LQB - Laboratory of Biomass Chemistry and Biofuels

Research Lines

Biomass characterization to produce biofuels and new products; biofuel quality; oil quality; identification of bioactive compounds and metabolomics (plant and microbial).

Structure and equipment

With an area of 244 m², it has a calorimetric pump for thermal analysis, TGA thermogravimetric analyzer, CHNS/O elemental analyzer, pyrolizer coupled to GC-MS. In the chromatography and spectrometry area, the following equipments are present: 4 UPLC ultra-efficient liquid chromatographs with PDA, ELS and RI detectors, ion exchange chromatograph with amperometric detector (HPAEC-PAD), mass spectrometer model XEVO TQD + UPLC ACQUITY I-CLASS with PDA and ELSD detectors, Bruker Daltonics MALDI TOF/TOF mass spectrometer, Thermo Scientific LTQ-XL Ion Trap mass spectrometer, Gas chromatograph with FID detector and headspace/SPME injector, Gas chromatograph with combipal and headspace injector with FID detector. For biofuel analysis specifically: automatic clogging point analyzer, viscometer, automatic flash point analyzer, carbon residue analyzer, centrifuge with heating. Also, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES), BUCHI model NIR-FLEX 500 near infrared spectrophotometer, 2 UV/VI spectrophotometers, automatic Kjeldahl nitrogen digester and distiller, 2 accelerated solvent extractors (ASE), 2 vacuum and 4 drying ovens, 3 muffle furnaces, oil extractor, 2 FT-IR spectrophotometers, 9 scales, 4 automatic titrators, and miscellaneous mills.