Isabel M. Marrucho

Keynote lecture: Recycling of plastics using green(er) solvents

I. Marrucho is a Full Professor at Departamento de Engenharia Quimica, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, and currently she serves as director of Centro de Quimica Estrutural and the Institute of Molecular Sciences. Over the course of their career, IM has held various significant positions in other academic and research institutions and established several international projects focusing on Green Chemistry and Sustainable Chemical Processes. The focus of her research lies in the development and application of alternative solvents, particularly ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents, aimed at advancing separation, extraction, and purification processes. The overarching goal of her research is to understand their bulk behaviour, whether in a pure state or as mixtures and formulations, employing thermophysical and spectroscopic properties as well as thermodynamics to design circular separation processes. More recently, I. Marrucho's research group pioneered the field of hydrophobic natural eutectic solvents, that can be seen as a replacement of common volatile organic solvents.