School of Engineering
Engineering and Simulation of Environmental Processes Group
(GESPA)
2021 SGR 00321
GESPA’s research is focused on the topics of environmental sustainability from a transversal perspective. GESPA is a consolidated research group by the Catalan Government (2021 SGR 00321) and consists of a multidisciplinary team of scientists who combine chemical engineering, biotechnology and advanced chemical analysis with a theoretical-experimental approach to improve the sustainability of our society.
The aim is to respond to the current challenges of society: climate change and decarbonization, water scarcity, circular economy and sustainability.
The main research lines of the group are:
- Mitigation of the impact of greenhouse gases. Capture and conversion of CO2 through adsorption, catalysis, plasma and radiofrequency processes. Study of the recovery and reuse of fluorinated gases using new alternative solvents and adsorption.
- Sustainable technologies for water reuse. Development of new advanced oxidation, adsorption, biological and membrane processes focusing on the elimination of persistent and emerging organic pollutants and antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
- Circular economy and energy sustainability. Prediction of the formation of dioxins in waste recovery processes, analysis of the impact of electrification on the automotive industry and development of new materials and applications from agro-industrial waste.
- Sustainability analysis and process enhancement. Use of different tools such as life cycle analysis (LCA), process simulation and computational fluid dynamics for environmental process enhancement. Application of flow chemistry for the improvement and optimization of the sustainability and safety of chemical processes.
- Analysis of emerging and persistent contaminants. Analysis in different environmental matrices of pharmaceutical compounds and persistent organic pollutants, as well as other emerging substances such as cyanotoxins and microplastics. Development and application of omics and chemometric techniques for the study of the effects of pollution.
- Environmental microbiology. Analysis of pathogenic microorganisms, detection of bacteria and resistance genes by molecular biology and qPCR, respirometry assays, toxicity and biodegradability tests.
In this environment, GESPA carries out its RD and technology transfer activities in the following areas:
- Circular Economy: CO2 capture and use, water reuse, development of bioplastics
- Sustainability analysis: Life cycle analysis, carbon footprint and water footprint
- Digital Twins: Simulations of sustainable processes
- Biodegradability analysis of solid waste
- Evaluation of the bactericidal and fungicidal potential of irradiation technologies
- Advanced chemical analysis: Chromatography and mass spectrometry for ultra-trace level determination of persistent and emerging contaminants in environmental and food matrices
COORDINATOR:
MEMBERS:
Javier Fernández García, PhD
Assistant Professor - Researcher Beatriu de Pinós
+34932672000
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EXTERNAL COLABORATORS
Fèlix Llovell, PHD
Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Anett Georgi, PHD
UFZ Centre for Environmental Research
Jordi Pujol, Mr
GASN2
Demetrio Raldúa, PHD
IDAEA-CSIC
Carlos Barata, PHD
IDAEA-CSIC
Rene Shahmohamadloo, PHD
University of Guelph
Daniel Beach, PHD
National Research Council of Canada
Prof. Kwang Choy
University College London
Enrico Andreoli, PHD
Swansea University
Selina Ambrosi, PHD
Promethean Particles
Xavier Mundet, Mr
Atlas
Humbert Salvadó, PHD
Universitat de Barcelona
BUSINESS SOLUTION AREAS
LINKED NEWS
Interview
Methodology for Non-targeted Analysis in Metabolomic Studies
15/11/2023
Dr Marc Marín has recently earned an Investigo grant to carry out his project on the establishment and application of a non-targeted analysis methodology for the control of organisms exposed to neurotoxic pollutants and their metabolites.
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Interview
Interview with Dr Javier Fernández, IQS Professor and Researcher
06/07/2023
“The Beatriu de Pinós Grant gives me the opportunity to bring an innovative radiofrequency heating system with advanced materials to IQS and apply it to the capture and conversion of CO2 and move forward on projects to tackle the challenge of climate change.”
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Doctoral thesis
Predicting Dioxin and Furan Emissions
15/06/2023
Dr Damià Palmer recently defended his doctoral thesis at IQS, in which he built a mathematical model capable of predicting dioxin and furan emissions in urban waste incineration processes, making it possible to control the emissions problems associated with these processes.
