Natalia Uricochea Narváez
Natalia Uricochea is an ITPS member since january 27, 2025. She graduated with a degree in Petroleum Engineering from the Universidad de América (Colombia) on September 5, 2019. She subsequently completed a specialization in Environmental Management at the same institution and obtained a master's degree in Energía y Combustibles para el Futuro from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Currently, she is affiliated with the ITPS and is in the final stages of her PhD research at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. Her doctoral work focuses on the chemical valorization of biomass using multifunctional heterogeneous catalysts for the production of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs).
Throughout her career, she has been involved with various organizations through research groups and collaborative projects. During her undergraduate studies (2018–2019), she collaborated with Ecopetrol, the Colombian state oil company, working on reservoir simulation and enhanced oil recovery, with a focus on the CWI technique. Subsequently, she was employed by Tuscany S.A. (2019–2020) as a field auditor in oil operations in Ecuador.
Resuming her research path, she completed her master's thesis at the Institute of Micro and Nanotechnology (IMN-CNM, CSIC), where she worked on the chemical electrodeposition of nanostructured bismuth telluride for thermoelectric device fabrication (2022). Prior to beginning her PhD, she worked at Ariema Energía y Medioambiente S.L. as a technical staff in the specialized field of green hydrogen.
During her doctoral studies, she has presented her experimental results at both national and international scientific meetings, including SECAT 2023 in Málaga and CICAT 2024 in Bilbao. In 2025, she published her first scientific work: "Zr-modified USY zeolite as an efficient catalyst for the production of bio-jet fuel precursors from levulinic acid and furfural in the absence of solvent" in Catalysis Today.
Research Profiles:
Keywords:
Sustainable Aviation Fuel; Zeolites; Aldol Condensation; Chemical valorization.
