TECHNOLOGICAL CAPABILITIES
RECYCLING, UPCYCLING, TREATMENT
GAS EMITIONS AND AIR POLLUTION CONTROL
- Gas sensors and contaminant detection
- Modelling odor episodes and atmospheric quality
- Industrial emission assessment tools, systems and models
- Modelling, diagnosis and control of sources of air pollution
- Characterization and treatment of gaseous emissions
- Removal, filtration and/or valuation of air pollutants and gases (NH3, H2S, CO2, CO, VOCs and cinder, amongs others)
CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION
- Ecotechnologies and nature-based solutions
- Models and proposals for climate change mitigation
- Multilateral governance
- Global carbon budget and climate justice
- Advice on the Paris Agreement
- Life cycle assessment
- Green and circular economy
PLASTICS
- Recycling and recovery of plastic materials
- Plastic recycling by means of hyperspectral techniques
- Conversion of plastic waste (monomers) into new plastics
- Development in bioplastics and biocomposites
ORGANIC
- Characterization and composting of organic waste for agricultural recovery
- Valorization of incineration waste
- Recovery of bio-active components from food and agrowaste
- Sustainable management of cork waste generated in the cork industry
- Development of bio or synthetic organic waste to obtain new materials, for use in the construction industry, transport and packaging
- (Bio) processes of transformation of waste and organic by-products
ELECTRONICS
- Circular economy of digital devices
- eReuse: reuse of electronics to ensure final recycling
- Bioleaching of low-rank ores and e-waste for valuable metals recovery
- Research on the traceability of digital devices across their lifespan
OTHERS
- Co-gasification and pyrolysis of residual material(including municipal solid waste and forest waste)
- Construction and demolition waste management and recovery
- Mining, urban and industrial waste recovery
- Management, compaction and recovery of the waste process
ECOSYSTEM PRESERVATION
WASTEWATER TREATMENT
- Real-time control of sewage systems and wastewater treatment plants
- Natural low-cost bioprocesses for wastewater and sludge treatment
- Design of constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment
- Numerical simulation of bioprocesses to remove contaminants from wastewater
- Life cycle assessment and economic evaluation of products and technologies for wastewater treatment, sludge management and biogas production
- Use of cork to clean wastewater and produce electricity
- Urban and industrial wastewater treatments and related technologies
TERRESTRAL ECOSYSTEMS
- Application technique of phytosanitary products to reduce the risk of environmental pollution
- Application technique for organic fertilizers to reduce environmental impact
- Efficiency in composting systems and optimization of agricultural productivity. Sustainable agriculture
- Studies to evaluate risk to human health and ecosystems
- Landslide risk management
- Ecosystem services and sustainable resource management
URBAN ECOSYSTEM
- Urban contaminants and the environment
- Green building architecture and materials
- Noise pollution
DRINKING WATER
- Real-time monitoring and operational control of drinking water systems
- Improvement in the efficiency of water use, energy consumption, water loss minimization and water quality
- Modelling and simulation of drinking water networks
- Optimization of water transport and distribution networks
MARINE AND COASTAL ECOSYSTEMS
- Engineering and physical oceanography
- Port and coastal structures. Coastal zone management
- Morphodynamics and coastal processes
- Maritime research and experimentation wave flume
- Data acquisition system design and automation of marine system measurements
- Development of multifunctional sensors for in-situ monitoring of the marine environment
- Development of mobile and fixed ocean observing platforms
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT AND TECHNOLOGICAL RISK
- Risk analysis in the process industry
- Wildland fires monitoring and prediction
- Compartment fires modelling
- Floods and flash-floods, forecasting and derived impact
- Ecotoxicology
APPLICATION SECTORS
AERONAUTICS
AUTOMOTION
INFRASTRUCTURES
HEALTH
MANUFACTURING
TEXTILES
RELATED PROJECTS
- The Maritime Engineering Laboratory at UPC (LIM) participates in a European project that will help improve the management of plastic pollution in the north-western Mediterranean and raise environmental awareness among citizens about marine preservation.
- Microalgae-based wastewater treatment systems have demonstrated the ability to recover nutrients from wastewater and produce valuable biomass for agricultural applications while also recovering energy through the anaerobic digestion of residual biomass. In the Cyan2Bio project, in which the Group of Environmental Engineering and Microbiology (GEMMA) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC) is participating, an additional step will be taken in the valorisation of microalgae biomass to obtain biopolymers suitable for transformation into bioplastics alongside pigments, thereby replacing fossil-based materials.
- The Biological Treatment of Gaseous Pollutants and Odours Group (BIOGAP) at UPC is participating in the BIOMETCRI project, which aims to implement an innovative biotechnological process to recycle batteries from electric and hybrid vehicles, recovering valuable metals such as cobalt, lithium, nickel, and manganese.
- The Group of Environmental Engineering and Microbiology (GEMMA) at UPC is leading the PROALGAE project, aimed at producing new alternative proteins from biomass derived from microalgae and cyanobacteria cultivated using by-products from the agri-food industry. These alternative proteins aim to provide a sustainable ingredient to meet the growing global demand for protein, applicable in the development of food and feed.
