Knowledge Exchange Conference (Sheffield, 5-6 November 2024)

Following the success of last year’s conference, the UKCCSRC hosted another Knowledge Exchange Conference, at The Edge, University of Sheffield, on 5-6th November 2024.  The two days were for stakeholders from across the CCS community to present the latest learnings – and questions – from research and ongoing CCS deployment activities, with extensive informal networking opportunities provided as well.

The conference ran from 11.00am on Tuesday 5th until 2pm on Wednesday 6th November.  The calls for abstracts/presentations and to be part of the abstract review committee closed on Monday 30th September.  The ECR Meeting Fund was opened to enable ECR attendance at this conference.

We also ran a CCS Training Course on Monday 4th-Tuesday 5th November, for government, regulators, industry and others new to CCS.

Jump to:

• Speaker & chair biographies
• Speaker slides
• Poster gallery
• ECR blogs (to follow)

Conference agenda

Day 1 – Tuesday 5th November 2024

Check out a few highlights from the conference →

Kofoworola Awodun, Brunel University London

Kofo Awodun is a doctoral researcher in the carbon capture and storage (CCS) community, at Brunel University London, currently focusing on the use of solid adsorbents for CO₂ capture. Her PhD research focuses on the synthesis of waste materials for adsorption-based CO₂ capture; particularly Drax’s biomass combustion bottom ash and waste chicken eggshells. Combining a background in environmental sciences and chemical engineering, Kofo is pioneering an innovative approach to utilize industrial and agricultural waste for the development of eco-friendly, cost-effective sorbents. Her work seeks to address two critical global challenges: reducing carbon emissions and promoting waste valorization. By transforming Drax power station combustion ash – a by-product of biomass power generation – and discarded eggshells into high performance CO₂ sorbents, she is contributing to a circular economy approach. With a passion for green technologies and a commitment to addressing climate change, Kofo continues to explore new pathways for integrating waste-to-energy innovations in the fight against global carbon emissions.

Abubakr Ayub Sheikh, Teesside University

Dr. Abubakr Ayub completed his PhD at the University of Brescia, in Italy, in 2023. His PhD research focuses on using novel carbon dioxide blends as working fluids in thermodynamic power cycles. During his service as a Research Fellow at the Net Zero Industry Innovation Centre, he has participated in a number of projects, including the IDRIC project, the primary objective of which is to propose various renewable heating and cooling solutions to the food industry in the Teesside region with the goal to achieve net zero targets. He works on the EU-funded project DESOLINATION, which focuses on power generation and desalination utilising concentrated solar energy. He is also working on a short AKT project jointly with GreenSpur Wind company, entitled ‘Characterisation and thermal performance analysis of a novel Rare Earth-free permanent magnet generator for off-shore wind’.

Chet Biliyok, Petrofac

Dr Chet Biliyok is the Technical Director of Petrofac’s Energy Transition Projects, leading the technical development and delivery of Energy Transition projects. He has 2 decades of experience in process design, project execution, technical consultancy and R&D across the energy industry. Chet has drawn on experience working in oil & gas to deliver projects in CCUS, renewable/low-carbon hydrogen and waste-to-fuels – serving as Process Consultant during Front-End Engineering Design of the Stockholm Exergi BECCS Project and the FOV Oslo CCS Project, and as the Process Lead on the Arrowsmith Green Hydrogen Project. He has a PhD from Cranfield University, has authored over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles. He is a Chartered Process Engineer, a member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, a Project Management Professional (PMP), and recently earned an MBA from London Business School.

Andrew Cavanagh, University of Edinburgh

Dr Andrew Cavanagh has 15 years of experience in carbon capture and storage, and is a pioneer of novel approaches for modelling gas storage, with a sound understanding of the underlying science involved – capacity, flow, pressure and long-term migration. The modelling work led to regional reviews from Europe to Asia of storage resources and reserve availability for carbon dioxide and hydrogen. This developed into an interest in net zero policies and planning. Andrew’s current role is a net zero policy advisor and storage expert for SCCS, based at the University of Edinburgh.

Billy Davies, Brunel University London

Billy Davies is a third-year PhD studying Chemical Engineering at Brunel University London. His research focuses on the modelling and development of low-carbon hydrogen production processes, as well as the integration of machine learning within process modelling. Billy graduated from Queen Mary University of London with a MSci in Chemistry. Billy is an active member of the UKCCSRC ECR research community.

