Chemical and Environmental Engineering Group

Contact
  1. Home
  2. Staff
  3. Yolanda Segura
She holds a degree in Chemical Sciences (Analytical Chemistry) from the Complutense University of Madrid/Dublin City University, a Master’s degree in Environmental Chemistry from Queen’s University (UK, 2000), a PhD in Chemical Sciences from the University of Antwerp (Belgium, 2005), and an MBA in Business Administration and Marketing from UNED (2009). Her research career began at the School of Civil Engineering at Queen’s University, where she worked on a European project on water quality in Northern Ireland under the supervision of Dr. Pauline MacKinnon (Belfast, 2001). She subsequently pursued her doctoral studies at the University of Antwerp in the adsorption and catalysis research group, supervised by Professor Etienne Vansant. She then joined the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) as a postdoctoral researcher in the field of materials, heterogeneous catalysis and catalytic processes, under the direction of Dr. Javier Pérez Ramírez (Tarragona, 2006). In 2007 she joined the Chemical and Environmental Technology Group at Rey Juan Carlos University. Her research has focused on the synthesis, modification, and characterization of mesostructured materials for catalytic applications in various industrial processes, and currently on water treatment processes and biomass valorisation to produce high value-added products. She has completed short research stays at Utrecht University (The Netherlands, 2002), Jagiellonian University (Krakow, 2004), and Abertay University Dundee (Scotland, 2008). She has been a Visiting Researcher at the University of Antwerp (Belgium, 2010), at the Southwest University of Science and Technology (Mianyang, China, 2013), and at Chang’an University (Xi’an, China, 2016). She is co-author of more than 50 indexed research articles, most of them published in high-impact international scientific journals in the fields of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Science. She is also co-author of a patent, numerous scientific book chapters covering various topics, several science outreach articles, and confidential technical reports for industry. She has participated in more than 100 conferences, the majority of which (80%) were international. She has taken part in a large number of funded research projects, both at the European level (5 European Projects and a joint research project between Poland and Belgium) and at the national level, mainly through public calls (24 projects) as well as private companies (as Principal Investigator in 3 of them). She has taught more than 20 subjects across more than 10 different degree programs, including Environmental Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Chemical Engineering, Water Resources, Nanotechnology, and Food Science and Technology, among others. She has supervised more than 70 Final Degree Projects, Master’s Theses, and Final Projects both at the University of Antwerp and in various programs at Rey Juan Carlos University. Since 2019, she has served as the director of online courses on REACH regulation, CLP regulation, and safety data sheets, as well as the specialist course on Chemical Substances in the One Health context, all offered by Rey Juan Carlos University. Regarding her university management activities, she is the Quality Manager of the Water Analysis Laboratory (LAGUA) within the Technological Support Centre at Rey Juan Carlos University, and the academic coordinator for international exchange programs in the Environmental Sciences degree.
She is currently a Full Professor of Chemical Engineering at Rey Juan Carlos University and a Visiting Professor at Xi’an Technological University in China since 2025.
  • Integrated processes for monitoring and treatment of emerging contaminants for water reuse (MOTREM, Water JPI Pilot Call)

    Funding : WATER JPI - Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad - Acciones de Programación Conjunta Internacional - (Water JPI JPIW2013-121)
    Start / End Years : 2014 - 2017
    URL : http://motrem.eu/
    Principal Investigator : Marugán Aguado, Javier
    Research Team : - Casado Merino, Cintia - López Muñoz, Mª José - Martín Sómer, Miguel - Martínez Castillejo, Fernando - Marugán Aguado, Javier - Molina Gil, Raúl - Pablos Carro, Cristina - Pariente Castilla, Isabel - Segura Urraca, Yolanda 

      Show summary: The MOTREM project is a Water JPI project that focuses on the development of integrated processes for monitoring and treatment of emerging contaminants (ECs), improving the efficiency of the removal of these pollutants in urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), especially for water reuse. The project aims to provide new technologies for water treatment and/or improving the existing ones through the development of integrated processes for monitoring and treatment of ECs in the current waterline of municipal wastewater treatment plants, especially focusing on the aspect of water reuse. For this goal, the project combines cross- and multi-disciplinary expertise on water treatment processes design and engineering, analytical chemistry and ecotoxicology applied to ECs that guarantee the generation not only on new scientific knowledge but also of innovative commercial solutions to the market.






Evaluation of the adsorptive and catalytic properties of sludge-based carbon materials for the efficient removal of antibiotics listed in the European Decision 2020/1161/EU

Álvarez-Torrellas, S.; Segura, Y.; de Mora, A.; Gutiérrez-Sánchez, P.; Sanz-Santos, E.; Corrochano, N.; Larriba, M.; Pariente, M. I.; Martínez, F.; García, J.

