Department of Chemical Engineering

Qualifications:

P.Eng., Professional Engineers, Ontario
Ph.D., University of Western Ontario

Research Interest:

Dr. Manuel Alvarez Cuenca, is an international expert in the area of Fluidized Bed Technology and advanced reactors for the treatment of water and wastewater. He has numerous publications in English and Spanish in leading chemical engineering journals. In 1996 he published the book, Pressurized Fluidized Bed Combustion.

Dr. Cuenca has over 15 years of industrial experience as a chemical engineer with some of the largest multinational corporations of the energy and power generation fields. Dr. Cuenca is also an international consultant and has participated in the development of environmental projects in Spain, Sweden, Brazil (CIDA), Colombia and Mexico. He is an Adjunct Professor with the Chemical Engineering Department of the University of Waterloo, the School of Engineering of the University of Guelph and several universities in South America.  In 2002 he founded Ecotechnos Inc. a company involved in the design and manufacturing of advanced bioreactors used in water and wastewater treatment.

His laboratory at Ryerson is involved in the development of water treatment technologies for small and medium size flows and advanced reactors for the removal of nitrogren and phoshorous.  The Laboratory of Water Treatment Technologies is endowed with several large advanced reactors including, two three-phase fluidized bed reactors, one vacuum column one large rotating biological contactor and a membrane advanced bioreactor for nutrient removal. Dr. Alvarez Cuenca has chaired numerous international congresses and belongs to all the leading professional institutions associated to the treatment of water and wastewater.

Selected Conference Publications:

1. "Las Auditorias Ambientales y los Proyectos de Desarrollo Sostenible". Three-day Seminar, Universidad de Cartagena, Facultad de Ciencias e Ingeniería, Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, November 18-21, 2002.
2. "Sistemas de Tratamientos Descentralizados de Aguas Residuales" Taller Internacional de Restauracion y Manejo Sustentable del Agua" Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Mexico, September 25-27, 2002.
3. "Convenio de Cooperación Académica entre la R.P.U de Toronto, Canada, y la Universidad de Cartagena, Colombia: Una Acción Internacionalizadora". Asociacion Colombiana de Facultades de Ingenieria. Cartagena de Indias, Colombia September 18-20, 2002.
4. "Nitrificacion-Desnitrificacion en Biodiscos" Instituto Mexicano de Technologia del Agua and Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Cuernavaca, Mexico, February 20, 2001.
5. "Comparison of Nitrification Processes in Three-Phase Fluidized Beds and Rotating Biological Contactors" 50th Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference, Session W69F, Montreal, Canada, October 15-18, 2000.