Trajectory

Urko Izquierdo Ereño is an Associate Professor of the Energy Engineering Department at the Bilbao School of Engineering of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), with two recognized six-year research periods and h index of 13.

Currently I am a member of the Senate and the University Commission for Teaching Evaluation (CUED) of the UPV/EHU. In addition, member of the Board of the Bilbao School of Engineering. Into the Energy Engineering Department, I am member of the Department Council and of the Permanent Commission, being the Coordinator of the Bilbao Departmental Section. Furthermore, the Coordinator of the subject Fluid Facilities and Machinery taught in the Master's Degree in Industrial Engineering.

During my student career, I was the General Secretary of IAESTE Euskadi, an association through which I had the opportunity to do internships in companies and research centers abroad (Kenya (Bamburi cement factory), Kazakhstan (Research in soil and air pollution) and Finland (Botnia paper mill) as a complementary training to the studies of Chemical Engineering. However, almost my entire research career has been developed at the Bilbao School of Engineering. There I obtained the degree of Chemical Engineer, the Master in Advanced Materials Engineering (awarded as the best student) and finally the PhD in Chemical Engineering, obtaining the Extraordinary Prize for the best Doctoral Thesis in the area of Engineering.

In 2009 I joined the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering and the SuPrEn Research Group (recognized by the Basque Government and with stable funding). In the aforementioned department, I developed the Bachelor thesis (through a “Collaboration” Grant given by the Basque Government), the Master Thesis project and the PhD Thesis (PhD Grant from the UPV/EHU). My International Thesis, entitled “Advanced reaction systems for hydrogen production”, focused mainly on the development of catalysts and advanced reaction systems (microreactors) for hydrogen production from renewable feedstocks, focusing on the use of biogas.

As complementary training, I made a Pre-Doctoral internship of six months at the Fraunhofer ICT-IMM, a center of international prestige for being a pioneer in the use and integration of microreactor systems in energy intensification processes. Once I obtained my PhD degree, I had the opportunity to carry out a new three-month stay at the aforementioned research center. After the internships, I was hired by the spin-off company “Hynortec” as a process engineer for the design and manufacture of a modular hydrogen production plant.

In December 2015, I got a position as Assistant Professor in the Energy Engineering Department of the UPV/EHU. Therefore, I changed the area of knowledge focusing the research activities on marine energies. The work carried out to date has been reflected in 29 scientific publications in indexed journals. In addition, I am the main author of a book chapter and co-author of another one. In relation to participation in international congresses, I have participated in 49 congresses, of which, I am the first author in 29 of them, 34 were oral presentations and the speaker in 22. It is worth mentioning that I have participated in both the scientific committee and the Organizer of the EWTEC23 held in Bilbao in September 2023. I have participated in 22 funded research projects, among which the EKIOCEAN, MATHEO and PIBA projects in the field of offshore marine renewable energies stand out. In addition, I have also participated in 6 projects derived from R&D contracts with companies and public administrations.

Researcher ID: 54420239200

Código Orcid: 0000-0003-2020-4310