Dr Sergio Vernuccio

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Lecturer

Dr Sergio Vernuccio smiles stood in the Engineering Heartspace
Profile picture of Dr Sergio Vernuccio smiles stood in the Engineering Heartspace
s.vernuccio@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 7519

Full contact details

Dr Sergio Vernuccio
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Room B54
Sir Robert Hadfield Building
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
Profile

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
  • 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

Journal articles

Chapters

Conference proceedings papers

  • Vernuccio S, Koninckx E, Bickel EE, Tseng HT, Gounder R, Ribeiro F & Broadbelt LJ (2019) Light äikene oligomerization for shale gas upgrading: A microkinetic model. 12th Natural Gas Conversion Symposium 2019 (pp 359-361) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Vernuccio S & Rudolf Von Rohr P (2016) 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) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Vernuccio S & Rudolf Von Rohr P (2016) 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) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Bugryniec P, Vernuccio S & Brown S () 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. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown S, Yeardley A, Bugryniec P, Vernuccio S, Price N & Jain A () Gaussian-Process based inference of electrolyte decomposition reaction networks in Li-ion battery failure. Computer Aided Chemical Engineering RIS download Bibtex download
  • Bugryniec P, Yeardley A, Jain A, Price N, Vernuccio S & Brown S () Gaussian-Process based inference of electrolyte decomposition reaction networks in Li-ion battery failure. Computers and Chemical Engineering RIS download Bibtex download
Teaching activities

- CPE140 Principles of Chemical Engineering 2
- CPE401 Research Projects