Julio is a Chemical-Industrial Engineer from the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (UADY), Mexico. In 2008 he obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Manchester, UK. During his time as graduate student, he completed a series of trainings on Evaluation of Sustainability offered by the EU’s Marie Curie Actions programs “EASY-ECO” and “STaR City of the Future”.
Currently, he is a Research Lecturer at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatan in the Process Systems Engineering Research Group. He constantly participates as scientific reviewer of project proposals for the National Council for Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT), and as peer-reviewer of scientific publications of various international journals. He is active in the bioenergy scene in Mexico, leading the Life Cycle Assessment and Sustainability task of the biodiesel and bioethanol clusters of the National Centre for Innovation in Bioenergy in Mexico.
He currently is level 1 in the Researchers National System in Mexico. He has authored 2 books, 25 articles in international journals, and 80+ conference presentations. He constantly supervises graduate and undergraduate theses in the areas of Chemical Engineering and Sustainable Processes programs at UADY. In 2013 he was awarded the Excellence Award as Director of the Best Chemical Engineering Thesis by the Mexican Institute of Chemical Engineers.
His research work focuses on Engineering for Sustainability, specifically on the development of processes and methodologies for sustainability evaluation of biofuel processes, and biorefineries. Topics of interest in recent projects include photobiorreactor design, optimization of microalgal-oil production, and sustainable design of biorefinery systems.