PRODUCT ENGINEERING

The Research Group on Product Engineering aims the development of more efficient and environmentally sustainable processes and products, in an industrial-driven perspective with focus on end-use technologies and high added-value products by means of existing know-how and capacities in emergent fields of research A broad range of research areas are the focus of this group: the study of Mixing in chemical reactors and application of in-house mixing technologies, NETmix and CIJs, for the development of mass production processes for production of micro/nano structured materials and composites; development of dedicated, specialized Microcapsules and Microparticles for industrial applications such as functionalized textiles, food and cosmetics; Polymer Engineering including optimization of industrial processes such as Reaction Injection Moulding (RIM), development of sustainable polymer solutions, and modelling and development of branched polymers; Perfume Engineering including extraction of essential oils from aromatic Portuguese plants and developments of tools for perfume design, performance and classification; Agro-Food-Bio valorisation, namely through the production of synthetic vanillin and syringaldehyde from lignin, valorisation of cork bark as a source of bioactive compounds, and development of portable, fast, automated, low-cost and accurate electrochemical multi-sensor devices for food and medical applications; development of a line of advanced engineering services in the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to serve the industries in the northern region of Portugal.