Javier Rubio Garcia

Javier Rubio Garcia

Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy,
University of Cambridge,
27 Charles Babbage Road,
Cambridge, CB3 0FS

jr873@cam.ac.uk
www.linkedin.com/in/javier-rubio-garcia 

Education:

  • Université Paul Sabatier (France), Nanotechnology, PhD, 2010, Title of thesis: Strategies to yield water dispersible ZnO NPs synthesized by an organometallic approach
  • Universidad de Oviedo (Spain), Organometallic Chemistry, Honours Degree Thesis 2005
  • Universidad de Oviedo (Spain), Inorganic Chemistry, Licenciatura en Química, 2004

Appointments:

  • From Feb 2016 to currently: co-founder and director at SweetGen Ltd (spin out from Imperial College London)
  • From Jun 2014 to March 2020: Research Associate at Imperial College London
  • From Jun 2017 to Jan 2019: co-founder and director at RFC Power Ltd (spin out from Imperial College London)

Entrepreneurship - PI Grant Funding:

  • 2018 to April 2022 - BEIS Energy Entrepreneur Fund round 6. Scale up and pilot scale trials of abiotic device that cleans wastewater while generating electricity. Total budget: £776k
  • Sep 2017 to Ago 2018 - Innovate UK Materials and manufacturing round. Electrochemical harvesting of energy from industrial wastewater. Total budget: £97k
  • 2016 to 2018 - European Institute of Technology – Climate KIC. Total budget: £120k
  • 2016 to 2017 - Fondo de Emprendedores Repsol accelerator program Total budget: £48k

Awards:

  • 2016 - Entrepreneurial Award - 1st Prize Royal Society of Chemistry Emerging Technologies Competition.
  • 2016 – Imperial College President Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship – Along with Dr Daniel Malko and Prof Anthony Kucernak.
  • 2014 - Juan de la Cierva Fellowship Individual from the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation (declined to join Imperial College London).
  • 2012 – Inspiraciencia Award – Science-based literature competition organized by the Spanish Council for Scientific Research.
  • 2007 - Early-Stage Research Training Marie Curie Fellowship – Nanotool, FP7 Host Fellowships Training.

Research Interests:

  • Interfacial reactions in batteries, fuel cells, electrolysers, and heterogeneous catalysis
  • Electrosynthesis of oxidants, liquid fuels, and ammonia
  • Materials science including synthesis, characterization, and implementation in electrochemical devices
  • Engineering of electrochemical reactors

Selected publications:

  • “Modelling of redox flow battery electrode processes at a range of length scales: a review” BK Chakrabarti, E Kalamaras, AK Singh, A Bertei, J Rubio-Garcia, V Yufit, Sustainable Energy & Fuels 4 (11), 5433-5468.
  • “High energy density Hydrogen/Vanadium hybrid redox flow battery utilising HCl as a supporting electrolyte” J. Rubio-Garcia, J. Cui, A. Parra-Puerto, A. Kucernak. Energy Storage Materials Volume 31, October 2020, Pages 1-10.
  • “Hydrogen/functionalized benzoquinone for a high-performance regenerative fuel cell as a potential large-scale energy storage solution” J. Rubio-Garcia, A. Kucernak, R. Liu and B. Chakrabarti. Journal of Material Chemistry A8 (7), 3933-3941.
  • “Uncovering the mechanisms of electrolyte permeation in porous electrodes for redox flow batteries through real time in situ 3D imaging” F. Tariq, J. Rubio-Garcia, V. Yufit, A. Bertei, B. Chakrabarti, A. Kucernak and N. Brandon. Sustainable Energy & Fuels 2 (9), 2068-2080.
  • “Hydrogen/manganese hybrid redox flow battery” J. Rubio-Garcia, A. Kucernak, D. Zhao, V. Yufit, M. Gomez-Gonzalez, K. Fahy and N. Brandon. Journal of Physics: Energy 1 (1), 015006.
  • “Direct visualization of reactant transport in forced convection electrochemical cells and its application to redox flow batteries” J Rubio-Garcia, A Kucernak, A Charleson, Electrochemistry Communications 93, 128-132.