Energy Transition and Circular Economy Carnate, Italy 

Tentative title 
Advanced biofuel and renewable fuel: the circular economy era
 

 

Former Senior Vice President of Eni S.p.A for Corporate R&D in the field of energy transition and renewable energies, Carlo is now retired.   
Carlo received the Laurea in Industrial Chemistry in 1978 from the State University of Milan and a Post-Degree Specialization Certificate in R&D Management at the Bocconi University of Milan.  
He started working in catalysis during his laurea thesis, with pioneering experiments on the insertion of CO₂ in butadiene catalyzed by Pd(0) complexes. Those researches draw the attention of Montedipe SpA , the petrochemical company of Montedison Group. So Carlo was hired at the R&D Center of Montedipe in Bollate, when he began his professional career in industrial research and development (1980). During the stay in Montedipe, Carlo contributed to the optimization of several catalytic processes, including the phenol and styrene processes. After Montedipe, Carlo worked as pilot plant manager in a small chemical company (3V Sigma, 1989). This experience allowed him to build-up an important know-how in process technology and to improve his knowledge of chemical plants design and management. Then Carlo moved to Eniricerche, the R&D Corporate Company of the Eni Group (1990), as Group Leader for Catalytic Processes and Catalyst Preparation. He was then appointed Manager of the Physical Chemistry Department and in 2005 he became Manager of the R&D Process Technology Department in Eni Refining and Marketing Division. In January 2007 he was given the responsibility of creating and organizing a new R&D group focused on renewable energy and environmental technologies at the Istituto Eni Donegani of Novara, where he was the Director until June 2018, coordinating the activity on project involving solar, biomass and environmental technologies. From 2018 and 2020 he had the responsibility of a research program related to the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables, the valorization of biomass to energy vectors and the circular economy. The program included R&D projects for the valorization of natural gas as bridge between fossil and renewable fuels; CO₂ capture and utilization; transformation of domestic waste, residual biomass from agriculture and forestry, algae, energy crops, into renewable fuels. Among the industrial achievements, particularly relevant is the development of the innovative processes for the production of cumene and ethylbenzene, based on zeolitic catalysts, which allowed the replacement of the conventional catalysts based on mineral acids. Besides Carlo contributed to the development of the Eni/UOP EcofiningTM process for the production of high quality green fuels from triglycerides; the EST (Eni Slurry Technology) process, the Eni proprietary technology for the conversion of heavy refinery residue, based on a slurry-phase reactor, with nano-dispersed catalyst; the W2F technology for the transformation of the organic fraction of the domestic waste into an advanced bio-oil.  
The professional career of Carlo Perego has been focused on petrochemistry, renewable energies and environmental technologies. Nevertheless, his scientific contribution in the field of applied has also been relevant. Carlo is inventor of 58 patents, but at the same time he has also published 96 peer-reviewed papers and he has given more than 90 conference presentations, including 25 invited lectures (h-index: 40; Citations: 7390).