Dr Mauro Luberti currently works as a researcher and teaching fellow at the University of Edinburgh and was recently appointed a Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at the University of Manchester. His expertise focusses on the design, simulation, and optimisation of absorption and adsorption-based processes applied to CO₂ removal and H₂ purification. He has authored 25 publications in high impact journals and one patent with world extension.

Research conducted by Mauro in the field of post-combustion solvent-based technologies showed that modifications to absorber and stripping design in the monoethanol amine (MEA) process would enable significant reductions in specific energy consumption compared to the conventional flowsheet, reaching 3.22 MJ_th per kilogram of captured CO₂.

Mauro has also investigated different configurations for pressure swing adsorption (PSA), both as pre- and post-combustion CO₂ capture processes. In PSA cycles, cyclic pressure changes are the driving force for separation, being CO₂ adsorbed at high pressures and the sorbent regenerated at lower or even vacuum pressure. In particular, he has studied the use of rapid vacuum pressure swing adsorption (RVPSA) cycles for flue gas effluents – with CO₂ mole fractions close to 0.13 – which could be obtained in biogas and coal fired power plants. Results of these studies highlighted the competitiveness of RVPSA (0.8 MJ_e kg _CO2 ^-1) in comparison with the MEA process in terms of specific energy consumption.

Mauro’s work has also focussed on multi-bed PSA cycles for ultrapure H₂ production and simultaneously CO₂ capture processes. Configurations investigated can significantly contribute and provide scientifically robust evidence to the ongoing debate on different pathways for H₂ production. Optimal design of PSA cycles allows for the production of H₂ at 99.99+% purity and capturing 90+% of the produced CO₂ with an energy penalty close to 0.5 MJ_e kg_CO2^–1, when incorporated in coal gasification plants. This H₂ manufacturing route is of high relevance in countries like China, India, and other large emitting economies in Southeast Asia where chemical and energy industries account for an important share of global GHG emissions.

In addition, Mauro has aimed to validate PSA simulation runs using an experimental rig built at the University of Edinburgh. This set up is a first of its kind in allowing the lab determination of performance indicators of different types of PSA configurations, paving the way to more realistic techno-economic assessment of this kind of technologies.