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Hydrogen-free catalytic conversion of highly concentrated glycerol solution: Influence of Si/Al molar ratio in Cu/SBA-15 catalysts
No full textCatalytic conversion of glycerol to C3 products using advanced functional materials is an economical and efficient approach to promoting sustainable energy development. Selective glycerol dehydration to hydroxyacetone (HA) is one such alternative and requires an appropriate balance of catalyst texture, structure, and acidity. In this study, different Cu-based catalysts supported on SBA-15 with different Si/Al molar ratios (2, 10, 15 and 8) were prepared using the “pH-adjusting” method and ammonia evaporation method and they were evaluated for the dehydration of glycerol at high concentration (80¿wt%.) in liquid phase to hydroxyacetone under inert N2 atmosphere. The formation of 1,2-propanediol (1,2-PDO) was also observed even under N2 inert atmosphere conditions. The catalysts were characterized by ICP-MS, N2 adsorption-desorption, XRD, HRTEM, H2-TPR, passivation of N2O, NH3-TPD, TPO, FTIR, FTIR-OH, Py-FTIR and XPS. The Al chemical environment and the Si/Al molar ratio of the supports show a remarkable effect on the catalytic performance. The highest catalytic activity was obtained with the SiAl =¿15 molar ratio, reaching a conversion of around 35¿% at 120¿min of reaction and a selectivity of 84¿% to hydroxyacetone at 90¿min of reaction. While lower Si/Al molar ratios led to a decrease in catalytic activity and an increase in product distribution. The isomorphic incorporation of Al into the SBA-15 promotes the interlinking cooperative between the properties of textural, acidity, structural, and stability of the catalyst. HRTEM and HAADF-STEM images show a well-defined hexagonal arrangement even when the CuO phase is added to the mesoporous materials with high Al loadings. At high heteroatom loadings, the typical hexagonal arrangement of the mesostructure was preserved but a decrease in the long-range order was observed. The presence of mononuclear and oligonuclear Cud+ species, which is related to their coordination environment and their position in the mesoporous network, was dependent on the variation of the Si/Al molar ratio. The prominent catalytic performance at the SiAl =¿15 ratio can be attributed to an optimal cooperative effect of the structural defects and electronic promotion produced by the Al species, which favors the conversion of glycerol to HA. While the increase in the selectivity of 1,2-PDO observed with the molar ratio SiAl =¿2 is associated with a conjugation between the higher availability of acid sites on the surface that promote the dehydration of glycerol and the domain size of copper species which would be acting as dehydrogenating sites of glycerol, forming H2 in-situ leading to the conversion of HA into 1,2-PDO.RJC, JCZ, and JG gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Chilean National Fund for Science and Technology, Fondecyt N° 1180243 and N° 1220355. AFP acknowledges FCT/MCTES for financial support by national funds through the project UIDB/5006/2020. JG is grateful to the Universidad de Concepción for its cooperation with the UdeC Postgraduate Scholarship. JCZ thanks the Doctoral Scholarship N° 21201413 awarded by ANID. JL is a Serra Hunter Fellow and is grateful to ICREA Academia program and projects PID2024-156765OB-C21 and 2017SGR128.7 - Energia Assequible i No Contaminant13 - Acció per al ClimaPostprint (published version
Pla general de peces de roba exhibides a l'exposició Pop Up (Re)Store a la BCUM.
No full textL'exposició Pop Up (Re)Store és una acció impulsada per l'Agència de Residus de Catalunya (ARC) que té com objectiu fomentar el consum conscient de roba i el concepte de moda circular entre els joves. A través de la Pop Up (Re)Store, el primer espai dedicat exclusivament a la moda circular, es vol conscienciar els joves catalans sobre la importància de reutilitzar la roba i, alhora, promoure el disseny i la moda sostenibles.
