Dr Regina Santos came to the University of Birmingham in 1982 where she gained her MSc and PhD in Chemical Engineering.

Previously, she worked as a process engineer in the National Institute of Technology in Rio de Janeiro. She gained her BSc in Chemical Engineering in 1979 from the Universidade Federal Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

She is:

• A Member of the Supercritical Fluid Technology Group
• Foundation and First Year Chairperson for the Undergraduate students

• Extraction and Fractionation of Natural Products / Biomass using Supercritical CO2 and Sub-critical water hydrolysis
• Particle Production, Processing and Coating using Supercritical Fluids (SCF)
• Polymer Processing using SCF
• Innovative Synthesis and Processes in Compressed Carbon Dioxide
• Pattern Deposition using SCF
• Supercritical Water Oxidation and Wet Air Oxidation of organic compound in wastewaters with and without catalysts

Current & Past Research Projects

• Sub-critical water mediate hydrolysis and fractionation of lignocellulosic biomass – Phytatec Ltd, EPSRC
• Novel extraction of waste yeast compounds and its use as active ingredients in health care products – Boots Plc
• Sequential extraction of monomers from spent yeast derived from cider production: a first step towards full utilisation and adding value – Phytatec Ltd
• Supply chain research applied to Clean Hydrogen Production from biomass using supercritical water – Advantage West Midlands (AWM) regional funds
• Contaminated land remediation technologies – The development of a novel process for the non-invasive in situ sampling and analysis of contaminants in soil – DTI Technology Programme with partnership with PJH Partnerships, Pera Innovations, Crowcon Ltd, Dando Drilling Ltd and Lankelma Ltd
• Catalytic free production of biodiesel in a continuous flow supercritical water reactor – Kuwait Government
• Enrichment and Purification of Phytonutrients from Palm Oil By-Products using Compressed Carbon Dioxide - Loders Croklaan B.V.
• Removal of Mass Transport Barriers in Plant Material using Supercritical Carbon Dioxide– Unilever R&D, Colworth
• Processing of bio-degradable polymers using supercritical CO2 to produce novel implant materials – STREP – FP6 project in collaboration with the Universities of Lodz in Poland and Twente in the Netherlands, Smithers Rapra Ltd, Carburos in Spain, Trexel in Germany.
• Study of properties and behaviour of polymeric materials used as drug excipients in SCCO2 - GSK, Harlow
• Supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) for the removal of nitrogen- and halogen- containing pharmaceutical wastewater streams - GSK, Harlow
• Production and Coating of Drug Polymer Carriers by SCF technology (PGSS) - GSK, Harlow
• Catalytic Supercritical Water Oxidation (CSCWO) and Catalytic Wet air Oxidation (CWAO) for wastewater treatment – CONACYT Scholarship- Mexico Government
• Nanoparticle for the Future – ACORN Project under the IMPACT Faraday Partnership - EPSRC
• Innovative Synthesis and Processes in Compressed CO2 – EPSRC, AstraZeneca and University of Cambridge
• Fixed Oil Seed Products from Novel Crops – EPSRC, BBSRC, Botanix, John K King & Sons, Croda Chemicals
• Extraction of cocoa products – Cadbury Trebor Bassett
• Particle production and coating of particles – Qinetiq
• Production of fine particles – Unilever Research, Port Sunlight
• Extraction of Intracellular Microbial Metabolites – BBSRC & SKB
• Extraction of herbs with SCF – European Project under the AIR3C