Gonzalo Guillén Gosálbez

Last Name

Guillén Gosálbez

First Name

Gonzalo

ORCID

0000-0001-6074-8473

Organisational unit

09655 - Guillén Gosálbez, Gonzalo / Guillén Gosálbez, Gonzalo

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Publications 1 - 10 of 237

Optimising diets to reach absolute planetary environmental sustainability through consumers
Lucas, Elysia; Guo, Miao; Guillén Gosálbez, Gonzalo (2021)
Sustainable Production and Consumption
The environmental impacts of food are currently at unsustainable levels. Consumers undoubtedly play a central role in reducing the impacts of the food system to more sustainable levels via dietary changes and food waste reduction. Mathematical optimisation is one approach to identifying less environmentally impactful dietary patterns. A limited number of studies, however, have assessed whether impact reductions offered by optimised diets are enough to remain within planetary boundaries (i.e. attain ‘absolute’ environmental sustainability). Using UK food consumption as a case study, here we employ linear programming to identify nutritionally adequate diets that meet sociocultural acceptability criteria whilst minimising (a) environmental impact transgressions of their allocated share of the safe operating space (SoSOS) for nine planetary boundaries (PBs), (b) cost, or (c) deviation from the current diet. We show that the current diet is unsustainable as it transgresses six or seven PBs, depending on the SoSOS allocation principle. Optimising for minimum SoSOS transgressions yields diets offering significant impact reductions (66 - 95% reduction across all PBs) compared to the current average dietary pattern, but whether they completely mitigate SoSOS transgressions depends on the sharing principle adopted to assign the SoSOS to national food consumption. Additionally, by comparing least-cost and least-transgression solutions, we find a trade-off between cost and environmental sustainability indicating that more sustainable dietary patterns are not currently incentivised by the relative prices of food items in the UK. Our work demonstrates the value in embedding ‘absolute’ sustainability in diet optimisation so that solutions inherently provide a more clear-cut understanding of their broad implications on the environment.
Multi-objective optimization of waste and resource management in industrial networks - Part II
Vadenbo, Carl; Guillén Gosálbez, Gonzalo; Saner, Dominik; et al. (2014)
Resources, Conservation and Recycling
Biochar Enhances Fischer–Tropsch Electrofuels from CO2and Renewable Energy
Chagas , Marina T.; Medrano-García , Juan D.; Guillén Gosálbez, Gonzalo (2025)
ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
Electrofuels have emerged as a promising category of alternative fuels for decarbonizing long-distance modes of transport where electrification opportunities might be limited. Despite the favorable environmental performance, their high cost, driven mostly by the expensive electrolytic hydrogen (H₂), still poses a challenge to their widespread adoption. Here, we propose a novel approach based on carbon dioxide (CO₂) gasification of biochar via the reverse Boudouard reaction to decrease the H₂ demand in Fischer–Tropsch (FT) electrofuel synthesis. We adopt a system expansion approach and assess the life-cycle environmental impacts and techno-economic feasibility of this route considering the replacement of different end-uses of biochar. The comparison to the standard reverse water–gas shift (RWGS) configuration showcases that shifting to the Boudouard route could lead to a reduction in cost, carbon footprint, and impact on human health and ecosystems quality. Nevertheless, collateral damage toward resource depletion could take place depending on the choice of the expanded system for the analysis. In our best case scenario, we improve the global warming impact by 11% and lower the cost by 10% while achieving damage reductions in the range of 10–17% to human health, ecosystem quality, and resource scarcity. Overall, this work sheds light on the potential economic and environmental benefits of a more efficient material integration among processes. Moreover, our results hint at the importance of defining proper system expansion scenarios in assessing alternative technologies, as varying system boundaries could yield different assessment outcomes.
Sustainability evaluation of alternative routes for fine chemicals production in an early stage of process design adopting process simulation along with data envelopment analysis
Mio, Andrea; Limleamthong, Phantisa; Guillén Gosálbez, Gonzalo; et al. (2018)
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
We propose a framework for the preliminary screening of chemical process designs according to sustainability criteria. Through the implementation of each flowsheet in a process simulator, several indicators based on sustainability pillars, i.e. economy, society, and environment, are calculated and then analyzed employing data envelopment analysis (DEA) in order to select the most efficient designs considering multiple criteria simultaneously. Suboptimal alternatives are further investigated by adopting a retrofit analysis, aiming to identify the parameters that most contribute to the final indicators scores, and therefore highlighting the major sources of deviation from optimal conditions. We applied this framework on a case study based on various patents regarding the production of pioglitazone hydrochloride in order to validate the capabilities of our methodology. Our approach, which embeds process simulation, sustainability indicators, and DEA within the same procedure, will support practitioners during the sustainability assessment of promising process designs, removing the inefficient ones.
Life cycle optimization of power generation and transmission expansion planning
Ioannou, Iasonas; Grossmann, Ignacio; Guillén Gosálbez, Gonzalo (2023)
Multiperiod model for the optimal production planning in the industrial gases sector
Fernández, David; Pozo, Carlos; Folgado, Rubén; et al. (2017)
Applied Energy
