Structure

The development of Pospetro's activities has a wide infrastructure, described below.

LEPETRO [learn more about Lepetro]

Pospetro has a solid laboratory base based on the "Laboratory of Petroleum Studies - Lepetro" which is located on the second floor of IGEO/UFBA, Block A. In Lepetro Units are developed analyses related to organic and inorganic geochemistry;  analytical procedures are performed in soils, sediments, rock, water, biota and oil. Lepetro also comprises the infrastructure that provides support for Pospetro's administrative activities.

Lepetro comprises a physical area of approximately 876.79 m², fully air-conditioned, is divided into three sectors:

• Administrative Sector, which includes 8 rooms, distributed in an area of 168.81 m² (Pospetro Secretariat, rooms for teachers / researchers, meeting room / library, computer laboratory, reception and pantry);
• Analytical Sector I, with 69.30 m², encompassing 4 laboratory rooms;
• Analytical Sector II, with 561.89 m², composed of 20 rooms/laboratories and 76.79 m² of circulation area.

Lepetro's Analytical Sectors

Lepetro is composed of nine laboratory units of various specialties, allowing the performance of tests and determinations in the areas of geology, chemistry, microbiology, geochemistry, oil and environment. It is a technological park with state-of-the-art equipment and a highly qualified multidisciplinary technical team. All Lepetro infrastructure also supports Pospetro's R&D projects, as well as other graduate programs from UFBA and partner universities.

• Spectrometric Techniques Unit

In this unit are determined chemical elements (metals and non-metals) in several sample matrices, including sediment, water, rock, oil and biota, using Optical Emission Spectrometer with Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP OES), Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (F AAS) and Graphite Furnace (GF AAS), as well as hydrohydrate generation modules and cold steam.

• Chromatography and Elementary Analysis Unit

In this unit are determined organic compounds, carbon (organic and total), nitrogen and sulfur in environmental and petroleum samples, as well as tests for characterization of samples of oil-generating rocks (S1, S2, Tmax, IO and IH).  It has gas chromatograph with Flame Ionization detectors (GC FID), Masses (GC/MS) and Triploquadrupole Masses (GC-MS/MS), as well as Elementary Analyzer CNS and Pyrolizer Rock-Eval.

• Petroleum Geochemistry Unit

In this unit sediment, water, soil, rock and oil samples are prepared for further analysis at the Chromatography and Elemental Analysis Unit. Physical analyses of oils (density, API degree, viscosity, flash point) are also performed. It has equipment for the preparation of samples, among them stand out Soxhlet extractor systems, Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE), Ultrasound and PAAR Hydropyrozer.

• Environmental Geochemistry Unit

In this unit, sediment, water, soil, rock and biota samples are prepared for further analysis at the Chromatography and Elementary Analysis Unit. It has several equipment for the preparation of environmental samples, among them, Soxhlet extractor systems, microwave and ultrasound.

• Geomicrobiology Unit

In this unit is performed counting, isolation and preservation of microorganisms, biochemical tests, preparation of inoculum for bioremediation of areas contaminated with oil, as well as water quality analyses. It has modern equipment such as nucleic acid extractor (DNA and RNA), nucleic acid quantifier and qualifier (DNA, RNA and proteins), microplate spectrophotometer and qPCR.

• Geochemistry Unit

In this unit samples are prepared for spectrometric analyses, in addition to tests of pH, conductivity, turbidity, STD, chlorophyll and pheopigments, assimilable phosphorus, cations and anions. Among the available equipment are Microwave, Digester and Nitrogen Distiller Kjeldhal, Ion Chromatograph with UV-vis detector, Particle Analyzer by laser diffraction.

• Organic Petrography and Palinofácies Unit

It has a chapel prepared for the use of Hydrofluoric Acid, a reagent used in the isolation of rock querogen. It also has a Politriz used in the preparation of insulated querogen plugs or rock to determine the reflectance of the vitrinite. In this unit are also prepared palinological slides that will be analyzed in the Optical Microscopy Unit.

• Sample Physical Preparation Unit

In this unit, the physical preparation of the sample occurs for further preparation and/or analysis in the other laboratory units.  It has lyophilizers, muffle furnace, ball mill, greenhouse and joog sieves ocm different granulometric meshes.

• Optical Microscopy Laboratory

It has an optical microscope coupled to a spectrophotometer with fluorescence module, in addition to biological inverted microscopes and magnifying glass. In this unit, analyses of polished plugs and slides are performed to determine the reflectance of the vitrinite and analysis of palinaphacies, respectively.

The Lepetro Quality Program is in the implementation phase. Currently the quality protocols are being elaborated, obeying an internally developed system, which follows specific technical standards (NBR / ISO / IEC 17025).

Lepetro continuously invests in safety in laboratory units, providing PPE and EPC's, in addition to regularly offering health, safety and environmental training and evacuation training for students, researchers and collaborators, providing a safe environment for the development of activities.

In addition to the infrastructure available at Lepetro, there is availability of other equipment through partnerships with different national and international universities, namely: Federal University of Ceará (UFC), State University of Feira de Santana (UEFS), University of Newcastle and the University of Heriot-Watt, increasing the analytical capacity available to students of the Graduate Program.

Computer Resources and Modeling Labs

Pospetro makes available to students, in an exclusive use room, computers and printer necessary for the development of their research activities inherent to their dissertations and theses. Students are made possible with a wireless network system in the facilities used.

The Laboratory of Data Manipulation, Evaluation and Modeling of Petroleum Systems serves as the basis for improving the way of ordering and thinking of geological, geophysical and geochemical data in the oil exploration process; deepening the understanding of the dynamics of the elements and processes that control the occurrence of hydrocarbon accumulations, as well as contributed to the evaluation of the prospectivity and exploratory risks of sedimentary areas or basins. The use of specific software allows loading, editing and visualizing well data, performing stratigraphic correlations, evaluating data on electrical profiles and geochemical data, and performing backstripping, thermal, maturation and generation modeling of the streamlining the workflowof interpreters in the exploration area.

Libraries

Pospetro researchers and students have three library spaces:

1. University Library Rector Macedo Costa (Central Library of UFBA) that, installed on the same campus of IGEO, has a general collection for the entire UFBA;
2. University Library of Science and Technology Omar Catunda, inaugurated on 02/06/2016, located in the vicinity of IGEO, with modern facilities and that meets in an integrated way the Institutes of Geosciences, Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry;
3. Lepetro Library, with specific collection in the area of Petroleum, Geology, Geochemistry and Environment. It displays on its shelves dissertations produced with Pospetro, or even Theses or Dissertations of common interest, coming from other PPGs of UFBA or other Universities / Research Centers Brazilian and foreign. This collection corresponds to materials made available and/or donated by teachers linked to Pospetro, especially by public or private institutions.

The first two libraries belong to the UFBA Library System (SIBI), have librarians and are commonly used by the entire UFBA community. They are equipped with computers to access the titles through the Pergamum system of consultation of references of the entire collection of the University and access to virtual portals of journals (CAPES Portal and others). It also offers guidelines and/or publication exchange services (COMUT and CCN). These libraries have individual study rooms, collective rooms, video rooms, and restricted or cartographic material consultation rooms. Lepetro's library is of restricted use to Pospetro teachers and students, students from other graduate or undergraduate courses.