Dates de l'exposició a la BCUM: del 8 al 26 de setembre de 2025
Sistema de generación de hidrógeno verde a partir de aguas residuales industriales
No full textIn the current energy crisis and climate change context, the search for clean and sustainable energy sources has become a global priority. Green hydrogen, produced from water electrolysis powered by renewable energy, has emerged as a promising alternative within this framework due to its ability to generate energy without carbon emissions. However, its traditional production faces challenges such as high energy consumption and reliance on pure water, which limits its large-scale viability in increasingly frequent water scarcity scenarios. This work presents an innovative electrochemical system using wastewater as a raw material to produce and recover hydrogen. This solution not only takes advantage of a residual effluent but also contributes to its treatment and reuse. This system is powered by energy from solar panels, ensuring that the process is entirely sustainable and emission-free. This study introduces the technical characteristics, functionality, and environmental benefits of the system at an industrial scale. This proposal opens new possibilities for green hydrogen production helping to close the water cycle and reduce the carbon footprint in key sectors.This work was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación [grant number TED2021-129361BI00], and by the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR - Generalitat de Catalunya) [grant number 2021 SGR 00226 and 2024 LLAV 00046]Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
Full Metal Furies and the horrors of war
No full textEn este proyecto crearé un vídeo con el objetivo de subirlo a la plataforma de difusión digital YouTube, en el que analizaré minuciosamente la narrativa del videojuego Full Metal Furies, tratando de mirar más allá de su presentación inicial y de la historia superficial hasta llegar al mensaje y los temas de los que trata de manera más subliminal, basándome en la dirección de arte, mecánicas, estética visual y otros recursos estilísticos para apoyar la explicación, así como realizando un extenso proceso de documentación para validar mis conclusiones. El proyecto tratará temas como el feminismo, la masculinidad, la violencia y la ideología fascista. OBJETIVOS: Realizar un vídeo análisis o "video essay" analizando en profundidad la narrativa y dirección artística de un videojuego, así como sus temas y mensajes, la manera en que los transmite y las conclusiones que podemos sacar de ellos.En este Trabajo de Fin de Grado nos disponemos a realizar un long form video essay, o vídeo análisis, del videojuego Full Metal Furies, creado por el estudio Cellar Door Games y lanzado en 2018. El principal objetivo de nuestro proyecto consistirá en analizar en profundidad la narrativa y dirección artística del juego, así como sus temas y mensajes, la manera en que los transmite y las conclusiones que podemos sacar de ellos. Con este objetivo en mente, realizaremos un exhaustivo proceso de documentación para informarnos de toda la materia que habremos de examinar en el vídeo. Así contaremos con una sólida base sobre la que cimentar nuestra hipótesis, así como fuentes a las que referirnos cuando expongamos nuestras ideas y planteamientos, que quedarán plasmadas en la descripción del vídeo. Esto además permitirá a aquellos que lo deseen continuar investigando sobre todo lo que se haya discutido o mencionado en el análisis. Recogeremos información de libros, documentales, artículos académicos, vídeos de divulgación y otras fuentes contrastadas para poder hacer justicia a las delicadas cuestiones que trataremos en nuestro proyecto, entre ellos: la guerra, el feminismo, la masculinidad y sus diversas formas, la ideología fascista (centrado en la Alemania Nazi), la autodeterminación y la naturaleza humana. Dicho esto, el resultado final no pretende ser un documento académico ni un vídeo documental, sino un análisis riguroso y detallado realizado en un tono más humorístico y desenfadado, que ayudará a la audiencia a digerir los temas de los que hablaremos en el vídeo. Una vez realizada toda la fase de documentación, escrito el guión, grabado y editado el vídeo y realizada su memoria, se subirá el vídeo final a la plataforma de distribución de contenido audiovisual YouTube, además de ser compartido por redes sociales y otros medios de promoción para tratar de maximizar su audiencia y su alcance
Analysis of the vibrations caused by the metro in the historic building of the Faculty of Medicine of Barcelona
No full textEsta thesis investiga las vibraciones estructurales inducidas por el metro en el edificio de la Facultad de Medicina de Barcelona. El objetivo principal de esta investigación es la inspección y el análisis estructural de dos bóvedas de ladrillo del sótano del edificio. Mediante técnicas de identificación dinámica, el estudio evalúa las propiedades estructurales del edificio para evaluar su respuesta a las excitaciones vibratorias. Este enfoque computacional examina el comportamiento de los materiales de ladrillo bajo las vibraciones dinámicas generadas por las operaciones del metro. Mediante la integración de mediciones empíricas y modelado computacional, la investigación cuantifica el impacto de las vibraciones tanto en la integridad estructural del edificio como en sus componentes estructurales históricos. Estos hallazgos ofrecen información