Alba Arratibel was born on the 27^th August in 1985 in Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain. After finishing high-school in 2003 in Donostia-San Sebastián, she studied Industrial Technical Engineering with the specialization in Industrial Chemistry at Polytechnic School of San Sebastian-University of the Basque Country. On March 2008 she graduated with a dissertation entitled “recovery of steel and tin from tinplate”.

In 2007 she has started working at Inasmet (Donostia-San Sebastian) for the recovery of aluminium from solid urban waste. Simultaneously, in 2008 she has started a master in Chemical Science and Technology in the National University of Distance Education and obtained the master degree in 2011. In 2009, she has moved to Barcelona to study Material Science Engineering at Polytechnic University of Catalonia after a dissertation entitlted “Synthesis and characterization of DLC (Diamond₋like carbon) coating by chemical vapor deposition assisted by plasma (PECVD)”. After her graduation in 2012 she returned to Donostia - San Sebastina to start with a master degree in Nanoscience. In 2013 she has obtained a master degree in Nanoscience in the Physical center of Materials - University of the Basque Country. After her master thesis on synthesis of inorganic nanoparticles.

In 2014 she started her PhD at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Multiphase reactor group (Chemical process intensification, SPI) under the supervision of Prof. Martin van Sint Annaland and Prof. Fausto Gallucci. The PhD was performed in collaboration with Tecnalia within the Materials for Energy and Environment Area for membrane preparation. Two types of Palladium based membranes were prepared and tested for hydrogen separation in fluidized bed membrane reactors. She has developed a membrane called double-skin to prevent attrition of membrane which has been patented. During her PhD she was awarded as best poster presentation in the International Conference on Catalysis in Membrane Reactors celebrated in Szczecin (Poland) in 2015.

Since 2018, she has been working at Tecnalia as a researcher in the Department of Membrane Technology and Process Intensification, studying materials for membrane preparation and understanding their gas separation properties.