Alarcón Avellán, Andreina Alexandra
Postdoctoral Researcher
Catalysis, energy and environment
Dr. Andreina Alarcón is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Materials Science and Physical Chemistry at the University of Barcelona, where she is a member of the Sustainable Electrochemical Processes (SEP) research group. She specializes in the development of heterogeneous catalytic materials and the advanced design and modeling of chemical reactors for sustainable energy applications.
She holds a Master’s degree in Renewable and Sustainable Energies (2017) and a Ph.D. in Nanoscience (2021), both from the University of Barcelona. As a continuation of her doctoral studies, conducted at the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC), her research focused on developing an innovative microcatalyst integrated into an autothermal reactor for carbon dioxide methanation. This work enabled her to take on a research technician role at IREC, where she contributed significantly to the scale-up and optimization of reactor technologies for biogas upgrading.
Currently, her research focuses on the design of electrocatalysts and the development of electrochemical and plasma-based systems for the efficient conversion of CO₂ into C2+ hydrocarbons. As part of her postdoctoral training, she completed a research stay at the University of Southampton (2021). Dr. Alarcón has experience teaching at both undergraduate and graduate levels at the University of Barcelona and ESPOL, supervising thesis projects in catalysis, electrochemistry, plasma technologies, and nanofluids.
With participation in over 10 competitive research projects and more than 14 peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals, she holds an h-index of 8. She maintains active collaborations with international research institutions and has been honored with ESPOL’s “Best Researcher in Chemical Engineering” award for two consecutive years.