Montserrat Pérez Moya

Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)

Email: montserrat.perez-moya@upc.edu
ORCID: 0000-0001-9935-6514

Profile

Montserrat Pérez Moya is Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at UPC and a researcher at CEPIMA. She obtained her MEng in 1996 and her PhD in 2001, both from UPC. Her doctoral thesis, on the degradation of organic compounds in paper and textile industrial wastewaters by advanced oxidation processes, was funded by an FPI grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science.

Since 1996 her research has focused on advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) such as photocatalysis, ozonation, Fenton and photo-Fenton, mainly to reduce the contamination of wastewaters from highly polluting industries such as paper and textile manufacturing, and to treat recalcitrant compounds such as chlorophenols. She later turned to the modelling of these processes.

She has taken part in technology transfer projects with private companies and in several public and private research projects. She has co-authored more than 20 papers in international journals such as Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology, Water Research and Chemosphere, and has presented many contributions at international conferences.

Since 2001 she has taught chemical engineering at the Escola Universitària d’Enginyeria Tècnica Industrial de Barcelona (EUETIB). Her educational innovation projects have been presented at engineering education conferences and recognised with the Vicens Vives distinction (Government of Catalonia).

Research interests

Advanced oxidation processes: photocatalysis, ozonation, Fenton and photo-Fenton
Treatment of industrial wastewaters, in particular from the paper and textile industries
Degradation of recalcitrant compounds such as chlorophenols
Modelling of advanced oxidation processes

Education

PhD, UPC, 2001. Thesis: “Degradation of organic compounds in paper and textile industrial wastewaters by Advanced Oxidation Processes” (FPI grant)
MEng, UPC, 1996

Research stays

University of Wisconsin, Water Chemistry Department, with Prof. Marc A. Anderson (1998). Development of a photocatalytic reactor.
Universidad de Concepción, Chile, Laboratorio de Recursos Renovables, with Prof. Héctor D. Mansilla (2000). Modelling of advanced oxidation processes.

Recent publications

Full list on the publications page.

Rodríguez-Alegre R., Durán-Videra S., Pérez Megías L., Pérez-Moya M., García-Montaño J., Andecochea Saiz C., You X. Effect of microfiltration membrane configuration in microplastics recovery from wastewater treatment effluent. Membranes, 2025. doi:10.3390/membranes15050137
Nasr Esfahani K., Santoro D., Pérez-Moya M., Graells M. Mathematical modeling of ozone decomposition processes in wastewater treatment: A lumped kinetic approach with initial ozone demand. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, 2024. doi:10.1016/j.jece.2024.114893
Rodríguez-Alegre R., Pérez Megías L., Pérez-Moya M., García-Montaño J., Andecochea Saiz C., You X. Improving efficiency and circularity of selective metals recovery from acid mine drainage. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, 2024. doi:10.1016/j.jece.2024.114655
Ayala-Durán S.C., Rojas-Mantilla H.D., Pérez-Moya M., Pupo Nogueira R.F. Enhanced degradation of venlafaxine induced by Fe₂O₃/CeO₂ heterostructures through the thermal transformation from type I to direct Z-scheme in heterogeneous photo-Fenton. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, 2024. doi:10.1016/j.jece.2024.114401
Rodríguez-Alegre R., Zapata-Jimenez J., Pérez Megías L., Andecochea Saiz C., Sanchis S., Pérez-Moya M., García-Montaño J., You X. Pilot scale on-site demonstration and seasonality assessment of nitrogen recovery and water reclamation from pig’s slurry liquid fraction. Journal of Environmental Management, 2024. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.122597