Vincenzo Spallina is Full Professor in the Chemical Engineering, group leader of the Sustainable PRocess INtensifiction Group and the academic lead of the Indusitrial Hub for Sustainable Engineering in the James Chadwick Building. His research interests centre on developing and demonstrating new intensified reactors in the field of energy, chemical and biochemical processes. He has a particular interest in (i) chemical looping technologies, (i) waste purification and valorisation, and membrane-aided thermochemical reactors.

Vincenzo Spallina holds an MSc (2008) in Energy Engineering and a PhD cum laude in 2013 in Nuclear and Energy Science and Technology program from the Polytechnic of Milan (IT). After that, he was a post-doctoral fellow in the Chemical Process Intensification Group at the Eindhoven University of Technology. He is PI and Co-I in several national and international projects with partnership with universities, research centres and industries.

Current Research Projects:

§  HYS2 RECYCLE (DESNZ Phase I nd Phase II funded, 01/03/2022 - 30/01/2025, £5.4 M): Rethinking low carbon hydrogen production by chemical looping reforming) - Principal Investigator

Testing and demonstration at TRL6 of the an enhanced and autothermal chemical looping process in packed bed reactors including process assessment through conceptual design. Project Partners: Johnson Matthey, TotalEnergies, Kent plc, Helical Energy, ERM.

Past Projects (completed)

§  H2020-C4U (H2020 - EU Commission, 01/04/2020 - 31/03/2025, €440k out of €12.5M): Advanced Carbon Capture for steel industries integrated in CCUS Clusters - Co-Investigator

C4U is a holistic interdisciplinary project involving the collaboration with 8 European countries and Mission Innovation Countries, Canada, China and USA aimed at addressing all the essential elements required for the optimal integration of CO₂ capture in the iron and steel industry as part of the CCUS chain. The University of Manchester will contribute with the technology scale-up and techno-economic assessment of calcium-chemical looping process. Main Project partners: UCL, Johnson MAtthey (UK), Woods, Politecnico of Milan (Italy), Spanish Research Council (Spain), Arcelor Mittal (Luxembourg, Spain), ECN-TNO (Netherlands), SWERIM (Sweden). 

§  H2020-GLAMOUR (H2020 - EU Commission, 01/05/2020 - 31/10/2024, €911k out of €5M): GLycerol to Aviation and Marine prOducts with sUstainable Recycling - Principal Investigator and Project Coordinator

 Design, scale-up and validation of an integrated process that converts the waste bio-based feedstock such as crude glycerol into aviation and marine diesel fuels using gas-solid reactions such as chemical and calcium looping and 3D-printed structured catalyst. Demonstration will reach TRL5. Project Partners: Argent Energy (UK), TU Eindhoven, TNO (The Netherlands), Spanish Research Council CSIC (Spain), Ineratec and C&CS (Germany), VITO (Belgium), PNO and Siirtec Nigi (Italy).

§  BREIN-STORM (EPSRC - CREDS funded, 01/07/2019 - 30/06/2023, £857k out of £1.3M):Boosting Reduction of Energy Intensity in cleaN STeelworks platfORM - Principal Investigator

Development of new processes for the valorisation of blast furnace gas from integrated steelwork into hydrogen and chemicals with reduced CO₂ emissions. Project partners: Cambridge University, Leeds University, Tata Steel, British Steel, Spanish Research Council  

§  SPACING (EPSRC funded, ref. EP/V026089/1 - 01/09/2021 - 31/10/2024, £620 k): Sustainable Production of ACrylic acId from reNewable waste Glycerol - Co-Investigator

Testing and demonstration of an advanced fluidised membrane reactor for the direct conversion of glycerol into acrylic acid. The project includes material & reactor testing and conceptual process design and integration. Project Partners: Johnson Matthey, Argent Energy and Eindhoven University of Technology.

Vincenzo Spallina is Full Professor in Chemical Engineering, group leader of the Sustainable PRocess INtensifiction Group and the academic lead of the Indusitrial Hub for Sustainable Engineering in the James Chadwick Building. His research interests centre on developing and demonstrating new intensified reactors in the field of energy, chemical and biochemical processes. He has a particular interest in (i) chemical looping technologies, (i) waste purification and valorisation, and membrane-aided thermochemical reactors.

His research combines numerical modelling (from particle to the complete plant) and experimental testing of the technology up to the pilot scale to demonstrate new and sustainable process technologies.