Catalysis and sustainable processes
at the University of Messina
Research on heterogeneous catalysis and sustainable processes is one of the main activities present at the Laboratory of Catalysis for Sustainable Production and Energy (CASPE), where operate the groups of Industrial Chemistry and Chemical Reaction Engineering of the Dept. ChiBioFarAm of the University of Messina, Italy. This Laboratory was created by the InterUniversity Consortium on the Science and Technology of Materials (INSTM), the University of Messina and European Research Institute of Catalysis (ERIC aisbl). From 2001 to 2009 it was also one of the three associated laboratories participating to ELCASS (European Laboratory of Catalysis and Surface Science) together with the CNRS and Univ. Louis Pasteur in France, and the the Fritz-Haber-Institute of MPG in Germany. ERIC is an international non-profit organization with registered office in Bruxelles (Belgium) and a leading competence centre in Europe for innovative research on nanotech catalytic materials.
The group of catalysis has many established international collaborations and has coordinated the EU Network of Excellence on catalysis IDECAT, (from which ERIC aisbl is stemming), besides many other large EU projects, including the ERC Synergy project SCOPE and the new ERC PoC on SOLAR-H2. 
The group (around 10 professors/researchers and 20-30 post-docs and PhD students) is leaded by Gabriele CENTI and Siglinda PERATHONER, professors of Industrial Chemistry at the University of Messina, while activities on reaction engineering are lead by Claudio AMPELLI. The research activities cover many field of heterogeneous catalysis (including photo- and electro-catalysis) and the development of related sustainable processes, technologies and devices for chemical production and energy, and environment protection. Solar-driven chemistry and energy, and circular economy are the main topics on which research is focused. A new Solar HUB activity has been recently launched.
The common vision is the development of novel materials and innovative industrial processes. The activities cover aspects from the synthesis and characterization, to the testing and kinetics and aspects of reactor, catalyst and process engineering and assessment. The recent focus is on the reactivity catalysis trio: photo-, electro- and plasma catalysis, with an effort towards unconventional directions including in their modelling and understanding. The effort is on developing the critical technologies for a transformative scenario leading to a distributed, resilient, circular model of production (e-chemistry) which reduces (eliminates) the dependence on fossil fuels, externalities, transport of chemicals and impact on the resources, among other aspects.
Aug. 21th, 2025