The Laboratory of Environmental Fuels and Hydrocarbons (LEFH) is a catalytic reaction engineering laboratory that carries out applied research in the area of refining/bio-refining technologies, new conventional fuels, renewable fuels and chemicals, new catalytic materials and in environmental catalytic processes like DeSOx, DeNOx from flue gases. LEFH provides technical support to refining and bio-refining industry and focuses on various processes and especially on Fluid Catalytic cracking (FCC), Hydroprocessing (HDS/HPC), Isomerization, Alkylation, Reforming, Biomass Catalytic Pyrolysis, Bio-fuels upgrading, Selective Catalytic Reduction of N₂O and NOx, Catalytic Oxidation (CO, CH₄) and CO₂ valorisation technologies.

Competences

• Pilot Plants Units: Riser based continuous circulating fluid bed pilot plant unit for catalytic cracking of liquid feeds (FCC), Riser based continuous circulating fluid bed pilot plant unit for solid biomass catalytic pyrolysis, Pilot cyclic deactivation unit for catalyst deactivation studies, Two stage high pressure hydrogen processing pilot plant for liquid feeds, Two stage high pressure hydrogen processing pilot plant for catalytic transformation of sugar liquids, etc.
• Bench Scale Units: Short contact time microactivity unit (SCT-MAT), Fixed and Fluid Bed Reactor unit for DeNOx and DeSOx Studies (DeNOx/DeSOx), Small-pilot scale hydroprocessing unit, High pressure fixed bed reactor unit for liquid and gaseous feeds, Continuous biomass catalytic pyrolysis unit for in-situ and ex-situ operation, Batch autoclave reactors, etc.
• Analytical Facilities for Fuels - Biofuels Characterization: LEFH possess a modern fully equipped laboratory, which employs ASTM methodologies and is capable of performing a total of 55 different standard and advanced analyses (e.g. 2DGC-TOFMS, GC-MS, GC-FID (for polar compounds), FTIR-pyridine adsorption (acidity characteristics), Ion Chromatography (sugar analysis), HPLC, XRF, distillation of Petroleum products, viscocity, density and specific gravity, flash point, pour point, cloud point, etc.)
• Catalyst Characterization Facilities: LEFH possess a fully equipped laboratory for catalyst characterization (N₂ physisorption methods (BET, t-plot, PVD), XRD, TPR/TPD/TPO, ICP, SEM microanalysis, TEM, TGA-MS, Particle size analysis, Attrition resistance, etc.)