Processes and products engineering

The strategic objectives of Processes and products engineering research line will be:

• Development and scale-up of chemical engineering processes (e.g. extraction, chromatography, adsorption, purification and reaction) for the production/valorisation of sustainable products and materials and technology transfer.
• Integration of environmental protection technologies (e.g. chemical oxidation processes and catalytic processes), and technologies for the valorisation of bio-based residues into energy applications towards a sustainable industrial development.
• Development of functional, hybrid, responsive and bio-based materials for textile, footwear, energy, agro-food, cosmetic, biomedical and environmental protection applications.
• Application of thermodynamic models to predict the composition of relevant matrices in multi-phasic separation/reaction systems and to optimize extraction processes.
• Development of methodologies to stabilize and enable incorporation of functional extracts/compounds and achieve sustained release in applications like agro-food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics or nutraceuticals (e.g. nano- and microencapsulation).
• Development of electrochemical sensor technology (e.g. electronic tongues and aptasensors) for application in food science.