Anaerobic digestion of purple phototrophic bacteria – The release step of the Partition-Release-Recover concept

Hülsen, T.; Luc, Y.; Rodríguez, I.; Segura, Y.; Martínez, F.; Puyol, D.; Batstone D. M.

Contamination of N-poor wastewater with emerging pollutants does not affect the performance of purple phototrophic bacteria and the subsequent resource recovery potential 

de las Heras, I., Molina, R., Segura, Y., Hülsen, T., Molina, M. C., Gonzalez-Benitez, N., Melero, J. A., Mohedano, A. F.,  Martínez, F., Puyol, D.

ß-galactosidase covalent immobilization over large-pore mesoporous silica supports for the production of high galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS)

González-Delgado, I.; Segura, Y.; Martín, A.; López-Muñoz, M. J.; Morales, G.

Characterization and inmobilization of engineered sialidases from Trypanosoma rangeli for transsiallylation

Zeuner, B.; González-Delgado, I.; Holck, J.; Morales, G.; López-Muñoz, M. J.; Segura, Y.; Meyer, A. S.; Mikkelsen, J. D.

Wastewater sludges pretreated by different oxidation systems at mild conditions to promote the biogas formation in anaerobic processes.

Segura, Y.; Puyol, D.; Ballesteros, L.; Martínez, F.; Melero, J.A.

Optimisation of the synthesis of high galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) from lactose with b-galactosidase from Kluyveromyces lactis

González-Delgado, I.; López-Muñoz, M. J.; Morales, G.; Segura, Y.

Simple and efficient treatment of high-strength industrial waste water using commercial zero-valent iron

Segura, Y.; Martínez, F.; Melero, J. A.

Zr-SBA-15 Lewis acid catalyst: Activity in Meerwein Ponndorf Verley reduction

Iglesias, J.; Melero, J. A.; Morales, G.; Moreno, J.; Segura, Y.; Paniagua, M.; Cambra, A.; Hernández, B.

Zero valent iron (ZVI) mediated Fenton degradation of industrial wastewater: Treatment performance and characterization of final composites

Segura, Y.; Martínez, F.; Melero, J. A.; Fierro, J. L. G.

Pharmaceutical wastewater degradation: effective and economical treatment using waste-metallic iron shavings

Segura, Y.; Martínez, F.; Melero, J. A.

Coupling membrane separation and photocatalytic oxidation processes for the degradation of pharmaceutical pollutants

Martínez, F.; López-Muñoz, M. J.; Aguado, J.; Melero, J. A.; Arsuaga, J.; Sotto, A.; Molina, R.; Segura, Y.; Pariente, M. I.; Revilla, A.; Cerro, L.; Carenas, G.

Effective pharmaceutical wastewater degradation by Fenton oxidation with zero-valent iron

Segura, Y.; Martínez, F.; Melero, J. A.

Immobilization of active and stable goethite coated-films by a dip-coating process and its application for photo-Fenton systems

Molina, R.; Segura, Y.; Martínez, F.; Melero, J. A.

Enhancement of the advanced Fenton process (Fe0/H2O2) by ultrasound for the mineralization of phenol

Segura, Y.; Martínez, F.; Melero, J. A.; Molina, R.; Chand, R.; Bremmer, D. H.

Drugs of abuse in surface and tap waters of the Tagus River basin: Heterogeneous photo-Fenton process is effective in their degradation

Valcárcel, Y.; Martínez, F.; González-Alonso, S.; Segura, Y.; Catalá, M.; Molina, R.; Montero-Rubio, J. C.; Mastroianni, N.; López de Alda, M.; Postigo, C.; Barceló, D.

Photo-Fenton treatment dramatically reduces pharmaceutical contamination from Madrid river water samples bur does not elimnate ecotoxicity: Development and application of a naturally miniaturised bioassay based on fern spores

Rodríguez-Gil J. L.; Catalá, M.; González, S.; Romo, R.; Valcarcel, Y.; Segura Y.; Molina R.; Melero J. A.; Martínez F.

Degradation of phenolic aqueous solutions by high frequency sono-Fenton systems (US-Fe2O3/SBA-15-H2O2)

Bremmer, D. H.; Molina, R.; Martínez, F.; Melero, J. A.; Segura, Y.

Integrated heterogeneous sono-photo Fenton processes for the degradation of phenolic aqueous solutions

Segura, Y.; Molina, R.; Martínez, F.; Melero, J. A.

Up