CSIC is the largest multidisciplinary public research organization in Spain, with 123 research institutes distributed throughout Spain, alongside a delegation in Brussels. In E-TANDEM, CSIC participates through the Institute of Chemical Technology (ITQ), a Joint Research Centre of CSIC and the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), located in Valencia, Spain. ITQ is a Severo Ochoa Excellence Research Center in Spain which hosts ca. 35 staff scientists, more than 150 PhD and postdoctoral researchers and lab technicians. Research activities integrate the fields of materials science and catalysis through an integrated approach. Its staff conforms a highly qualified and multidisciplinary team of specialists in the design, synthesis, and development of innovative functional materials for chemical technologies, with focus on the sustainable production of energy vectors and platform chemicals. The research group “Catalysis Engineering for Sustainability” (https://catalysiseng.info/) specifically develops new catalyst materials and routes to valorise renewable and alternative feedstocks, such as CO2, into platform chemicals and energy carriers.
ACTIVITIES
in ZeroCarb
At ZeroCarb, CSIC contributes advanced expertise in heterogeneous catalysis and catalyst synthesis and characterization methods. Its main activities focus on the design, synthesis and optimization of catalytic materials for intermediate-temperature methane splitting, aiming to enhance hydrogen productivity, catalyst stability and carbon morphology control.
Building on its experience in projects such as 112CO2 (EIC Pathfinder), CSIC will perform in-depth mechanistic studies using state-of-the-art spectroscopy and advanced electron microscopy to understand catalyst activation, deactivation and regeneration phenomena. CSIC will also support the rational improvement of catalyst formulations and reactor integration strategies, contributing to performance validation at increasing scale. To this end, this partner will provide access to its specialized infrastructures for operando XPS, XAS and advanced imaging.
Through these activities, CSIC underpins the transition of the methane splitting concept toward higher TRL, ensuring sound materials science foundations and technological credibility.
Meet
Team Members
Tania Ródenas
Research staff member
Tania is a permanent research staff member at the ITQ (CSIC-UPV). He holds 20+ years of research experience at leading R&D institutions in the EU (Delft University of Technology (NL), Max Planck Society (DE), ITQ (ES)). Her research interests are on the design and synthesis of functional materials (catalysts, molecular sieves, 2D nanomaterials) for technologies related to sustainability. She additionally incorporates advanced 3D imaging tomography methods and modelling into her research. She has received prestigious personal research grants such as the Alexander von Humboldt grant (DE) and the Ramon y Cajal grant (ES). In ZeroCarb, Tania leads WP1, coordinating activities around catalyst upscaling and optimization to enable its integration into the electrified reactor concept developed at HyCarb.
Gonzalo Prieto
Research group leader
Gonzalo leads the research group Catalysis Engineering for Sustainability at the Institute for Chemical Technology (CSIC-UPV). He holds 20+ years of research experience at leading R&D institutions in the EU (Utrecht University (NL), Max Planck Society (DE), ITQ (ES)). His research activities encompass aspects of (nano)material synthesis, physicochemical and structural characterization and reactivity assessment. These methods are jointly geared at the design of solid catalyst materials and (tandem) catalytic processes for the selective valorization of unconventional C1 and N1 feedstocks into synthetic (e)fuels and platform chemicals. Gonzalo is part of various scientific panels at European level and grantee of two ERC research grants of the European Research Council. In ZeroCarb, Gonzalo contributes to securing access to singular synchrotron and electron microscopy facilities, as well as research data analysis, to investigate nanoscale effects which are relevant to steer specific carbon growth modes and enhance catalyst stability.
Niloufar Atashi
Research group leader
Niloufar holds a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Chemistry from K. N. Toosi University of Technology (Tehran, Iran), and a Master’s degree in Physical Chemistry from Shahid Beheshti University (Tehran, Iran), working on catalytic oxidation of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) at the Heterogeneous Catalysis department. In 2020, she moved to ITQ (Valencia, Spain) to pursue her PhD, which she is currently wrapping up under the supervision of Gonzalo Prieto. Her research project focuses on designing mono- and multimetallic catalysts with nanoscale precision, to establish structure-performance relationships for catalytic routes related to the production of high-purity, COx-free hydrogen as energy vector. In ZeroCarb, Niloufar contributes to catalyst synthesis upscaling, benchmarking and characterization tasks.
