03 Feb 2025
Trailblazing Sustainability and Innovation: 2024 SCGC-FIRST Awards Recipients
Professor Budimir Rosic and Dr Dylan Rubini will lead the Turbocharging Catalysis for Energy-Efficient Processes project
Professor Budimir Rosic and Dr Dylan Rubini
The SCG Chemicals (SCGC)-FIRST Prioritisation Panel has revealed the recipients of the second round of SCGC-FIRST Awards, showcasing exceptional research driving innovation and sustainability across the MPLS Division. The £1 million SCGC-FIRST fund can provide up to £80K to nurture novel ideas and early-stage research.
This year’s awardees tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges, from plastic waste to energy efficiency and renewable technologies.
Associate Professor of Engineering Science Budimir Rosic and will lead the Turbocharging Catalysis for Energy-Efficient Processes project, along with Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Dylan Rubini.
Catalysis underpins industries ranging from ammonia production to emissions control and plays a critical role in the energy transition. Professor Rosic and Dr Rubini are reimagining catalytic systems with a ground-breaking innovation: the turbo-reactor. By integrating catalytic surfaces, pumps, and thermal controls into a compact turbomachine, this project has the potential to dramatically reduce energy losses and system size.
Using a machine-learning tool, ChemZIP, the team aims to streamline the modelling of complex chemical reactions, enabling faster, more efficient design of catalytic systems.
Professor Rosic is a member of the Osney Thermofluids Institute where his research varies from modelling of thermofluid processes in different power generation systems, experimental and computational turbomachinery aerodynamics, to heat transfer and cooling in gas turbines for ultra-high inlet temperatures.
Dylan took an MEng in Engineering Science before completing a DPhil under the supervision of Professor Rosic in 2024. Dylan is a thermofluids engineer working at the intersection of computational science, multiphysics modelling, and machine learning.
The other projects who received SCGC-FIRST Awards this round are: Pioneering Sustainable Food Packaging with Advanced Coatings, Professor Robert Hoye (Department of Chemistry) and Professor Ruy Bonilla Osorio (Materials Science) and Discovering Next-Generation Solar Materials, Professor Simon Clarke, Professor Ludmilla Steier and Professor Robert Hoye (Department of Chemistry).
