TECHNOLOGICAL CAPABILITIES
INORGANIC CHEMISTRY
Construction
- Sustainable cement based on clinkers with low energy requirements and fly ash.
- High performance cement with low-impact internal curing agents and self-sealing.
- Photocatalytic, self-cleaning cement with TiO2 based on waste of opaque PET and recycled glass for façade cladding.
- Sustainable construction materials based on agricultural byproducts and fibres recovered from textile waste.
Sensorics
- Networks of low-cost, small sensors for monitoring NH3 in stables and reducing the smell in nearby populations.
- Sensorics to detect pollution in the environment. Measurement of levels of methane in gas pipelines.
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
Organic chemistry
- Bio-based foams and polymer insulation materials (polyol foams, natural cellulose fibres and nanocrystals) for buildings and vehicles.
- Agents that repel water and oil that are non-fluoridated for the textile industry.
- Encapsulation and sequential release of aromas with changes in flavour.
- Bio-based flame retardants for environmentally friendly plastics instead of halogenated compounds.
- New natural biodegradable polymers (PHAs) based on mixed microbial cultures with applications in industry and medicine.
- Development of biodegradable polymers.
Functionalised materials
- New materials and multi-materials for additive manufacturing that improve productivity (functional parts, finishes and post-processes).
- Obtaining nano surfaces and functional microstructures in injected polymer parts.
HEALTH
Biomaterials
- Antibacterial and osteoinductive coatings.
- Surgical meshes that can interact as a smart material with biological tissues.
- Implantable and absorbable sensors for pressure, temperature and acidity.
Pharmaceutical chemistry
- Highly sensitive technology to detect viral infections in the blood.
- Functionalised hydrogels with nanoparticles.
- New polymer materials for drug release.
- Design of new biodegradable polymer systems with bactericide, antioxidant and anticarcinogenic properties.
- Manufacture by ultrasound of coatings with antimicrobial nanoparticles on the surface of special hospital textiles, water treatment membranes, implantable medical devices, etc.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY AND ENVIRONMENT
Circular economy
- Methods and tools to integrate circular systems in the process industry.
- Recovery of added value waste from the copper industry (Bi/Sb) and elimination of As in the mineral phase.
- Recycling of opaque PET for high added value applications.
- New materials and coatings to mitigate abrasive wear and deterioration caused by corrosion.
- Treatment of effluent from textile industries through a new electrochemical alkaline system for hydrogen production.
- Development of lightweight, high-performance biocompounds that are recyclable.
- Water treatment, recovery of valuable metals and minerals from brines from desalination plants.
- Obtaining bioproducts and bioenergy from cyanobacterial activity on waste from urban wastewater, the food industry and others.
- Recovery of metals through reactive crystallisation, selective membrane separation and selective sorption/desorption from brine.
- Thermosensitive hydrogels for desalination and purification of water.
- Recovery of rare earth and metal elements from:
- E-waste and lithium-ion batteries
- Liquid defluent from hydrometallurgical and mining processes
- High added value polymers from recycled, devulcanized elastomers.
Management of emergencies
- 3D models for assessing the spread of fires, adverse weather or the dispersal of pollution.
- Virtual reality in 3D, real volumes and dynamics of computational fluids to measure the radiative transfer and improve the monitoring of fires.
- Protocols for the population and for the emergency services in hazardous situations.
Packaging
- Bioplastics for sustainable packaging based on polylactic acid (PLA) and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA).
- Edible food packaging based on materials from renewable sources that are biodegradable and safe and can protect foods and increase their useful life.
- Highly crystalline, degradable polyesters and polyurethanes for the manufacture of environmentally friendly containers.
The environment
- Wastewater filtration systems from aquaculture to retain emerging pollutants (antibiotics).
- Antimicrobial agents of marine origin to reduce the use of conventional food supplements for fish and animals.
- Identification of sources of greenhouse gases using radon as a tracer.
- Microencapsulation with biodegradable polymers to avoid the release of microplastics in the process of domestic cleaning with fabric conditioners.
CHEMICAL AND LABORATORY PROCESSES
- Ecoblends of high added value to optimise additive manufacture.
- Production of ethanol in an ecological, selective way based on CO2 and methane through a hydroxyapatite catalyst.
- Management of highly active nuclear waste: dissolution of fission products and actinides in nuclear fuel
- Transformation of low-quality residual heat into electricity due to conversion processes, transport and use of energy
- Catalyst to produce hydrogen through reforming of a renewable substrate.
- Bimetal catalysts for processes of production of blue and green hydrogen.
APPLICATION SECTORS
FOOD
AGRICULTURE AND MARINE ENVIRONMENT
ENERGY
HEALTH
TEXTILES
BIOTECHNOLOGY
RELATED PROJECTS
- An international research team led by the UPC has created a hybrid device that combines, for the first time ever, molecular solar thermal energy storage with silicon-based photovoltaic energy. It achieves a record energy storage efficiency of 2.3% and up to 14.9% total solar energy utilisation.
- Energy consumption in training and inference of artificial intelligence (AI) models, such as large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4, has become a critical challenge due to its environmental impact and the costs associated with high-performance computing (HPC). The energy required to train these models and interact with them increases significantly as the models grow in size and complexity.
- The adoption of 6G applications will have a positive impact on a broad range of innovations set to transform our society in the future. These include autonomous vehicles that reduce accidents, more efficient emergency services, and connected drones that expedite the delivery of medical supplies between healthcare centres, to name a few examples. These and other emerging solutions continue to evolve, driven by the constant technological advancements in communications. The implementation of these new technologies requires a process that inevitably involves testing in environments as true to real-life conditions as possible.
- The European project LIFE Biogasnet, coordinated by the Biological Treatment of Gaseous Contaminants and Odours Group (BIOGAP) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC), has validated a new biogas purification technology that improves the quality of this resource, produced in urban solid waste treatment plants and wastewater treatment facilities, while reducing the carbon footprint, thus promoting the concept of a circular economy. The new solution is based on efficient, low-cost biological technologies, combining a biotrickling filter with a nitrification bioreactor.
