Our Analytical Tools

High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)

An analytical technique used for the separation, identification, and quantification of components in a mixture with high precision. Our laboratory is equipped with two HPLC systems, each comprising high-pressure pumps to ensure a constant flow rate, injectors for sample introduction, a separation column, and detectors for analyte measurement. Two types of columns are available: ion-exchange and reversed-phase. The systems are equipped with the following detectors: refractive index (RI), UV/Vis, and a diode array (DAD) detector, which allows simultaneous scanning at different wavelengths. The main analytes identified in this group are sugars, alcohols, and acids.

Gas Chromatography with Flame Ionization Detection (GC-FID)

Highly sensitive analytical technique used to separate, identify, and quantify volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds. The laboratory is equipped with two GC-FID equipments, using helium as an inert carrier gas. We use a polar column in which the main analytes identified in this group are PHAs and fatty acids.

Total Organic Carbon Analyzer (TOC)

TOC-VCSH (Shimadzu) is a total organic carbon analyzer designed for the accurate quantification of organic carbon in liquid samples. It uses high-temperature catalytic combustion with NDIR detection to convert organic carbon into CO₂. The instrument is widely applied in water quality monitoring, environmental analysis, and research laboratories due to its reliability and high analytical performance.

Gas Chromatography with thermal conductivity detector (TCD)

Highly sensitive analytical technique used to separate, identify, and quantify gases. The laboratory is equipped one Agilent 7890 Series Gas Chromatographer with a TCD detector, using argon and compressed air as carrier gases. The system is composed of a PoraBOND Q and Molsieve 5A columns serve complementary roles for comprehensive gas analysis. The PoraBOND Q is a rugged, porous polymer column designed to separate CO2, moisture, and light hydrocarbons (C1–C6) with excellent stability and peak shape. Conversely, the Molsieve 5A is a zeolite-based column specifically engineered to resolve permanent gases like O2, N2 and Carbon Monoxide CO, which typically elute as a single peak on other phases. Because the Molsieve 5A is highly sensitive to "poisoning" by water and CO2, these columns are often used in tandem via a switching valve; the PoraBOND Q handles the polar compounds and moisture, while the Molsieve 5A provides the high-resolution separation required for atmospheric and noble gases.

Microscope

The Zeiss Axio Imager 2 is a high-performance upright research microscope platform used for advanced imaging in both life sciences (cells, tissues, fluorescence) and materials science (metals, composites, crystals). It’s designed for demanding research where image quality, flexibility and reproducibility are essential.

Near-Infrared Spectrometer (NIR)

The FT-NIR Matrix-F instrument is a compact and robust Fourier Transform-Near Infrared (NIR) spectrometer that uses NIR spectroscopy, a type of vibrational spectroscopy that measures absorption from dispersed polychromatic radiation, to analyze various analytes simultaneously. This analysis is non-invasive, non-destructive, rapid and cost-effective, being thus an adequate alternative to off-line reference analytical methods, such as high-performance liquid chromatography. This equipment is coupled to a transflectance optic fiber probe and can collect spectra at-line or on-line, being suited for process monitoring at both lab- and pilot-scale.

Raman spectrometer

The Ocean Optics QE65 Pro is a compact fiber-optic spectrometer optimized for Raman spectroscopy, a type of spectroscopy that is insensitive to water and is able to provide extensive information about a sample, from molecular structure to chemical environment. This equipment is suitable for the non-invasive and non-destructive in-situ quantitative analysis of multi-component bioprocesses, being a rapid, eco-friendly and economic alternative to off-line reference analytical methods, namely chromatography.

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