National Institute of Chemistry

National Institute of Chemistry

February 3, 2021 2024-01-02 20:05

Group description

The Department of Catalysis and Chemical Reaction Engineering at the National Institute of Chemistry (NIC)

Department of Catalysis and Chemical Reaction Engineering is primarily invested in chemical (process) engineering, reactor and unit operation design and construction, as well as multi-scale process modelling.

The Department topics foremost include carbon dioxide and natural gas conversion, hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, biomass valorisation to bio-based compounds, and (bio)pharmaceutical processes.

PI Prof. Blaž Likozar

Prof. Blaž Likozar is a head of the Department of Catalysis and Chemical Reaction Engineering at the National Institute of Chemistry (NIC), leading the programme “Chemical Reaction Engineering”, as well as numerous research projects (15 H2020 / 21 in Horizon Europe alone). His expertise lies (among others) in heterogeneous catalysis materials, modelling, simulation and optimization of process fluid mechanics, transport phenomena and chemical kinetics. He worked at the University of Delaware in 2014–2015 as a Fulbright Program researcher. He has authored >280 articles, was cited >5000 times, having a h-index of 36.

CATART Resarcher Assistant Prof. Matej Huš

Assistant Prof. Matej Huš leads the Computational Catalysis group within the Department of Catalysis and Chemical Reaction Engineer at NIC. His expertise lie in theoretical modelling of chemical reactions, including homogenous catalysis, heterogeneous catalysis and non-catalysed reactions at the atomistic level, mesoscale and kinetic level (DFT and other HF-inspired approaches, KMC, microkinetics, macrokinetics). Recently, he has worked extensively on photocatalysis and electrocatalysis. His research topics include hydrogen economy, CO₂ valorisation, biomass conversion, ammonia synthesis, hydrocarbon conversion, ethylene epoxidation and other important industrial processes. He has previously worked at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. He has authored 50 articles, was cited ~1200 times and has an h-index of 23.

CATART Resarcher Assistant Prof. Reza Gholizadehaghoyeh

Assistant Prof. Reza Gholizadehaghoyeh is working in the field of Computational Chemistry in the Department of Catalysis and Chemical Reaction Engineering at the National Institute of Chemistry (NIC). He received his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering and Technology from Tsinghua University (Beijing, China) under the supervision of Prof. Yang-Xin Yu in 2015 and continued his work there for two years as a Postdoctoral fellowship under the supervision of Prof. Wang Yujun. Later he received the prestigious Marie Sklodowska-Curie individual Fellowship-Postdoctoral award from the European Union (2020-2022) and joined the group of Prof. Blaž Likozar at the NIC, Slovenia. His research topics include electrocatalysis, electrochemical energy conversion, and CO₂ reduction. He has experience in heterogeneous catalysis, DFT calculation, kinetics, and thermodynamics. He has published 15 peer-reviewed articles with ~350 citations and an h-index of 6.

CATART Resarcher Dr. Kamal Khaja Mohaideen

Dr. Kamal Khaja Mohaideen is currently a Research Assistant Professor in Department of Catalysis and Chemical Reaction Engineering at the NIC. He received his Masters degree in Materials Science and Technology from Madurai Kamaraj University (India) and Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from University of Pune (India) under the supervision of Prof. Dr. P.A. Joy in 2013. After that, he joined as a postdoctoral researcher in Korea Institute of Energy Research, Republic of Korea. Later he received prestigious Marie Sklodowska-Curie individual Fellowship-Postdoctoral award (2019-2021) and joined the laboratory of Prof. Blaž Likozar at the NIC, Slovenia. His research interests are to design the efficient visible-light-driven nanostructured photocatalysts for CO₂ reduction and H₂ evolution reactions. Up to date, he has publised 17 peer reviewed articles and one US patent with more than 433 citations and a h-index of 11.

CATART Resarcher Dr. Matic Pavlin

Matic Pavlin obtained his PhD at RWTH Aachen University followed by PostDoc positions at CNR-IOM Trieste-SISSA and University of Ljubljana. He is currently a Research Associate in the Department of Catalysis and Chemical Reaction Engineering at NIC. His research focuses mainly on molecular dynamics simulations and free energy calculations of chemical reactions, including heterogeneous catalysis and non-catalysed reactions. He has co-authored 17 peer-reviewed articles with more than 350 citations and h-index of 10.

CATART Resarcher Žan Kovačič

Žan Kovačič is a PhD student at the Department of Catalysis and Chemical Reaction Engineering in NIC. His work revolves around computational catalysis in the field of biomass conversion, CO₂ reduction, and hydrogen production with special emphasis on photocatalysis. His expertise lies in modelling at the atomistic level (DFT) as well as mesoscale modelling (microkinetics). He obtained his Bachelor and Masters degree in Chemical Engineering at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology at the University of Ljubljana. He has authored 4 articles, cited over 70 times and has h-index of 3.

Let's get in touch!

Do you have general enquiries regarding the CATART project? please use the request form in our contact page

Do you want know more about this single team partner? Then go visit their website or social media accounts at the links below

Social contacts