Team

Tomás Ramírez Reina, FRSC

Principal Investigator

Tomás Ramírez Reina, FRSC is a full professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Seville and the coordinator of the Catalysis Unit at the Materials Sciences Institute (ICMS), University of Seville–CSIC. He holds several international appointments such as visiting professor (2019, 2024, 2026) at HUST University (China), visiting scientist (2020) at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (China) and visiting professor (2022–present) in the School of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering at the University of Surrey (UK), where he founded the Catalysis-Engineering Unit and worked as Group Leader for several years. Tomás holds a PhD in Chemistry with a background in heterogeneous catalysis, reaction engineering and material sciences.

His research in catalysis has been recognised by the international community with multiple awards, including the EFCATS student award (2013), the Spanish Society of Catalysis best PhD award (2014), the extraordinary PhD award by the University of Seville (2014), Young Scientist of the Year 2017 (Seville city council), the Royal Academy of Sciences of Seville Science award (2018), the Chinese Academy of Sciences President award (2020), the FISOCat junior award (2022), the Losada-Villasante award (2022) for his research in circular economy, and the SUSCHEM Innova award (2025). He has also been finalist of the prestigious IChemE awards in 2016 and 2017 in the category of Young Academic Researcher. He has co-authored over 230 peer-reviewed publications in highly reputed journals (including Nature family, Chemical Reviews, PECS, Applied Catalysis B, JACS, Angewandte Chemie, etc.), more than 100 conference contributions (22 invited lectures/keynotes), 6 book chapters, has licensed 7 patents (2 transferred to industry) and is the editor of 3 textbooks for RSC, Wiley and Elsevier.

Prof. Reina has supervised 30+ MSc/MEng and 17 PhD projects (6 ongoing), and is presently mentoring several postdoctoral researchers and junior academics. He has participated as PI/Co-I on multiple projects in the area of energy, materials and sustainable chemical technologies sponsored by institutions such as ERC, EU-H2020, EU-Horizon Europe, the Spanish Ministry of Science, AEI, EPSRC, Royal Society, British Council and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2021 and since 2022 is included in the Stanford list of the world's top-2% most influential scientists in his field.

Selected Publications

1. P. Boldrin, E. Ruiz-Trejo, J. Mermelstein, J.M. Bermudez, T.R. Reina, N. Brandon, “Strategies for carbon and sulfur tolerant solid oxide fuel cell materials, incorporating lessons from heterogeneous catalysis”, Chemical Reviews 2016, 116 (22) 13633–13684.
2. E. le Sache, T.R. Reina, “Analysis of Dry Reforming as direct route for gas phase CO₂ conversion. The past, the present and future of catalytic DRM technologies”, Progress in Energy and Combustion Science (2022) 89, 100970.
3. E. Le Saché, L. Pastor-Perez, D. Watson, A. Sepúlveda-Escribano, T.R. Reina, “Ni stabilised on inorganic complex structures: superior catalysts for chemical CO₂ recycling via dry reforming of methane”, Applied Catalysis B 236 (2018) 458–465.
4. T. Stroud, T.J. Smith, E. Le Saché, J.L. Santos, M.A. Centeno, H. Arellano-Garcia, J.A. Odriozola, T.R. Reina, “Chemical CO₂ recycling via dry and bi-reforming of methane using Ni-Sn/Al₂O₃ and NiSn/CeO₂-Al₂O₃ catalysts”, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 224 (2018) 125–135.
5. A. Cardoso, T.R. Reina, I. Suelves, J.L. Pinilla, M. Millan, K. Hellgardt, “Effect of carbon-based materials and CeO₂ on Ni catalysts for Kraft lignin liquefaction in supercritical water”, Green Chemistry (2018) 20(18) 4308–4318.
6. Q. Zhang, L. Pastor-Perez, W. Jin, S. Gu, T.R. Reina, “Understanding the promoter effect of Cu and Cs over highly effective β-Mo₂C catalysts for the reverse water-gas shift reaction”, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 244 (2019) 889–898.
7. T.R. Reina, M. Gonzalez, V. Lopez, M. Martinez, A. Zitolo, S. Ivanova, M. Centeno, W. Xu, J.A. Rodriguez, J.A. Odriozola, “Au and Pt Remain Unoxidized on a CeO₂-Based Catalyst during the Water−Gas Shift Reaction”, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2022, 144(1), 446–453.
8. F. Baena, L. Pastor-Perez, D. Sebastia-Saez, T.R. Reina, “Analysis of the potential for biogas upgrading to syngas via catalytic reforming in the United Kingdom”, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews (2021) 144, 110939.
9. T.R. Reina, J.A. Odriozola, “Heterogeneous Catalysis for Energy Applications”, Royal Society of Chemistry – 2020, ISBN: 978-1-78801-718-3.
10. R. Ye, J. Ding, T.R. Reina, M. Duyar, H. Li, W. Luo, M. Fan, G. Feng, J. Sun, J. Liu, “Design of catalysts for selective CO₂ hydrogenation”, Nature Synthesis 4 (2025) 288–302.

Group Overview

• JL

  Juan Luis Martín Espejo

  2025

  Design of advanced catalysts and new strategies for biogas reforming

• 

  Loukia-Pantzechroula Merkouri

  2024

  Switchable Dual-Function Materials: a new generation of CO₂ capture-conversion

• 

  Qi Zhang

  2022

  Design of transition metal carbide (TMCs) and transition metal phosphide (TMPs) catalysts for gas phase CO₂ conversion

• 

  Liuqingqing Yang

  2021

  CO₂ conversion via reverse water-gas shift using multicomponent catalysts

• 

  Jin Wei

  2021

  Advanced catalysts for a low-carbon future: exploring new routes for biomass valorisation

• 

  Cameron Alexander Hurd Price

  2021

  The development of novel Yolk@Shell catalysts for the thermochemical conversion of CO₂

• 

  Elham Ketabchi

  2020

  Towards sustainable industries: synthesis of alternative fuels and chemicals from fermentation products and integration of refineries and petrochemicals

• 

  Estelle C. Le Saché

  2019

  Emissions to liquid fuels: development of advanced heterogeneous catalysts for CO₂ valorisation

• 

  Utsab Guharoy

  2018

  First-principles based mechanistic understanding of CO₂ utilisation reactions over advanced heterogeneous catalysts