Facultad de Ingeneiría

Dr. Andrea Mahn and Dr. Ernesto Castillo, from the Faculty of Engineering, are part of the team working on the Dicyt project “Advanced Numerical Methods for the Simulation and Optimization of Food Freeze-Drying Processes,” recently awarded by the Faculty of Science.

This project aims to enhance and optimize freeze-drying—a critical technology for preserving high-value foods while maintaining quality, safety, and shelf life. Despite its importance, the process currently faces significant challenges regarding production costs, energy consumption, and precise process control.

During the end of the last ice age, vast quantities of CO2, previously sequestered deep within the ocean, surged to the Southern Ocean’s surface and were released into the atmosphere, significantly contributing to global warming. However, it was theorized that some of this stored oceanic carbon might have been swept up and transported directly northward to the eastern equatorial Pacific upwelling region by Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) and Subantarctic Modal Water (SAMW).

The revaluation, understood as the net increase in the monetary value of a property in a given period of time, is mainly driven by two factors: a significant increase in demand over the existing supply and the characteristics of the environment of the property.

The promising results obtained by the research team of the Metallurgical Engineering Department led them to apply for a patent for a “Method for extraction of copper in solution from concentrates, with retention of iron in solids.”