Brais Vázquez

PhD Candidate

Chemist graduate in 2021 with a Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering (2023) from the University of Santiago de Compostela. Currently, I am a PhD student within the national project NextPET. I work with methodological tools such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), environmental Life Cycle Costing (eLCC), prospective Life Cycle Assessment (pLCA), and Material Flow Analysis (MFA). My research focuses specifically on the inclusion of the end-of-life stage of plastics and bioplastics in LCA, as well as on the techno-economic and environmental evaluation of valorization routes for used cooking oil. Additionally, I have worked on biodegradation studies of plastics and bioplastics in different environments, including soil, UV radiation, and insect biodegradation, followed by physicochemical characterization of the materials to better understand the different end-of-life pathways of polymers.

During my PhD, I have also carried out research stays at several institutions: Chalmers University of Technology (Gothenburg, Sweden), where I worked on prospective Life Cycle Assessment; Universidad de Granada (Granada, Spain), where I worked on the biodegradation of biopolymers (PHA and PLA) in soil; and the Universidade de Aveiro (Aveiro, Portugal), where I worked in degradation of plastics from the aeronautical industry using insects such as Acheta domesticus and Tenebrio molitor.

Title of the work: Tecno-economic and environmental assessment of lipid waste streams management in the framework of circular economy

Tutor: Almudena Hospido and Ángeles Val