sobre estrategias de mitigación de los daños inducidos por vibraciones en el valor estructural. Este trabajo contribuye a una comprensión más amplia de la dinámica estructural en entornos de uso mixto expuestos a vibraciones relacionadas con el transporte. Con base en el análisis, se pueden proponer estrategias de conservación para mitigar los efectos de las vibraciones generadas por el metro en el edificio.This thesis investigates structural vibrations in the Barcelona Faculty of Medicine building induced by metro trains. The primary focus of this research is the inspection and structural analysis of two basement brick tile vaults within the building. Using dynamic identification techniques, the study evaluates the building's structural properties to assess its response to vibrational excitations. This computational approach examines the behavior of brick materials under dynamic vibrations generated by metro operations. By integrating empirical measurements and computational modeling, the research quantifies the impact of vibrations on both the structural integrity of the building and its historical structural components. These findings offer insights into mitigation strategies for vibration-induced damage in structure value. This work contributes to the broader understanding of structural dynamics in mixed-use environments exposed to transportation-related vibrations. Based on the analysis, preservation strategies can be proposed to mitigate the effects of metro-generated vibrations on the building
Simulations of thermally-driven winds on Mars: the Gale Crater case
No full textThermally-driven winds, a type of flows that develop within the planetary boundary layer (PBL), have been observed and predicted in a wide variety of sites on Mars. Among these winds, there are the so-called slope flows, which occur over mountain slopes mainly due to temperature gradients between the ground and the atmosphere. In this research, the objective is to simulate the formation of thermally-driven slope flows on Mars for conditions corresponding to the four different seasons, represented by the fall equinox, winter solstice, spring equinox, and summer solstice. The focus is placed on the Gale Crater, where observational data have been gathered by the Curiosity rover, as part of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, and in particular on Aeolis Mons (Mount Sharp), located in the center of the crater, where thermally-driven slope flows have been reported. The flow behavior is described by the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations with the Boussinesq approximation, using OpenFOAM, an open source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. Numerical results show very good agreement with in situ observations, showing that these simulations can serve as predictive tools for slope winds on Mars.7 - Energia Assequible i No ContaminantPostprint (published version
Multimodal multilingual models: improving image-text embedding alignment across languages with limited data
No full textRapid advancements in Visual Language Models (VLMs) have transformed multimodal understanding but are often constrained by generating English responses regardless of the input language. This phenomenon has been termed as Image-induced Fidelity Loss (IFL) and stems from limited multimodal multilingual training data. To address this, we propose a continuous multilingual integration strategy that injects text-only multilingual data during visual instruction tuning, preserving the language model's original multilingual capabilities. Extensive evaluations demonstrate that our approach significantly improves linguistic fidelity across languages (from 2.7 % to 88.7 % in German and from 4.4 % to 92.9 % in Spanish) without degradation in visual performance. We also explore model merging, which improves language fidelity but comes at the cost of visual performance. In contrast, our core method achieves robust multilingual alignment without trade-offs, offering a scalable and effective path to mitigating IFL for global VLM adoption
Phase transformation optimization from boehmite to ¿-Al2O3 and duplex microstructure: ¿-/d-Al2O3 to enhance the catalytic applications of 3D-printed scaffolds
No full textDirect Ink Writing (DIW) was used to fabricate ceramic scaffolds with tailored geometries and porosity for catalytic applications. The thermal conversion of boehmite (AlOOH) to y-alumina (y-Al2O3) was studied to optimize sintering for a y-/d-Al2O3 duplex microstructure. Ceramic inks (20–35¿wt% solids) with Pluronic F-127® were 3D-printed and treated at 450–600 °C. Complete AlOOH-to-y-Al2O3 transformation occurred at 450 °C with structural integrity. Scaffolds showed 10–12¿% shrinkage, porosity, and mechanical properties comparable to Cold Isostatic Pressing. In ethanol dehydration, y-/d-Al2O3 scaffolds sintered at 600 °C achieved ~95¿% ethanol conversion and higher ethylene yield versus ~10¿% for y-Al2O3-only scaffolds at 450 °C.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
Intervenció de Francesc Torres Torres a la festa dels 150 anys de l'ETSAB
No full textPla mitjà lllarg de la intervenció del rector Francesc Torres Torres a la festa dels 150 anys de l'Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arquitectura de Barcelona, celebrada a la terrassa de l'edifici Coderch el dia 19 de juny de 2025. A la imatge: Francesc Torres Torres (Rector UPC) i Félix Solaguren-Beascoa de Corral (Director ETSAB
