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:
- Molecular and process modelling
- Development and application of advanced equations of state (SAFT) for thermophysical characterization of solvents and fluids of interest.
- Molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations, computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
- Process simulations (Aspen Hysys) and life cycle analysis (LCA)
- Analytical techniques
- Analytical determination of persistent organic pollutants (dioxins, furans, polychlorinated biphenyls, flame retardants, etc.)
- Application to the monitoring of degradation processes and the establishment of levels in environmental and food matrices
- Gas Chromatograph (HRGC) coupled to High Resolution Mass Spectrometer (HRMS)
- Gas Chromatographs (HRGC) with flame ionisation detector (FID) and electron capture detector (ECD)
COORDINATOR:
MEMBERS:
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
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)
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)
NEW-F-Tech (Novel and Engineered Working Fluids for the refrigeration and energy industry: TECHnical solutions with low global warming potential)
Decarbonization and improvement of the energy efficiency of the refrigeration and energy industries
Funding Agency:
Research Group Link:
Engineering and Simulation of Environmental Processes Group (GESPA)
