PhD student at the impianti pilota laboratory under the supervision of the professor Carlo Pirola. She got a Master degree in Cemistry with a Thesis centered on: “Palladium Based Catalysts for Formic Acid Dehydrogenation”, with experience in the field of nanomaterials and heterogeneous catalysis, in particular for matters regarding the production and usage of sustainable energy sources.
The PhD research project titled: “Innovation and optimization of the hydrogen transport and distribution chain as a green and renewable energy vector”, in collaboration with Regas srl, is about the study of methods of purification and storage of hydrogen throught systems of electrochemical compression (EHC) that allow the purification and compression of this gas in the same system.
More specifically it focuses on the separation of hydrogen from natural gas and his successive compression, optimizing the operative conditions and the main elements that are in an electrochemical cell, as the membrane and catalyzer. Also being the hydrogen a flammable, odorless and colorless gas, a second research line is focused on the study of a possible system for the odorization of it using a simulation software.

Supervised projects:

• Production of adipic acid by the hydrogenation of muconic acid.
• Study of the cis/trans-methyl-oleate ratio in biodiesel mixtures before and after distillation.

Barlocco I., Capelli S., Zanella E., Chen X., Delgado J.J., Roldan A., Dimitratos N., Villa A. Synthesis of Palladium-Rhodium Bimetallic Nanoparticles for Formic Acid Dehydrogenation. J. Energy Chem. 2021, 52, 301–309.

Zanella E., Pirola C., Longhi M., Camarda G., Marcolin P. Idrogeno: produzione e compressione. Una scommessa energetica per il futuro. La Chimica e L’Industria Online, 2022, 2, 88–90.

Zanella E., Longhi M., Marcolin P., Camarda G., Pirola C. Investigation of a Possible Process for Hydrogen Odorization in Pure Hydrogen and in Natural Gas-Hydrogen Mixture Systems, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 2022, 96, 139-144.

Zanella E., Secundo L., Bellomi S., Vomeri A., Villa A., Pirola C. Bio-Adipic Acid Production from Muconic Acid Hydrogenation on Palladium-Transition Metal (Ni and Zn) Bimetallic Catalysts. Catalysts, 2023, 13, 486.