ITQ Severo Ochoa Lecture “From Lab to Industry: A holistic Sorbent-based Materials Discovery Approach for Industrial Decarbonisation”
El próximo miércoles 5 de junio a las 12h p.m. se llevará a cabo en el Salón de actos del ITQ (UPV-CSIC) la ITQ Severo Ochoa Lecture “From Lab to Industry: A holistic Sorbent-based Materials Discovery Approach for Industrial Decarbonisation”.
La ponencia la impartirá Susana García, Professor, School of Engineering & Physical Sciences, Institute of Mechanical, Process & Energy Engineering. Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
The urgent need for affordable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly technologies to meet current and future energy demands has driven scientists and industrialists to seek impactful industrial-scale solutions. Innovations in materials design, particularly in gas separation processes such as carbon dioxide (CO2) capture, have gained significant attention.
CO2, largely from fossil fuel use and major industrial processes (e.g., steel, cement), is a major contributor to global warming. To significantly impact Net Zero Greenhouse Emission targets, technologies like carbon capture must remove gigatonnes of CO2 annually.
Sorbent-based carbon capture, using porous materials like Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), separates CO2 from gas streams (e.g., flue gas, industrial gas, or air via Direct Air Capture).
Achieving efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective operations at scale requires reducing energy demands and costs. Innovations in material design, driven by computational techniques and reticular chemistry, have focused on identifying optimal MOF adsorbents. Despite progress, research often lacks a systems approach that spans disciplines and scales, necessary to overcome market entry barriers.
This lecture reviews our recent developments in designing a MOF innovation pipeline that addresses process requirements at scale. By integrating materials and process design with techno-economic and environmental performance indicators, we developed tools to expedite material discovery and direct R&D towards feasible, scalable performance goals. This systems- based approach accelerates the market entry of cost-competitive, low-impact, resource-efficient MOF-based carbon capture technologies.
Short Bio
Prof Susana Garcia received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nottingham (UK) in 2010 and conducted post-doctoral research at the Spanish National Carbon Research Institute (INCAR- CSIC) before joining Heriot-Watt University (HWU) in Edinburgh (UK) as an Assistant Professor in 2014.
In 2017, she became the Associate Director in Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage at the Research Centre for Carbon Solutions (RCCS), an interdisciplinary world leading engineering centre, inspiring and delivering innovation for the wider deployment of technologies needed to meet necessary carbon targets. She was appointed to Associate Professor in 2019 and to Full Professor of Chemical and Process Engineering in 2021. In 2023, Prof Garcia received a Visiting Professor Award to move to École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, and in 2024 she was named Global Head of the Institute of Mechanical, Process and Energy Engineering at Heriot-Watt University.
Prof Garcia’s research program focuses on advancing materials and separation processes for energy, industrial and environmental applications. Her team has changed the paradigm on how novel processes based on advanced materials are designed through the integration of process engineering and fundamental science.
She has published more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles (i.e., in Nature, Nature Materials, Science Advances, Energy and Environmental Science) with over 3200 citations, reports for companies and participated in more than 100 national and international conferences and workshops. In recognition of her outstanding professional trajectory, she received the SRUK Emerging Talent Award in 2020 by the Society of Spanish Researchers in the UK and sponsored by the Banco Santander Foundation under its “Young Talent” programme. Her leadership roles include participation in funding agencies’ peer review panels of research centres of excellence and prestigious grants and fellowship programmes; Scientific advisor to companies, foundations, and other investors; and Member of Scientific Societies.
