Francesc Xavier Farriol Roigés
- Professor
- Avda. Països Catalans, 26. 43007, Tarragona
- Office 316
- +34977559642
- xavier.farriol(ELIMINAR)@urv.cat
- Research group web page
- Keywords / Research areas: Fractionation, Lignocellulosic Biomass, Hydrolysis, Steam explosion, Lignin, Gasification, Synthetic fuels, Microalgae
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Bio
My research career has been spent in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona, from my postdoctoral stay in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Sherbrooke (Quebec, Canada) during the year 1987.
During the period from 1987 to 1998, I was responsible for creating and directing a research group focused on the valorisation, energy and products, of lignocellulosic materials. This research group has welcomed and supported the scientific career of dozens of researchers, with their corresponding doctoral theses and the hundreds of publications generated along the way. Drs Joan Salvadó and Daniel Montané are first-time researchers and have a fruitful scientific career.
Throughout these years my research activity focused on two major areas related to the use of lignocellulosic materials:
- The hydrolytic processing of lignocellulosic biomass with the objective of separating its constituent polymers, highlighting the activities in obtaining high purity cellulose and the synthesis of polymeric derivatives, as well as the production and purification of xylo-oligosaccharides (XOS) by hydrolysis controlled
- The thermo-catalytic conversion of biomass and its fractions
- Obtaining fuels from microalgae
- The gasification of biomass and fuels derived from urban solid waste to obtain liquid fuels.
Since 2007 and until June 2018, my preferential scope of activity has been oriented to management, with the position of Vice-Rector of Organization and Resources of the Rovira i Virgili University and as Delegate of the Rector with the same function with additional responsibilities regarding the Environment Plan and the Office of Occupational Risk Prevention of the University, all in three consecutive rector teams.
As head of Organization and Resources, I was responsible for the political and academic management of the special investment program of the Generalitat de Catalunya (PIU) at the Rovira i Virgili University during the 2007-2018 period, as well as the investments funded by own recourses of the University. Additionally, other investments were faced by private companies concession by different modalities. The total amount of the investments made in this long period exceeds € 100 million.
Since 2014 until august 2019, I manage the APQUA program at the Rovira i Virgili University. APQUA is an educational project aimed at the entire population, focused on products and chemical processes and the risk that their use represents for people and for the environment.
The main objectives of APQUA are:
- Develop a greater public awareness and understanding of chemical products and their relation to our lives.
- Getting people to learn to obtain information about everything that concerns them in relation to science.
- Provide people with the necessary knowledge and tools so that they can make their own decisions and participate more responsibly as members of a free and democratic society.
- Promote the use of scientific principles and processes and evidence when making decisions.
APQUA is the result of collaboration between the Department of Chemical Engineering (DEQ) of the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) and the SEPUP program (Science Education for Public Understanding Program) of the Lawrence Hall of Science of the University of California at Berkeley ( USES). In the period 2014-19 APQUA has executed 108 transfer contracts with a total budget of more than € 849.500 €, the most important of which are listed in section C3.