Cryogenic air separation to produce nitrogen, oxygen and argon with high quality requirements is an energy-intensive industrial process that requires large quantities of electricity. The complexity in operating these networks stems from the volatile conditions, namely electricity prices and products demands, which vary every hour, creating a clear need for computer-aided tools to attain economic and energy savings. In this article, we present a multiperiod mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model to determine the optimal production schedule of an industrial cryogenic air separation process so as to maximize the net profit by minimizing energy consumption (which is the main contributor to the operating costs). The capabilities of the model are demonstrated by means of its application to an existing industrial process, where significant improvements are attained through the implementation of the MILP.
Multiobjective optimization for designing and operating more sustainable water management systems for a city in Mexico
Rojas-Torres, Ma Guadalupe; Nápoles-Rivera, Fabricio; Ponce-Ortega, José M.; et al. (2015)
AIChE Journal
This article proposes a multiobjective optimization model for the design of a macroscopic water system of a Mexican city that solves simultaneously the planning and scheduling of water storage and distribution tasks. The model, which considers rainwater harvesting and reclaimed water reusing as alternative water sources, maximizes the revenues from water sales and minimizes simultaneously the water consumption and land use. A case study based on the city of Morelia in Mexico was solved. It was found that the use of alternative water sources (such as harvested rainwater) along with an appropriate planning and scheduling of storage and distribution tasks have the potential to reduce the pressure over natural reservoirs significantly. Our approach considers simultaneously economic and environmental concerns, thereby contributing to the implementation of more sustainable alternatives in urban water distribution. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
Sustainable Development Goals assessment of carbon capture on-board
Negri, Valentina; Charalambous, Margarita Athanasia; Medrano-García, Juan D.; et al. (2023)
Computer Aided Chemical Engineering ~ Proceedings of the 33rd European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering (ESCAPE33)
The shipping industry of cargo containers is a very efficient freight mode, yet it is still entirely reliant on fossil fuels. While sustainable fuels penetrate the market, carbon capture and storage has been proposed as an interim solution for low-carbon shipping. In this work, we assess the technical feasibility, economic and environmental performance of a cargo ship with a retrofitted carbon capture plant on-board that captures 94 % of direct emissions at 85 $2019/tCO2. Compared to the current scenario, our solution reduces climate change by 50 %, while the direct air capture technology stands at a 45 % reduction. Our environmental assessment is based on absolute thresholds to quantify the impacts relative to the Earth's carrying capacity and shows that burden-shifting occurs in all the categories but climate change. Finally, the results are analyzed in light of five Sustainable Development Goals using 16 life cycle impact assessment metrics and their associated absolute thresholds.
Multi-stage linear programming model for optimizing cropping plan decisions under the new Common Agricultural Policy
Galán Martín, Ángel; Pozo, Carlos; Guillén Gosálbez, Gonzalo; et al. (2015)
Land Use Policy
The new European Union's Common Agricultural Policy will cover the period from 2015 to 2020. Significant novelties in the payment scheme have been introduced which may potentially encourage farmers to implement changes at the farm level by meeting certain environmental requirements in return for support payments. The mandatory requirements, commonly known as 'greening rules', consist of crop diversification, maintenance of permanent grassland and establishment of an ecological focus area.This paper presents a decision-support tool based on a multi-stage linear programming model that identifies optimal cropping plan decisions under the new Common Agricultural Policy. The capabilities of our tool are illustrated through its application to the Spanish agricultural regions. Our method identifies the optimal cropping plan (i.e., crops to be grown and their acreage each year during the reform horizon) that maximizes the farmer's net return in each region. Furthermore, the model can also be used to calculate the minimum subsidy value that would make the implementation of greening rules economically appealing, thereby promoting the widespread adoption of more sustainable agricultural practises. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
Role of life-cycle externalities in the valuation of protic ionic liquids-a case study in biomass pretreatment solvents
Baaqel, Husain; Díaz, Ismael; Tulus Merlich, Victor; et al. (2020)
Green Chemistry
Ionic liquids have found their way into many applications where they show a high potential to replace traditional chemicals. But concerns over their ecological impacts (toxicity and biodegradability) and high cost have limited their use so far. The outcome of existing techno-economic and life-cycle assessments comparing ionic liquids with existing solvents has proven hard to interpret due to the many metrics used and trade-offs between them. For the first time, this paper couples the concept of monetization with detailed process simulation and life-cycle assessment to estimate the true cost of ionic liquids. A comparative case study on four solvents used in lignocellulosic biomass pretreatment is conducted: triethylammonium hydrogen sulfate [TEA][HSO4], 1-methylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate [HMIM][HSO4], acetone from fossil sources, and glycerol from renewable sources. The results show that the total monetized cost of production accounting for externalities can be more than double the direct costs estimated using conventional economic assessment methods. [TEA][HSO4] is found to have the lowest total cost, while glycerol presents the highest total cost. We expect this methodology to provide a starting point for future research and development in sustainable ionic liquids.

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Gonzalo Guillén Gosálbez

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