our Group researcher Ana Cristina Restrepo presented the work entitled Reciclabilidad de poliuretanos reticulados biobasados mediante enlaces dinamicos in the XI doctoral conference that took place in Murcia (Spain) from June 10th to 12th.

On June 19, 2024, Asier Elejoste Gonzalez, a doctoral student of our group, defended his doctoral thesis entitled: "Banbuaren ezaugarritzea inpregnazio-teknika bidezko modifikazioa eta egitura iraunkorren ingeniaritza" (Characterization of bamboo, modification by impregnation techniques and engineering of sustainable structures). The thesis was supervised by Dr. Cristina Peña and Dr. Amaia Butrón.

In Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, on May 19-23, 2024, the "39^th International Conference of the Polymer Processing Society (39 PPS)" took place, organized by the Polymer Processing Society, Universidad de los Andes, and the Instituto de Capacitación e Investigación del Plástico y del Caucho (ICIPC). Our pre-doctoral researcher, Ana Cristina Restrepo Montoya, participated as a speaker, presenting her research work titled "Targeting Recyclability in Crosslinked Biobased Polyurethanes through Thermoreversible Bonds"

Cristina Peña, researcher-teacher of our group presented the research Analysis of the degradation of plastic marine litter at the EMCEI congress (6th Euro-Mediterranean conference for environmental integration) held in Marrakesh (Morocco) from May 15 to 18 and organized by Springer and the Université Cadi Ayyad and the University of Stax.

Aitor Arbelaiz, Cristina Peña and Ander Larruskain, researchers our group, collaborate with Elhuyar in the project called "Gluoien mahaia". This project, promoted by Elhuyar, has the collaboration of the Department of Economic Promotion and Strategic Projects of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa. Under the name "Research for sustainability to inspire young people", the aim is to bring young people closer to the world of research. To this end, with the help of research groups, the young people themselves carry out real research.

The research team of the GMT group has been researching renewable materials for more than 20 years, and one of them is latxa sheep's wool. This type of wool is hardly used nowadays in any sector, and around 2,000 tonnes are generated each year. They have explained this concern to a group of secondary school students from the IES Txindoki in Beasain and have jointly developed composites with latxa sheep's wool as reinforcement that could be used in construction. In a first session they presented the project at the school itself: they explained to the students the aim of the project and the first experimental part. Subsequently, the students were in our laboratories to  develop the mechanical characterization of the specimens obtained and evaluate the results. In a final session, the students will discuss the results with the researchers.

On December 19th, GMT PhD student Julen Diaz Ramirez  presented his doctoral thesis entitled “Valorization of white grape pomace: integrated strategies for advanced applications” supervised by Dr Nagore Gabilondo and Dr Aloña Retegui.

Two researchers from our Group, Laura Vignau and Garazi Berra, had participated in the JIP 2023, XI Congress of Young Researchers in Polymers organized by the specialized group of polymers of the RSEQ and RSEF that was held in Alicante (Spain) from October 2 to 5. They presented the works "Active electrospun poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3- hydroxyvalerate) membranes incorporating antioxidant oil from spent coffee grounds" and "Dynamic redox responsive starch hydrogels" respectively.

Researchers of our group participate in the STEAM-Active project funded by the European Union (2021-1-ES01-KA220-HED-000032107).

The objective of the STEAM-Active project is to generate multidisciplinary teaching and learning sequences for university engineering courses. These sequences will have as transversal axes the circular economy and the gender perspective. In addition, e-learning courses will be generated for the training of teachers interested in the implementation of the designed materials.

Three researchers from our Group, Galder Kortaberria, Agnieszka Tercjak and Junkal Gutierrez, have participated in the POLY-K 2023 conference, “Advances in polymer composites and nanocomposites”, a scientific congress to celebrate the career of Prof. José Kenny. The congress was held in Terni (Italy) from September 13 to 15.

Our Group researcher Agnieszka Tercjak presented a work entitled Self-healable epoxidised soybean oil based thermosetting systems modified with photo-switchable nematic liquid crystal in the conference “Nanostructured Polymers: from precision synthesis to physical properties” presenting the work entitled “”, NANOPOL 2023, in Orléans (France) from September 4th to 8th.

Our pre-doctoral researcher Ana Cristina Restrepo Montoya participated in the 14th International Workshop on Polymer Reaction Engineering, a conference organized by the German Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (DECHEMA), which took place on September, from 5th to the 8th, in Potsdam, Germany. The presented research work "Synthesis of reprocessable biobased thermoset polyurethanes based on Diels-Alder adduct" is developed under the direction of Dr. Ainara Saralegi and Dr. Arantxa Eceiza; and the work "Functionalized electrospun polyurethane membranes as Ag nanoparticles adsorbents" was developed under the direction of Dr. Nagore Gabilondo and Dr. Arantxa Eceiza.

On July, 21th, GMT PhD student Eider Mendiburu Valor presented her doctoral thesis entlited “Valorization of Marine PET litter. From conventional methods to chemical recycling for the synthesis of novel polyurethanes”, supervised by Dr. Cristina Peña and Dr. Arantxa Eceiza.

In June, the Basque Environment and Ocean Week 2023 (BEOW Talks) was held in Bilbao. On June 6, our colleague Cristina Peña presented some of the GMT investigations related to plastic debris and its treatment possibilities and impacts. Joana Larreta (AZTI) and Amaia Orbea and Manu Soto (PIE-UPV/EHU) also participated in the session organized by Itsasmuseum, the Basque Government and the Ministry of Culture and Sports and called Chemical Pollution. The session was moderated by Eider Bilbao (PIE-UPV/EHU).  

Full session

Our pre-doctoral researcher Ana Cristina Restrepo Montoya participated as a speaker in MATCOMP 2023, a workshop organized by the University of Oviedo, which took place from 13 to 15 June in Gijon, Spain. The presented research work "Bio-based Recyclable crosslinked polyurethanes based on a thermally reversible Diels-Alder Adduct" is developed under the direction of Dra. Ainara Saralegi and la Dra. Arantxa Eceiza.

Our PhD student Garazi Berra González participated in the conference "Frontiers in Polymer Science", organized by Elsevier, from May 29th to June 1st in Gothenburg, Sweden. She presented the posters entitled "Development of Diels-Alder cross-linked starch-based bioadhesives for cellulosic materials" and "Silver and Gold decorated electrospun polyurethane membranes".

The work entitled «Semi-paracrystallinity in semi-conducting polymers», in which two researchers from our group, A. Tercjak and J. Gutierrez, have participated, has been awarded the Materials Horizons Outstanding Paper Award 22.

Our colleague Cristina Peña has given the seminar 'Circular Economy and Materials' at Tecnun School of Engineering (University of Navarra).

The session included the conceptualization of the Circular Economy and its relationship with the consumption of resources related to the synthesis of polymers. Finally, she summarized some of the GMT's advances in recycling processes and the use of agricultural and livestock waste. Finally, she presented the activities developed by the  Circular Economy University-Company Classroom (Faculty of Engineering Gipuzkoa, UPV/EHU, Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa)

On 10 February, the Engineering Faculty of Gipuzkoa held the 2nd Conference on Circular Economy in Engineering organised by the University-Business Classroom of Circular Economy. The conference was attended by more than 10 researchers and collaborators of the School who presented their advances in different areas of engineering and its relation with the Circular Economy. The GMT also participated with presentations by recent PhD researcher Amaia Mendoza, and pre-doctoral students Eider Mendiburu and Asier Elejoste.

Link videos