SPHERE group: Safety, Photocatalysis, Hydrogen and Environmental REmediation

The SPHERE group was founded in the early 1990’s by Prof. Vincenzo Caprio and Dr. Amedeo Insola, who introduced pioneering advances in the field of Advanced Oxidation Processes, particularly ozonation. At present, the research activity of the SPHERE group is focused on the following main topics:

• Advanced Oxidation Processes of recalcitrant pollutants in wastewater and their kinetic modeling.
• Advanced Oxidation Processes for water recycling.
• Solar energy capture through photocatalytic hydrogen production over visible light active and low-cost photocatalysts.
• Wastewater treatment with simultaneous energy recovery through photoreforming of organics.
• Visible light-activated fuel cell for electrical energy production and synchronous oxidation of polluting organics in wastewaters.
• Removal of heavy metals and organics from contaminated soils and marine sediments.
• Treatment of soil and marine sediment washing solutions through solar photocatalysis.
• Selective photo-oxidations for producing high value-added chemical intermediates and products.

Recently, the SPHERE group developed a green approach for precious metal and rare Earth recovery from spent catalysts and e-waste (e.g., printed circuit boards) through a mild leaching process coupled with photocatalytic metal deposition.

Moreover, investigation on microplastic breakdown in aqueous phase by solar photocatalysis has been recently carried out.

And finally, a substantial part of the research activity performed by the SPHERE group has focused on chemical process safety, with specific attention to thermal explosion prevention through thermokinetic characterization of reactive systems and safe hydrogen storage by conversion into formate salt. Predictive mathematical models for the analysis, prevention and mitigation of risks associated with industrial chemical processes are also developed by the SPHERE group.

The research activity of the SPHERE group relies on many collaborations with international research institutions (e.g., University of Cincinnati, US; Khalifa University of Science and Technology, United Arab Emirates; Sligo Institute of technology, Ireland, Europe; Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; University of Campinas, Brazil).