Carolina Font Palma, University of Hull

Dr Carolina Font Palma is Senior Lecturer at the University of Hull. She works on process simulation, process integration of energy systems, low-carbon energy and hydrogen, and cryogenic carbon capture. She has a PhD in biomass gasification from the University of Manchester. She has been part of various consortia involving research on oxy-combustion, cryogenic carbon capture, gas turbines and exhaust gas recirculation. She led the CO₂-FROST project funded by the UKCCSRC Flexible Funding 2020. Carolina was awarded the prestigious RAEng/The Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship 2020/2021 and took a secondment in Uniper Hydrogen UK Ltd, funded by IDRIC. She has numerous publications on energy and carbon capture.

Hannah Galbraith-Olive, ERM

Dr Hannah Galbraith-Olive is a Consultant in ERM’s Sustainable Energy Solutions team where she works on a range of projects for public and private clients in the carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) and industrial decarbonization sectors. She has worked on several projects evaluating the most appropriate business models for the CCUS market, and how these might vary in the future based on differing CCUS policies and regulations. She has also undertaken market assessments as part of a commercial due diligence for CCUS investors to identify the top CO₂ sourcing opportunities, based on CO₂ volumes supplied, CO₂ purities and transport distance. Before joining ERM, Hannah completed her PhD in Earth Sciences (Geophysics) at the University of Cambridge.

Jon Gibbins, UKCCSRC and University of Sheffield

Jon Gibbins is Professor of CCS at the University of Sheffield and director of the UK CCS Research Community Network+.  He has worked on energy engineering, fuel conversion and CCS for 45 years, initially in industry and then as a university academic.  Since 2002 Jon has been heavily involved in CCS activities, working on post-combustion capture and its effective integration and, through the UKCCSRC, helping to start now-mainstream UK initiatives on industrial decarbonisation (2012) and CCS clusters (2016). His personal research activities now centre around practical aspects of CCS deployment, with an emphasis on policy and economic requirements plus detailed analysis of matching capture plant designs to market conditions, supported in particular by the facilities at the Translational Energy Research Centre in Sheffield.  He is active in reviewing Best Available Technology (BAT) status for CO2 capture technologies and is also a Vice Chair of the UNECE Group of Experts on Cleaner Electricity Systems, specialising in CCS.

Clair Gough, UKCCSRC and University of Manchester

Dr Clair Gough is a Senior Research Fellow at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester, with a focus on CCS and biomass energy with CCS (BECCS). Clair has extensive experience in energy-related social scientific research, including expert elicitation processes, public attitudes and responses, and ethical assessment, as well as integrated socio-technical assessments. Clair’s research aims to better understand social, technical and climate implications of CCS and its role in achieving net zero. Her current research includes analysis of the conditions for establishing a social license to operate decarbonisation and carbon removal technologies, including CCS and BECCS.

Fatih Gulec, University of Nottingham

Dr Fatih Gulec is an Assistant Professor in the School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Nottingham, with expertise in advanced materials and thermochemical processes focusing on industrial decarbonisation and CO₂ capture. Dr Gulec has a wide range of expertise in developing “Decarbonisation Technologies” for energy and industrial processes. His research is fundamental and applied engineering based on i) developing porous materials and applications based on synthesis & characterisation of advanced nanocomposites and their applications in energy storage, chemical/calcium looping combustion, CO₂ capture, catalytic reactions, and, ii) process integration/ intensification based on waste/biomass-to-energy via thermal conversions.

Stuart Haszeldine, University of Edinburgh

As Professor for CCS at the University of Edinburgh, Stuart has created the UK’s largest University group examining CO2 storage geology. He has over 40 years research experience in energy, innovating new approaches to oil and gas, radioactive waste, carbon capture and storage, and biochar. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2002 for research on radioactive waste disposal, awarded the Geological Society William Smith Medal in 2011 for work on the geochemistry of oil and gas field reservoir quality, appointed OBE in 2012 for service to climate change technologies, and in 2021 he was appointed Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He is also the Director of SCCS.

