Jelena Radjenović

Jelena Radjenović

Institut Català de Recerca de l'Aigua

Engineering Sciences

Graduated in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology from the University of Belgrade´s Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, Serbia, in 2004. PhD in Environmental Chemistry from the University of Barcelona in July 2009 with “cum laude” distinction. 2009-2014: Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC), University of Queensland, Australia. November 2014-onwards: Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Girona, Spain. Awarded several prestigious fellowships: Queesland Early Career Smart Future Fellowship, Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship, Ramon y Cajal fellowship. 2017-2022: ERC Starting Grant ELECTRON4WATER.


Research interests

I am an expert in chemical and electrochemical advanced (waste)water treatment, with a focus on the fate of chemical contaminants. My research aims to increase the efficiency and resilience of water treatment and reuse through the development of sustainable, energy-efficient and renewable energy-driven technologies.Over the last years, I have been investigating electrochemical treatment systems and surpassing their major limitation – low current efficiency – by integrating them with engineered, low-cost carbon nanostructured materials in a nanoelectrochemical system (NES).  In addition, I am developing a hybrid nano-biotreatment based on accelerating the redox microbial reactions in anaerobic respiration by the addition of low-cost carbon nanomaterials. Electron shuttling by graphene derivatives drastically enhances the removal of pollutants and may improve the quality and quantity of the produced biogas, thus generating a positive energy balance.

Selected publications

– Velo-Gala I, Farre MJ, Radjenovic J & Gernjak W 2019, ‘N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) Degradation by the Ultraviolet/Peroxodisulfate Process’, Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 6, 2, 106 – 111.

– Sergienko N, Irtem E, Gutierrez O & Radjenovic J 2019, ‘Electrochemical removal of sulfide on porous carbon-based flow-through electrodes.’, Journal Of Hazardous Materials, 375, 19 – 25.