People

Enrico Tronconi (born in Milano, Italy, in 1956) is Professor of Chemical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano (Dipartimento di Energia), Italy. He holds degrees in Chemical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano and from the University of Delaware (USA).  His main research interests are in the area of Catalytic Reaction Engineering, with emphasis on industrial processes for energy conversion and environmental protection. The general aim of his research is the elucidation of fundamental and applied aspects of catalytic technologies, and the development of new catalyst/reactor concepts for process intensification. In particular, he has explored the engineering features associated with the application of novel structured catalysts and reactors: for these studies he received the Federchimica National Award in 1995, and an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council in 2016. He has also extensively investigated DeNOx aftertreatment technologies for vehicles. On this topic, he has co-authored a paper that received the Glenn Award from the American Chemical Society Division of Fuel Chemistry in 2005. His work on the Selective Catalytic Reduction of NOx emissions from Diesel engines, in collaboration with Daimler AG, has contributed to the development of the BlueTec technology, commercialized on Mercedes-Benz vehicles since 2005. On this topic, Enrico has published many highly cited papers and one edited book: “Urea-SCR Technology for deNOx After Treatment of Diesel Exhausts”, Springer, NY (2014) (with Isabella Nova).

Enrico Tronconi has authored or coauthored over 250 scientific publications in international journals or books, and is the co-inventor of fifteen patents. He is one of the Invited Academic Members of the EUROKIN Consortium (since 2003, and one of the four members of the International Advisory Board of the Competence Center for Catalysis at Chalmers Technical University, Göteborg, Sweden (since 2008). He is currently Topical Editor of “Chemical Engineering Research and Design”, member of the Editorial Boards of “Chemical Engineering Reviews” and of the “International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering”, and has acted as Guest Editor for two special issues of “Catalysis Today”. Enrico has served in the Scientific Committees of a number of international conferences in Catalysis and Chemical Reaction Engineering. He has chaired the 3rd International Conference on Structured Catalysts and Reactors (ICOSCAR 3, 2009), and is the designated Chairman of the International Symposium on Chemical Reaction Engineering (ISCRE 25) to be held in Florence, Italy, in May 2018. Besides many oral and poster contributions to international conferences, in 2006-2016 Enrico has presented 50 invited talks.

Enrico has been and is Principal Investigator of several public and industrial projects in the fields of heterogeneous catalysis and chemical reaction engineering, often in collaboration with leading Companies.

Alessandra Beretta (born in Milan on August 17, 1967) is married since 2001 and is the mother of two children born in 2003 and 2006. She lives in Milan.
She graduated in 1992 in Chemical Engineering and got a PhD in Industrial Chemistry in 1996 at Politecnico di Milano. In 1994-1995 she has been visiting PhD student at Lehigh University (PA, USA), after receipt of a Fubright scholarship.
Since 2013, she is full professor of Chemical Engineering at the Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano.
Her research interests are in the area of catalysis for energy conversion and environmental protection, including catalytic processes for the exploitation of natural gas, hydrogen production from fossil and renewable fuels, modeling of catalytic reactors, transport phenomena in structured reactors, kinetics of the conversion of light hydrocarbons to syngas or olefins to very short contact times, interaction between surface reactions and gas phase reactions. More recent interests involve the conversion of plastics, the upgrade of pyrolysis vapors, the abatement of elemental Hg from flue gases.
She is one the three members (with prof. Enrique Iglesia and prof. Graham Hutchings) of the Scientific Advisory Board of the iCSI, center for the Industrial Catalysis Science and Innovation, funded by the Research Council of Norway.
She has been chair of the Catalysis for Energy Topic of XIII EUROPACAT 2017.
She has served as Deputy Head for Research of the Department of Energy in the years 2017-2019.
Since 2018 she is coordinator of “Energy for Motion”, a 9 M€ 5-years project funded by MIUR, the Italian Ministry of Education, Research and University within the “Departments of Excellence Program”; the project consists of a development plan of the Department of Energy, focused on energy technologies for transportation. Four major research pillars are included in the project: H2 and new fuels, new engines and after-treatment solutions, fuel cells, batteries and electric vehicles.

