The SuPER (Sustainable Process Engineering Research) Team was founded in September 2012 through the unification of the former Leonardo Chemical Engineering Group at Politecnico di Milano, led by Professor Flavio Manenti, and the Chemical Plants Group at the University of Milan, led by *Professor Carlo Pirola, thus achieving an inter-institutional research group status.
Despite its relatively recent establishment, the SuPER Team has inherited expertise, competencies, proprietary codes, and experimental facilities from its academic pioneers: Professor Ragaini and Professor Biardi in Chemical Plants; Professor Dente and Professor Ranzi in kinetics and reactor-scale activities; and Professor Buzzi-Ferraris and Professor Sauro Pierucci in the digitalization of chemical processes.
Today, the SuPER Team comprises 12 permanent staff members, more than 15 researchers, and over 20 collaborators (including visiting scientists and students), supported by six different laboratories, advanced computing facilities, and large-scale innovative research infrastructures. The team is active in biological processes, industrial chemistry, chemical engineering, and process engineering, addressing both fundamental research and industrial applications related to defossilization, digitalization, and clean technologies. Its main research focus lies on green and bio-transition molecules and systems, such as hydrogen carriers, biomethanol, electrified fuels, CO₂ capture and utilization, and efficiency across the energy–water–food nexus.
As the future of academic and industrial research increasingly involves interdisciplinary approaches, the strength of the SuPER Team lies in the complementary expertise of its founding groups. The experimental and analytical capabilities in Industrial Chemistry are synergistically integrated with modeling, simulation, and optimization methodologies from Chemical and Process Engineering. This unique combination enables the team to address research projects in a unified manner, providing a comprehensive understanding of the chemical, physical, and biological phenomena within Process Systems Engineering frameworks.
In 2018, the research group led by Professor Giorgia Spigno at the Catholic University of Milan joined the SuPER Team, opening new bio-engineering research lines in sustainable food processes and fostering strong synergies with the group of Professor Laura Piazza. In 2020, the SuPER Team further strengthened its international dimension through the affiliation of Professor Alessandro Di Pretoro with the University of Toulouse (France), significantly enhancing activities in digitalization and separation processes.
Over two consecutive mandates (2018–2021 and 2021–2024), the SuPER Team—represented by Professor Flavio Manenti and Professor Giulia Bozzano—was elected to the Presidency and Executive Board of the Computer-Aided Process Engineering (CAPE) Working Party, part of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE), dedicated to Process Engineering, Process Systems Engineering, and Digitalization.
