UKCCSRC - Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) Flex Funding 2022 Archives

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Dr Muir Freer is an Environmental Engineer at the University of Manchester. His specialisations include CCS, Bioenergy, and high spatial resolution BECCS supply chain modelling. One key aspect of his work is the development of a digital twin for the UK’s CCS and freight transportation networks, a tool widely used in multiple research projects. Additionally, he focuses on modelling non-pipeline transportation methodologies, aiming to incorporate dispersed emitters into the UK’s CCS network. His expertise finds application in collaborations with industry, resulting in practical case studies. His ongoing contributions further understanding and lead to developing new decarbonisation pathways and strategies in the energy, transport, waste and agriculture sectors.

Efenwengbe Aminaho is a Research Consultant at A-Class Consults Limited. He obtained a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Petroleum Engineering (with first class honours) from the University of Port Harcourt (Nigeria), and a Master of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering (with distinction) from the University of Aberdeen. He also holds a Master of Science degree in Business and Management (with distinction), which he obtained from the University of Strathclyde. Efenwengbe engages in innovative research in environmental preservation, and sustainable energy development and storage. Thus, his research interests include carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen storage, future energy development, and their machine learning applications. Efenwengbe is currently a doctoral candidate at Robert Gordon University (Aberdeen), and conducting research on “Caprock integrity evaluation for geosequestration of CO2 in depleted petroleum reservoirs”. He is happy to work with industry experts and academics who are interested in CO2 and hydrogen storage or future energy development.

Dr Amir Jahanbakhsh is a Research Fellow and Programme manager at the Research Centre for Carbon Solutions (RCCS) at Heriot-Watt University. Amir has a PhD in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot-Watt University and he is also an experienced project manager. His research focus is on the understanding of the multiphase flow mechanisms in porous media at different scales using various techniques including CFD and microfluidics. Carbon capture and storage, geo-energy and more recently hydrogen economy have been his main area of research. Since he joined RCCS he has been involved in managing large multinational multidisciplinary consortium projects across CCUS value chain including MILEPOST-Microscale Processes Governing Global Sustainability (ERC), Low carbon jet fuel through the integration of novel technologies for co-valorisation of CO2 and biomass (EPSRC) and Novel adsorbents applied to integrated energy-efficient industrial CO2 capture (EPSRC), PrISMa – Process-Informed design of tailor-made Sorbent Materials for energy-efficient carbon capture (ERA-ACT2) and more recently USorb-DAC – Unlocking the scalable potential of sorbent-based DAC technologies (RMI).

Dr Stavros Michailos is a Lecturer at the University of Hull. He holds a PhD from the University of Manchester and has post-doctoral experience at Aston University and the University of Sheffield. He has extensive experience and expertise in process design, modelling, lifecycle and techno-economic assessments of various low carbon energy systems such as carbon capture utilisation and storage, direct air capture (DAC) systems and their integration with conventional CO₂ capture units, sustainable aviation fuel production technologies, biorefineries and decentralised energy solutions. He has published widely, over 40 research papers, book chapters and reports, and contributed to numerous multi-disciplinary programmes.

Dr Nejat Rahmanian is currently working as a Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering at University of Bradford and is Program Leader for Advanced MSc in Chemical and Petroleum Engineer. He is a Charted Engineer, Chartered Scientist, and has over 25 year’s experiences in both academia and industry. He was the member of Senate at the University of Bradford for constantly 3 years (2016-2019).

He received his PhD from University of Leeds in early 2010. He has got his MSc and BSc in all in Chemical Engineering from Shiraz University and Petroleum University of Technology, in 1997 and 1993,respectively. He has published 1 book, 6 chapter books and over 120 technical papers and refereed conference proceedings. He has also secured five grants on Co2 related projects and has received 19 awards and scholarships. His current research focused on development of energy-related and climate change projects with a high focus on Carbon Capture, Transportation, Utilization and Storage (CCTUS). In powder processing, he is interested in continuous granulation in the chemical or pharmaceutical industry. He has completed 5 consultancy projects and involved as principal investigator and key-researcher in £1.5m research projects received funding from EPSRC and industry from the UK and overseas. Currently, he is also member of the Advisory Board of a mega-scale research project, C4U (carbon capture, storage and utilization) received funding of €13.8m from Horizon 2020, led by UCL which addresses CO₂ capture from British Steel industries.