Gianpiero  Groppi  (born in Milano, September 1963) is full professor of technical chemistry at Politecnico di Milano. He graduated cum Laude in Chemical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano in 1989. He took a Ph.D. title in Industrial Chemistry in 1994. His scientific interests are in the field of industrial catalysis and chemical reaction engineering. He is mainly focused on catalytic processes for energy and environmental applications and on the development of novel structured catalytic reactors. He is co-author of 142 documents indexed by Scopus, with more than 4500 citations and HI=39 (Scopus, September 2017). He is inventor of 9 national and international patents and patent applications. He was the chairman of the organizing committee of the 3rd International Conference on Structured Catalysts and Reactors (ICOSCAR-3) in Ischia 2009 and he has been member of the scientific committee of ICOSCAR-4(Beijing 2013) and ICOSCAR 5 (San Sebastian 2016). From 2003 to 2009 he was a member of the Editorial Board of Catalysis Today.

Luca Lietti (born in Como, 7 December 1960) has been full Professor of Chemical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano since March 2001. Graduated in chemical engineering at the Politecnico di Milano in 1985, he earned his doctorate in industrial chemistry at Politecnico di Milano in 1989. From 1989 to 1992 he was Post-doc at the Department of Industrial Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, where he became Assistant professor in 1992. From October 1993 to April 1994 he was Visiting Scientist at Lehigh University (PA), USA, working with Prof. Kamil Klier. In 1998 he was appointed professor of Industrial Catalysis at the Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, and in 2001 he became full professor at the same department. In 2008 he moved to the Dept. of Energy of the same University.

His major interests are in heterogeneous catalytic processes, especially for energy and the environment. Current researches include NOx abatement in mobile and stationary sources, CO₂ hydrogenation to fuels and chemicals, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis over Co- and Fe-based catalysts, catalytic soot oxidation and combined soot-NOx removal.

He has published more than 200 ISI-classified publications (Scopus Hi=53, February 2020), several review articles appeared as books chapters and 3 patents. He edited the book entitled “NO_x trap catalysts and technologies: fundamentals and industrial applications”, published by RSC in 2018.

Carlo Giorgio Visconti (born in Milano, October 1981) is Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and Heterogeneous Catalysis at Politecnico di Milano, Italy. In 2005, he graduated cum Laude in Chemical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. In 2008, he obtained a Ph.D. title cum laude in Industrial Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from the same University. During his Ph.D., he spent one year at the University of California Berkeley, USA.

His scientific interests are in the field of heterogeneous catalysis, industrial catalytic processes and chemical reaction engineering. His research activities are mainly focused on catalytic processes for carbon dioxide reutilization, production of synthetic fuels and chemical storage of renewable energy. In all these fields, he is active in the design and development of novel catalysts, innovative processes and intensified chemical reactors. He authored and coauthored over 50 scientific publications in international journals or books, with around 1300 citations and h-index=21 (Scopus, January 2020). He is inventor of 3 international patents.

Prof. Visconti has been and is Principal Investigator of numerous industrial projects in the fields of heterogeneous catalysis, often in collaboration with leading oil&gas, energy, engineering and process automation Companies and Research Institutes.

Mauro Bracconi (born in Brescia, Italy in 1990) was a Post-doctoral fellow at Politecnico di Milano since 2017. He received his Ph.D. summa cum laude in Chemical Engineering and Industrial Chemistry at Politecnico di Milano with a thesis on virtual reconstruction and CFD simulations of open-cell foams. He was mainly interested in the multiscale (CFD) modeling and simulation of heat and mass transfer in open cellular structures. He is Junior Researcher at the Politecnico di Milano, since 2018.

