Research Infrastructure
• ILUDEST distillation column pilot plant for distillation of binary mixtures (fully automated), with the following features: 30 bubble-type trays, 20 temperature measuring points, 2 pressure measuring points, 2 flow measuring points, continuous/discontinuous operation);
• Laboratory EMERSON AUTOMATION SOLUTIONS; Pilot plant with: measuring equipment (temperature, level, pressure, flow), final control elements (control valves), controllers (PID), safety, protection and signalizing, 12 workstations and DeltaV automation system software;
• Homogeneous chemical reactor kit (batch reactor, plug flow reactor, stirred reactor, series of CST reactors) with computer monitoring capability;
• Gas-liquid absorption kit with Raschig ring-filled column for the study of CO2 absorption in water/base solutions;
• Heterogeneous gas-solid fixed, fluidized and circulating bed reactor kits for CO2 capture with computer monitoring and control; Gas chromatograph; Laboratory niche; Computer with modelling-simulation software (Matlab, ChemCAD, Aspen, COMSOL, Thermoflex, etc.), internet connection, access to international databases; Electric steam generator;
• Pilot plants for measuring process parameters, modelling transfer processes, testing control algorithms;
• Pilot plants: continuous and batch reactors equipped with cooling/heating and stirring system; reactor tanks; gas vessels, hydraulic networks;
• Measurement and control instrumentation: temperature, pressure, pH, flow, level transducers; electronic controllers (REX F400), recorders, integrators, pneumatic actuators, control valves;
• Computing systems connected to pilot plants;
• Pilot plant in circulating fluidized bed to study gas-solid carbon dioxide capture systems using adsorbent materials. The plant is equipped with on-line gas analyser and computer monitoring/control;
• Fixed and fluidized bed laboratory facilities for the study of gas-solid catalytic and energy conversion systems using various oxygen carriers. The facilities are equipped with on-line gas analyser as well as computer monitoring/control;
• Laboratory facility for studying gas-liquid absorption processes (e.g., determining reaction rates, mass transfer coefficients, establishing mass balances, studying hydrodynamic flow conditions, etc.); Utilities: water, methane gas, compressed air, single and three-phase power supply, Internet connection;
• Programming and specific software: Visual C++, Visual Basic, Matlab, LabView, ChemCad, HYSYS, ProII, Aspen, COMSOL, Thermoflex, GaBi;
• Computer networks (three networks) equipped with specific software, including the possibility of conducting remote virtual experiments;
• Autolab PGSTAT 10 computer-aided electrochemical potentiostat/galvanostat, Ecochemie (The Netherlands);
• Autolab PGSTAT302N computer-aided electrochemical potentiostat/galvanostat, Ecochemie (The Netherlands);
• PAR 2273 (USA) computer-aided electrochemical potentiostat/galvanostat;
• SP-150 computer-aided electrochemical potentiostat/galvanostat, Biologic (France);
• VoltaLab 10 computer-aided electrochemical potentiostat/galvanostat;
• Electrochemical reactors equipped with rotating disk-ring electrodes, fixed disk-ring ‘wall-jet’ fluid, planar electrodes, etc.
ICT facilities for students include:
• Teaching laboratories equipped with 50 computers connected to the Internet;
• Basic software (Microsoft Windows, MS Office) and specialized software (ChemWin, Chemcad, Aspen Plus, PetroSIM, Matlab/Simulink, COMSOL Multiphysics, Labview, etc.) installed in the teaching laboratories;
• IBM Server Blade Center compute node at faculty level, which can be expanded by connecting to BBU compute nodes (5 blade chassis, each with 14 blades distributed in two racks, each blade has 2xQuadCore 4GHz CPUs, 2X160GB HDD, 4x2GB RAM, 3TB server storage, fibre-optic connections between server and blade systems, UPS with back-up up to 36 minutes). Software including Gaussian'09, gamess, OpenMopac(2009/2007), NWChem, orca (accessible on IBM HPC Cluster), Spartan06, G03W, and GaussView 4.1.;
• Direct communication through dedicated hardware equipment to the High Performance Computing Centre and the Modelling, Optimization and Simulation Centre of the Disaster Management Centre.