Song He, Cranfield University

Dr. Song He is a postdoctoral research fellow at the School of Ecology, Environment, and Resources at Guangdong University of Technology, China. He earned his Ph.D. from the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2022. He has also served as a visiting fellow at Cranfield University, UK. His research primarily focuses on post-combustion CO₂ capture technologies, including chemical solvents, calcium looping and chemical looping. He is also engaged in direct air CO₂ capture, process modeling and multi-dimensional evaluation covering energy, economic and environmental aspects.

David Healy, University of Leeds

Professor David Healy is the Director of Geosolutions Leeds at the University of Leeds.  The overarching theme of his research is to link quantitative observations of deformation, measured in the field or the laboratory, to the physics of the underlying processes such as fluid flow and deformation, especially through fractured rock. His fundamental research is designed to understand, and subsequently explain, deformation through quantitative, physical models. He enjoys applying theoretical knowledge and empirical data to practical challenges in renewables and subsurface storage. His research experience spans structural geology, geophysics, petrology, rock physics and geomechanics with a focus on fluid flow in fractured rocks. He uses probabilistic approaches and data science methods to constrain and quantify risks and rewards. He also uses quantitative models to integrate observations with, and explore the consequences of, physical theory.

Lorraine Hutt, Environment Agency

Lorraine Hutt is the project manager/executive for the Environmental Capacity in Industrial Clusters project that EA has been sponsored with by the DESNZ CCS team since 2021. The project has delivered a full evidence review and targeted stakeholder engagement to explore current and future environmental capacity to deliver hydrogen and carbon capture in the East Coast Cluster, Humber and Tees, and on the west coast in HyNet industrial clusters.  Lorraine currently works in the Climate Change and Energy Decarbonisation and Net Zero team, but has worked at the Environment Agency for more than 20 years in a range of regulatory, science and funding roles to support water and chemicals management and climate change within UK and with counterparts across Europe.

Christopher de Leeuwe, University of Manchester

Dr Christopher de Leeuwe is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Manchester. He obtained his BA and MEng in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge. He completed his PhD at Newcastle University on H₂ production with carbon capture. He has been working at the University of Manchester for five years. This has included designing and building chemical looping reactor systems from the 10g to 30kg scale. He has worked on modelling these reactors and simulating plants. This has been carried out to test their capabilities to produce carbon neutral and negative chemical commodities such as H₂ and SAF.

Wei Li, University of Nottingham

Wei Li is a research fellow at the University of Nottingham, where she has been working since 2022 on two major research areas: 1) developing solid adsorbents for CO₂ capture, and 2) maximizing biochar’s potential for greenhouse gas removal.

As a geological and environmental engineer, Wei possesses nine years of cross-disciplinary research experience spanning energy, decarbonisation, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and sustainable carbon sequestration. Her expertise in molecular modelling, gas adsorption techniques and porous material innovation uniquely positions her to develop innovative solutions for accelerating CCS and greenhouse gas removal (GGR). Wei aspires to pioneer renewable solutions that balance high energy demands while achieving net-zero emissions, fostering a greener, cleaner world.

Stephen Lyth, University of Strathclyde

Stephen Lyth studied in the UK before moving to Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2008 as a postdoc, then Kyushu University in 2011 as a faculty member, becoming Professor in 2022. In 2019, he received the prestigious NICE-STEP Researcher Award from MEXT for significant contribution to science and technology. Recently, Stephen joined the University of Strathclyde, where he is Chancellor’s Fellow in Sustainable Energy. He retains a Visiting Professor Position at Kyushu University, Visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield and an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Queensland in Australia. He has published over 100 journal papers and book chapters on sustainable materials, renewable energy, hydrogen and CO₂ -related topics. He has worked closely with industry leaders such as Toyota, Hitachi, FUSO, and Daimler, as well as regularly delivering invited presentations around the globe.

Ruissein Mahon, Robert Gordon University

Dr Ruissein Mahon is a chartered and cross-trained Process and Energy Engineer with a track record of high-quality, internationally recognised research addressing the energy challenge. Dr Mahon is passionate about product ideation, design and development focused on the Energy Trilemma (energy security, affordability and sustainability) and its impact on society, Energy Transition Pathways (Net Zero, Low Carbon Operations, Carbon Capture and Storage) and Renewable Energy Systems. She is committed to developing and delivering responsive, solutions-oriented projects that advance the climate change and sustainable development agenda to achieve the global Net Zero targets and UNSDGs.