 

Main role within INTENT project: CFD simulation and virtual reconstruction of open cellular structures.

Matteo Ambrosetti (born in Milan, Italy in 1990) is a Post-doctoral fellow at Politecnico di Milano, Italy since 2016. He received his Ph.D. summa cum laude in Energy and Nuclear Science and Technology at Politecnico di Milano with a thesis on heat/mass transfer and pressure drops in open cell metal foams. He is mainly interested in the experimental investigation of heat, momentum and mass transfer in open cellular structures..

Main role within INTENT project: experimental testing of heat and mass transfer in open cellular structures.

Tommaso Selleri (born in Merate, Italy in 1988) was a Junior Researcher at Politecnico di Milano, Italy since 2017. He received his Ph.D. summa cum laude in Chemical Engineering and Industrial Chemistry at Politecnico di Milano with a thesis on the low temperature challenges in NOx abatement from lean burn engines. He is mainly interested in  modeling of catalytic reactors and simulating heat and mass transfer in porous media.

Main role within INTENT project: CFD simulation and virtual reconstruction of open cellular structures.

Laura Fratalocchi (born in Ascoli Piceno, Italy in 1988) was a Post-doctoral fellow at Politecnico di Milano, Italy since 2017. She received her Ph.D. summa cum laude in Chemical Engineering and Industrial Chemistry at Politecnico di Milano with a thesis on the development of novel cobalt based catalysts for the intensification of the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. She is mainly interested in the intensification of heat transfer in Fischer-Tropsch tubular reactors through the adoption of conductive open cellular structures.

Member of INTENT from 01/11/2016 to 15/02/2020

Riccardo Balzarotti (born in Saronno, Italy in 1987) was Post-doctoral fellow at Politecnico di Milano, Italy since 2016. He received his Ph.D. summa cum laude in Materials Engineering and Nanotechnologies at Politecnico di Milano with a thesis on the washcoating of complex geometries substrates for catalytical applications. He is mainly interested in catalytic activation of open cellular structures.

Member of INTENT from 01/11/2016 to 01/08/2020

Umberto Ghelli (born in Busto Arsizio VA, in 1990) was a Post-doctoral fellow at Politecnico di Milano, and he was involved in the INTENT project since April 2017. Main role within INTENT: he developed the design of the pilot-scale reactor facility and interacted intensively with the Research Office and Accounting Department of the HI regarding the preparation of the related documentation concerning the open tendering procedure.

Member of INTENT from from 16/04/2017 to 31/01/2018

Danilo Bonincontro (born in Enna, Italy in 1990) is a Post-doctoral fellow at Politecnico di Milano, Italy since August 2020. He received his Ph.D. in Sustainable Industrial Chemistry in a joint Ph.D. program between Università di Bologna (Italy) and CPE – Lyon (France) with a thesis on biomass valorisation. He is mainly interested in the development and modelling of structured reactors for the intensification of non-adiabatic chemical processes.

Federico Sascha Franchi (born in Milan, Italy in 1992) is a PhD student at Politecnico di Milano, Italy since 2018. He received his M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering and Industrial Chemistry at Politecnico di Milano with a thesis on the effect of methane on the activity of SCR catalysts for heavy duty vehicles. He is mainly interested in the experimental investigation of heat, momentum and mass transfer in open cellular structures.

Member of INTENT since February 2019.

Claudio Ferroni (born in Gallarate, Italy in 1995) is a PhD student at Politecnico di Milano, Italy since 2019. He graduated in Chemical Engineering and Industrial Chemistry earning the Master Degree at Politecnico di Milano (Italy) in 2019, with a thesis on the fundamental investigation of the transport properties of structured supports for catalytic applications by means of Computational Fluid Dynamics. His main activity deals with the numerical investigation of transport properties in cellular materials as enhanced supports for catalytic applications.

Member of INTENT since November 2019.