Institute of Textile Research and Industrial Cooperation of Terrassa. INTEXTER

ENMA

Environmental Engineering

The ENMA group is part of various departments at UPC and is also a research group within INTEXTER. The institute is recognized as a TECNIO technology development center by the Catalan Government’s Agency for Business Competitiveness. ENMA has been acknowledged as a consolidated research group since 2004.

The group’s research is structured into five interconnected lines, all sharing the common goal of promoting the circular economy through technology applicable to various industrial and social sectors, while contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The main research lines are:

  • Water management in industry
  • Energy management in industry
  • Waste management
  • Project management
  • Detection, analysis, and treatment of emerging pollutants

All these lines are driven by the overarching objective of advancing the circular economy in industry. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)—environmental (eLCA), social (sLCA), and economic (LCC)—is used as a decision-making tool to compare technological solutions and evaluate project sustainability.

The water management line is one of the group’s most experienced areas. Over the years, several projects have focused on water treatment and reuse using technologies such as membrane filtration, electrochemical processes, and bioreactors. The group has extensive experience in treating emerging pollutants from the textile and pharmaceutical industries, including microfibers and optical brighteners. This expertise led to one of the group’s most innovative research lines: the detection, analysis, and treatment of emerging pollutants.

Since most water treatment technologies require energy, the group began exploring sustainable energy solutions, including the use of electric vehicle batteries for energy storage. This gave rise to the energy management line, which connects new energy vectors with the group’s traditional research areas.

In waste management, the group has investigated the use of agro-food waste as natural adsorbents and coagulants for water treatment and reuse, as well as for the development of new materials.

Finally, project management tools and techniques are a transversal asset applied across all research lines.

Contact Information

  • Email: beatriz.amante@upc.edu
  • Phone: +34 93 739 86 86
  • Address: Carrer Colom, 15 – 08222 Terrassa, Spain

Key indicators from recent years

  • 9Researchers
  • 1.160 Publications
  • 4PhD holders
  • 37 Doctoral theses
  • 65Competitive Projects
    (European and National)
  • 184,7 Thousands of euros in
    Technology Transfer

Research Lines

  • Water management in industry
  • Energy management in industry
  • Waste management
  • Project management
  • Detection, analysis, and treatment of emerging pollutant
Articles
Patents
Theses
Projects

Group Members