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Research
CO2 Capture and Reuse Technologies
13/06/2023
IQS and GasN2 are working together to optimize their own technology to capture and reuse CO2 through adsorption in industrial uses, a circular economy solution with great environmental significance.
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Research
Analysis of Pollutants in Reclaimed Water
12/06/2023
Researchers from IQS and IDAEA – CSIC are collaborating with the Catalan Water Agency and the Barcelona Water Company on a project to determine the chemical contaminants present in reclaimed water and evaluate their impact on living beings and public health.
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Interview
Interview with Dr María Auset, Water Sciences Specialist
07/06/2023
“We must manage water better and differently. Now we have solutions, and we are more prepared today to react to this critical situation.”
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Doctoral thesis
Electric Vehicle Challenges: Critical Raw Materials
07/06/2023
Dr Jordi Mas Peiró recently defended his doctoral thesis at IQS, in which he studied the main battery technologies used in the electrification of the automotive sector and the critical raw materials necessary to produce them.
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Doctoral thesis
New methodologies and strategies for fluorinated gas recovery
31/03/2023
Dr Daniel Jovell recently defended his doctoral thesis at IQS, focused on the design and optimization of fluorinated gas recycling and recovery systems through multi-scale simulation and combining various advanced thermodynamic instruments.
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Research
Analysis of Neurotoxic Compounds in Water. COGNIRISK Project
21/01/2022
Researchers from IQS and IDAEA-CSIC collaborate in this project for the analysis of neurotoxic compounds present in water, using advanced methodologies that improve the detection of these compounds and the characterisation of their risk.
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Research
Advancing towards the Elimination of Fluorinated Gases
16/12/2021
The GESPA group at IQS and the URV are working together on the STOP-F-GAS project, where they are studying, within the framework of the circular economy, the development of new technologies for absorbing fluorinated gases for their reuse and obtaining new, more sustainable refrigerant products.
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Research
Analysis and Monitoring of Cyanotoxins
24/11/2021
The IQS Environmental Laboratory and the SCIEX_IQS Demo Lab have started to work together in the development of analytical methods for the control of cyanotoxins, using advanced HPLC-MS techniques.
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Research
TQ-GCMS/MS, an Alternative Technique for Dioxin Analysis
04/10/2021
Shimadzu has given IQS, through Izasa Scientific, the TQ-8050NX equipment, a triple quadrupole GCMS with advanced specifications that is used for the evaluation in the analysis of dioxins and the development of related specific methodologies.
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Research
UV-LED Lamps for Sustainability in Water Treatment (REGiREU)
03/05/2021
Researchers from IQS have been part of the REGiREU project, in which the objective is to replace the current management of the water cycle with a model in accordance with the principles of Circular Economy, leading the study to replace mercury lamps with UV- LEDs.
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Research
New Generation of Drugs against Neurotoxic Industrial Chemicals (NeuroTICs)
03/05/2021
Researchers from IQS are part of the NeuroTICs project, a consortium created to establish a new generation of therapeutic agents against poisoning by neurotoxic agents, as well as to determine their action, using zebrafish and rodent models for the study.
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LATEST PROJECTS
RFC + PU (Integrated RadioFrequency heated CO2 Capture and Plasma Utilisation)
Radiofrequency heating prototype to accelerate Carbon Capture
Funding Agency:
Research Group Link:
Engineering and Simulation of Environmental Processes Group (GESPA)
OPTICCU (Optimization of a carbon capture and use technology in the food industry)
Vacuum pressure swing adsorption for capture and use of CO2 in the food industry
Funding Agency:
Research Group Link:
Engineering and Simulation of Environmental Processes Group (GESPA)
PrecisionERA (Metodologías de alto rendimiento basadas en análisis dirigidos/no dirigidos de huellas químicas de mezclas de contaminantes en agua y de metabolómica en organismos acuáticos)
Identificación de compuestos peligrosos presentes en mezclas de contaminantes complejas presentes
Funding Agency:
Research Group Link:
Engineering and Simulation of Environmental Processes Group (GESPA)
