IQS Tech Transfer Environment has been accredited as a TECNIO agent since April 2025, consolidating itself as a benchmark in research and technology transfer to address challenges such as climate change and environmental sustainability.
His research includes greenhouse gas mitigation, water reuse, circular economy, and analysis of emerging pollutants such as PFAS, VOCs and cyanotoxins and microplastics.
The agent also has the participation of Dr. Belén Derqui who focuses her applied research on sustainability and food waste.
IQS Tech Transfer Environment works in different laboratories to carry out research and development of sustainable technologies and advanced analysis in various areas: (1) The Circular Economy and Sustainability Laboratory works on the recovery of gases such as CO₂, water treatment through processes such as adsorption, advanced oxidation and membranes, as well as on waste recovery and sustainability analysis using tools such as Analysis Life Cycle, Carbon Footprint and Water Footprint. It has specialized equipment such as reactors, photoreactors, process simulators and environmental analysis software (2) The Environmental Laboratory specializes in the analysis of dioxins and persistent organic pollutants in environmental and food matrices, and has ENAC accreditation according to the UNE EN ISO 17025 standard, as well as high-resolution equipment such as HRGC-HRMS, UPLC-APGC and GC-MS. (3) The Microbiology Laboratory focuses on the study of pathogenic microorganisms and the detection of resistance genes using molecular biology techniques, with the basic equipment necessary for this type of analysis. In addition, there are outstanding collaborations with other IQS laboratories, such as the IQS-SCIEX DEMO LAB, which promotes research in high-resolution mass spectrometry applied to chemistry, and the Chromatography Laboratory, which develops and validates chromatographic methods for the analysis of various samples, such as environmental pollutants, such as PFAS, using a wide range of liquid and gas chromatographs with different types of detectors.
In this environment, the Tecnio agent IQS Tech Transfer Environment, develops its R+D and technology transfer activities in the following areas in the environment of environmental engineering.
Our primary research lines focus on:
- Mitigating the impact of greenhouse gases. CO2 capture and conversion 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 dioxin formation 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 improvement. Use of different tools such as life cycle analysis (LCA), process simulation and computational fluid dynamics for environmental process improvement. Application of flow chemistry for the improvement and optimization of the sustainability and safety of chemical processes.
- Analysis of emerging and persistent pollutants. 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 using molecular biology and qPCR, respirometric, toxicity and biodegradability tests.
This summary covers the main areas of research and objectives of the agent’s researchers, highlighting their contribution in the field of chemistry and biotechnology.
The following researchers are part of the agent: Dr. Yeray Asensio, Dra. Maria Auset, Dr. Raul Calvo, Dra. Victoria Codera, Dr. Jordi Díaz, Dr. Javier Fernandez, Montse Gasser, Dr. Cristian Gomez, Dr. Rafa González, Ramon Martí, Chus Montaña, Dr. Xavier Ortiz, Damià Palmer, Dr. Oriol Pou, Dra. Elena Ulanova, Dr. Daniel Vazquez, Dr. Jordi Díaz, Dra. Belén Derqui.
Contact: iqstt_mediambient@iqs.url.edu
