The LAQV pilot plant is used for training and education of Master and graduate students in the fields of Chemical Engineering/Biochemical Engineering. It is also used to provide samples at the kg scale in collaborative projects with industry, allowing scale-up of processes developed at the laboratory scale. LAQV researchers use it mainly for the design of clean separation methods, involving membrane processes or supercritical CO2 extraction or fractionation.
Solid / Supercritical Fluid Pilot plant
SFE pilot plant for liquid mixtures
Microfiltration and Ultrafiltration Membrane units
Stainless steel 316 membrane units, including several flat lab scale rigs (membrane area up to 150 cm2) and pilot units (membrane area up to 7.6 m2), prepared for operation with hollow fibre modules and spiral wound modules. These units are fully equipped, with pressure transducers, flowrate mass controllers and on-line data acquisition and storage. The pilot units are mobile, making possible their operation at the field.
Nanofiltration and Reverse Osmosis Membrane units
Identical to the microfiltration and ultrafiltration equipment described (also lab and pilot scale units), equipped with spiral wound modules, and feed and pressure pumps, allowing for operation up to 20 bar in the case of the nanofiltration units and up to 80 bar in the reverse osmosis units.