Dr Sergio Vernuccio
School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering
Lecturer
+44 114 222 7519
Full contact details
School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering
Room B54
Sir Robert Hadfield Building
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
- Profile
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I obtained my BA (2008) and MA summa cum laude (2010) both in Chemical Engineering from University of Naples Federico II, Italy. Prior to pursuing my academic career, I worked as a Process Engineer for Technip Italy S.p.A., Rome, (2011-2014) where I involved in design and reconfiguration of refinery process units and petrochemical plants.
I received a PhD in Process Engineering (2017) from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, where I worked on the application of structured reactors to three-phase reactive processes with high industrial relevance in prospect of Process Intensification. From 2017 and 2019 I worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Linda J. Broadbelt at Northwestern University, USA where I studied mechanisms of acid-based oligomerization of olefins on zeolites for the upgrading of shale gas resources.
My research activity spans from catalysis to reaction engineering and aims to understand the link between macroscopic observation and fundamental phenomena in complex reaction systems.
- Research interests
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- Microkinetic modelling of complex reaction systems
- Heterogeneous catalysis and reaction engineering
- Flow chemistry and multiphase flow
- Process Intensification
I'm constantly seeking for creative and self-motivated students with skills in chemistry, chemical engineering, process engineering and related disciplines. If you are interested in any of the above research areas please contact me by sending your CV and application letter.
Research Themes
- Processes and systems
- Sustainability
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction to Alcohols: Progress and Perspectives. Small Science.
- Nonlinear reactor design optimization with embedded microkinetic model information. Frontiers in Chemical Engineering, 4.
- Catalytic conversion of alkenes on acidic zeolites : automated generation of reaction mechanisms and lumping technique. ACS Engineering Au.
- Propene oligomerization on Beta zeolites: Development of a microkinetic model and experimental validation. Journal of Catalysis.
- Product Value Modeling for a Natural Gas Liquid to Liquid Transportation Fuel Process. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 59(7), 3109-3119.
- Microkinetic Model of Propylene Oligomerization on Brønsted Acidic Zeolites at Low Conversion. ACS Catalysis, 9(10), 8996-9008.
- Discerning complex reaction networks using automated generators. AIChE Journal, 65(8).
- External mass transfer in a laser sintered structured reactor for continuous hydrogenation of alkynes. Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification, 126, 74-80.
- Kinetics and mass transfer of the hydrogenation of 2-methyl-3-butyn-2-ol in a structured Pd/ZnO/Al 2 O 3 reactor. Chemical Engineering Journal, 316, 121-130.
- Kinetic Investigation of the Solvent-Free Hydrogenation of Dehydroisophytol. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 56(17), 4929-4937.
- Reaction Process of Resin-Catalyzed Methyl Formate Hydrolysis in Biphasic Continuous Flow. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 56(6), 1439-1449.
- General Kinetic Modeling of the Selective Hydrogenation of 2-Methyl-3-butyn-2-ol over a Commercial Palladium-Based Catalyst. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 54(46), 11543-11551.
- In Situ Amorphization of Electrocatalysts. Advanced Functional Materials.
- Towards a micro-kinetic model of Li-Ion battery thermal runaway - reaction network analysis of dimethyl carbonate thermal decomposition. Journal of Power Sources.
- Correction: Hydrogenation of 2-methyl-3-butyn-2-ol over a Pd/ZnO catalyst: kinetic model and selectivity study. Reaction Chemistry & Engineering, 1(5), 567-567.
- Hydrogenation of 2-methyl-3-butyn-2-ol over a Pd/ZnO catalyst: kinetic model and selectivity study. Reaction Chemistry & Engineering, 1(4), 445-453.
Chapters
- Predicting the Evolution of Flammable Gases During Li-ion Battery Thermal Runaway Using Micro-Kinetic Modelling, Computer Aided Chemical Engineering (pp. 1077-1082). Elsevier
Conference proceedings papers
- Light äikene oligomerization for shale gas upgrading: A microkinetic model. 12th Natural Gas Conversion Symposium 2019 (pp 359-361)
- Kinetics of the hydrogenation of 2-methyl-3-butyn-2-ol over a structured palladium-based catalyst. 22nd International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering, CHISA 2016 and 19th Conference on Process Integration, Modelling and Optimisation for Energy Saving and Pollution Reduction, PRES 2016, Vol. 1 (pp 108-109)
- Three-phase hydrogenation of 2-methyI-3-butyn-2-ol over a Pd/ZnO catalyst: Development of a kinetic model. 22nd International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering, CHISA 2016 and 19th Conference on Process Integration, Modelling and Optimisation for Energy Saving and Pollution Reduction, PRES 2016, Vol. 1 (pp 61-62)
- Predicting the evolution of flammable gases during Li-ion battery thermal runaway using micro-kinetic modelling. 33rd European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering, Vol. 52 (pp 1075-1080). Athens, Greece, 18 June 2023 - 18 June 2023.
- Gaussian-Process based inference of electrolyte decomposition reaction networks in Li-ion battery failure. Computer Aided Chemical Engineering
- Gaussian-Process based inference of electrolyte decomposition reaction networks in Li-ion battery failure. Computers and Chemical Engineering
- Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction to Alcohols: Progress and Perspectives. Small Science.
- Teaching activities
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- CPE140 Principles of Chemical Engineering 2
- CPE401 Research Projects