In industry, he worked continuously 8 years as process engineer and project coordinator with international oil/gas companies worldwide such as PETRONAS (Malaysia), Foster Wheeler (UK), Petropars Ltd (Iran), Toyo Eng. Company (Japan), Statoil (Norway), JGC (Japan), and Daelim Industrial Company (South Korea) for development of South Pars Gas Field.

Dr Tohid N.Borhani is a UK Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at the University of Wolverhampton with over 13 years of research experience and expertise in CO2 capture and utilisation. Before University of Wolverhampton, Tohid spent one year as Assistant Professor at Heriot-Watt University and several years as PostDoc (Research Associate) at Imperial College London, University of Sheffield, and Cranfield University. Dr Borhani has published over 40 papers in leading journals and 4 book chapters which are cited more than 1650 times and 30 conference presentations in the area of CO2 capture and utilisation and chemical engineering. Dr Borhani is currently involving strong industrial and academic collaborations and partnerships and supervising students. He is an academic member of the UKCCSRC and an Associate Member of the IChemE and a fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.

Google Scholar: ‪Tohid N.Borhani, PhD, FHEA – ‪Google Scholar

Dr Yongliang Yan is a research associate at Newcastle University working on the high-temperature solid-looping systems for carbon capture, thermochemical energy storage and clean hydrogen production. His research interests are focused on materials development, techno-economic analysis of energy process and harnessing the power of machine learning/AI in chemical engineering.

Dr Katriona Edlmann is the Chancellor’s Fellow in Energy at The University of Edinburgh, with over 25 years researching the secure and sustainable utilisation of the subsurface for low-carbon energy applications including hydrogen energy and CO2 storage. Katriona is responsible for several UKRI, EU and industry funded projects investigating underground hydrogen and CO2 storage technologies. Katriona currently serves as the Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee inquiry into Hydrogen and Carbon Capture in Scotland, is an invited member of the UK Government Department for Energy Security and Net Zero Hydrogen Advisory Council Transportation and Storage Infrastructure Working Group and is sub-task lead on the International Energy Agency Technology Collaboration Programme underground hydrogen storage task.

Karen Turner is a Professor and Director of the Centre for Energy Policy at the University of Strathclyde, where she leads a portfolio of work UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), philanthropic organisations such as the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and the Bellona Foundation and various government and industry bodies. She recently led a UKCCSRC project on the role of CCS in industry clusters in delivering value to the political economy. Karen’s main research interests lie in investigating and modelling the economy-wide and macroeconomic consequences of energy policy and industry developments, and considering how these may be effected, and consensus built around policy narratives, to enable the deployment of different decarbonisation solutions. She has published extensively in policy and economics literatures on topics such as making the case for public support of residential energy efficiency programmes and addressing public policy challenges in unlocking value from the deployment of large scale decarbonisation solutions such as electric vehicles and carbon capture and storage. Karen has previously held academic posts at Glasgow and Heriot Watt Universities and is currently a member of the Scottish Government’s Just Transitions Commission.

UKCCSRC Flexible Funding Project 2018

Dr Masoudi is a Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering. In May 2017, he joined Brunel University London as a founding member of the new Chemical Engineering Department. He is a Chartered Engineer (CEng/MIChemE) – with both industrial and academic research backgrounds in process engineering – and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. His research is mainly centred on separation processes as well as reaction engineering & reactor design, covering both experimental and modelling-based studies.Dr Masoudi has been a Co-Investigator (Co-I) on a pioneering EPSRC research grant on multiphysics and multiscale modelling for safe and feasible carbon capture and storage (Jan 2021- Dec 2023), and the Principal Investigator (PI) on a UKCCSRC/EPSRC research grant on the synthesis of cost-effective adsorbents for carbon capture (Oct 2020 – April 2021).Dr Masoudi worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, UK (07/2015 – 05/2017), contributing to several projects in the realms of biomass combustion and the modelling of CO₂ capture & utilisation processes – in Professor Paul Fennell‘s research group and in collaboration with Professor Niall Mac Dowell and Professor Nilay Shah. In March 2017, he received the prestigious endorsement as the Exceptional Talent in Chemical Engineering by the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK. He also worked as a Postdoctoral KTP Associate (Fluids and Thermal Engineering Research Group) at the University of Nottingham, UK (08/2013 – 07/2015), during which, he was fully based at A-Gas International ltd. production site in Bristol (UK), where he worked as a Project Engineer on a major joint engineering research and process design project, involving the front end engineering design and development of a bespoke industrial-scale gas separation process.

The UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Community (UKCCSRC) is supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as part of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Energy Programme.

Freer, Muir