Main Researcher

Leonardo Vásquez Ibarra

Leonardo Vásquez-Ibarra holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Systems from the Universidad de Talca (Chile). He currently serves as an assistant professor at the Universidad Católica del Maule (Chile). Dr. Vásquez-Ibarra has conducted research stays at various universities in Spain and Mexico and has participated in numerous international projects and publications. He is currently a member of the Chilean Network for Life Cycle Assessment.

Research Interests

  • Eco-Efficiency
  • Sustainability Life Cycle Assessment
  • Multicriteria Decision Analysis

Scientific Publications

2025

«BioCalc: a novel life cycle-based tool for quantifying the carbon credits of solid biofuels in Brazil», Biomass and Bioenergy. Antonio Carlos Farrapo Junior, Leonardo Vásquez-Ibarra, Ricardo Rebolledo-Leiva, Diogo Lopes Silva. 2025.

«Environmental implications of using different kilns for charcoal production: A case study of Mexican sector», Energy for Sustainable Development. Juan García-Quezada, Leonardo Vásquez-Ibarra, Ricardo Musule-Lagunes, Artemio Carrillo-Parra, Araceli Guadalupe Romero-Izquierdo. 2025.

«Absolute sustainability assessment of the power generation sector: a prospective insight towards the Chilean decarbonization targets», Sustainable Production and Consumption. Leonardo Vásquez-Ibarra, Ricardo Rebolledo-Leiva, Pedro Vargas-Ferrer, Antonio Carlos Farrapo Junior, Diogo Lopes Silva. 2025.

«A Comparative Evaluation of Threshold Segmentation and LiDAR for Sawmill Residue Volume Estimation», Forests. Carlos Borrego-Núñez, Juan García-Quezada, Leonardo Vásquez-Ibarra, Pablito López-Serrano, Pedro Domínguez-Calleros, Artemio Carrillo-Parra, Jorge Compeán-Aguirre. 2025.

«Circular economy in a recently transitioned high-income country in Latin America and the Caribbean: Barriers, drivers, strengths, opportunities, key stakeholders and priorities in Chile», Journal of Cleaner Production. Alejandro Gallego-Schmid, Leonardo Vásquez-Ibarra, Ana Belén Guerrero, Claudia Henninger, Ricardo Rebolledo-Leiva. 2025.

2024

«A material flow or life cycle analysis perspective for the Water-Energy-Food nexus assessment of organisations? A comparative study», Future Foods. Leonardo Vásquez-Ibarra, Ricardo Rebolledo-Leiva, Eduardo Entrena-Barbero, Mario Fernández, Gumersindo Feijoo, Sara González-García, Maria Teresa Moreira. 2024.

«Comparative social hotpots analysis of biomass pellets in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico in a circular bioeconomy context», International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. Diogo Aparecido Lopez Silva, Leonardo Vásquez-Ibarra, Antonio Carlos Farrapo Junior, Ricardo Musule Lagunes. 2024.

Projects

2025

«Sostenibilidad y economía circular: una mirada desde la educación en la región del Maule», UCM. Lixania Reyes (directora), Leonardo Vásquez (co-director). 2025.

«Desarrollo y validación de un nuevo bioinsumo vía biotransformación de orujo y frass para la industria vitivinícola», FIA. Leonardo Vásquez (co-director). 2025 – 2027.

«Validación de bio-packaging activo para fruta de exportación», ANID. Ricardo Rebolledo (investigador asociado), Leonardo Vásquez (investigador asociado). 2025 – 2027.

2024

«AI4AGROIB – Red iberoamericana para el desarrollo de sistemas inteligentes para la agricultura», CyTED. Leonardo Vásquez (investigador). 2024 – 2026.

«Gestión sostenible en la cadena de suministro de la industria textil mediante herramientas de inteligencia artificial y circularidad de procesos”, ANID. Ricardo Ricardo (investigador asociado), Leonardo Vásquez (investigador asociado), Lixania Reyes (investigadora asociada). 2024 – 2025.

2023

“CAMINO: Circular economy in Latin America and the Caribbean: Barriers, drivers, opportunities and learned lessons”, UKRI Research England International Science Partnerships Fund Institutional Support Grant (ODA). Ricardo Rebolledo (investigador asociado), Leonardo Vásquez (investigador asociado). 2023 – 2025.

2020

“Red iberoamericana de eficiencia térmica industrial”, CyTED. Hugo Valdés (investigador), Leonardo Vásquez (investigador). 2020 – 2024.