Jacqueline Penn, Newcastle University

Jacqueline Penn is a final year Chemical Engineering PhD candidate researching an exciting new class of gas separation membranes that operate at high temperatures with extraordinarily high CO₂ permeability and selectivity, showing potential for use in post combustion CCS. These membranes, supported molten-salt membranes, comprise a solid porous support containing molten salts within the pores, through which CO₂ permeates in the form of carbonate-like ions. Her research investigates the effect of time, temperature, H₂O and CO₂ concentration on CO₂ flux and the composition of the molten salt, to better understand the mechanism of CO₂ transport through the membrane. She also has postgraduate experience working at SSE, the leading developer of low carbon electricity in the UK and Ireland, in carbon capture and storage project development, and at global consultant, Mott MacDonald, in engineering project management.

Charlotte Powell, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

Charlotte Powell is Head of Bioenergy and Carbon Removals at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, where she heads up these themes under the department’s £1bn Net Zero Innovation Portfolio. As part of this work, Charlotte is supervising the investment of £130m into innovation development including the Hydrogen from Bioenergy with CCS programme which is pioneering negative emission hydrogen supply, and the £60m DAC and Greenhouse Gas Removals programme. Prior to joining the Civil Service, Charlotte was European Leader for GE Water, delivering large scale wastewater and anaerobic digestion solutions. She has over 30 years’ experience in engineering and sustainability.

Abbas Rajaei, University of Bradford

With over a decade of experience in the petrochemical industry, Abbas Rajaei specializes in carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen production. He has worked extensively on process safety, compliance and optimization, with expertise in Pressure Swing Adsorption and hydrogen purification. His background includes leading teams in process development, participating in HAZOP and FMEAA studies, and utilizing industry-leading tools like HYSYS and Aspen Plus. Abbas mentors process engineering students and collaborates with operations teams to drive efficiency. His focus is on advancing sustainable energy solutions through decarbonization and hydrogen technologies.

Zongqiang Ren, Cardiff University

Zongqiang Ren is a PhD student at the Geoenvironmental Research Centre, School of Engineering, Cardiff University. He obtained both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Wuhan, China. His research focuses on the utilisation of solid wastes for environmental remediation, including carbon capture and wastewater treatment. He is skilled in experimental design, particularly in carbonation, pyrolysis, wastewater treatment batch and column tests. He is also proficient in several characterisation techniques, such as XRD, XPS, FTIR, and TGA. Zongqiang is a Member of International Association for Carbon Capture (MIACC) and ECR member of the UKCCSRC.

Jen Roberts, University of Strathclyde

Dr Jen Roberts is deputy director of the Strathclyde Institute for Sustainable Communities and senior lecturer in Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. With a background in geoscience and CO₂ geological storage, much of Jen’s research is all about understanding and accelerating socio-technical transitions to support a sustainable society. Jen is also the UKCCSRC’s Deputy Director and ECR Champion.

Mark Roberts, Evero

Mark Roberts is Head of Engineering at Evero. Mark has led a team of engineers and project managers for seven years bringing Evero’s fleet of power stations through construction, commissioning and into operation.

Prior to Evero, Mark was an engineering manager at SSE, including working on CHP plants, gas turbines and Ferrybridge C power station. Mark holds an MEng from Durham University, is a Fellow of IMechE and Chartered IoD member. Evero is an owner, developer and operator of energy recovery facilities across the UK – reimagining what we do with waste and plan to forever capture carbon.

Karolina Thomas, Cardiff University

Karolina Thomas is a second year PhD student at Cardiff University and a UKCCSRC ECR member.  She is undergoing the EPSRC Resilient Decarbonised Fuel Energy Systems Centre for doctorate training (CDT) programme. Her research is sponsored by CR Plus Ltd, an energy consultancy that leads the South Wales Industrial Cluster (SWIC) cluster plan project, an industrial connection which tailors her research to fit the needs of industry. Karolina’s research investigates carbon capture utilisation (CCU) opportunities and clean growth hub developments within a SWIC context. The aim is to identify and scale business-case CCU decarbonisation pathways for industries geographically challenged by offshore storage, or disconnected from anchor CCS sites. The major themes of this research are sustainable waste and resource management, circular economy and industrial symbiosis.

Orla Williams, University of Nottingham

Dr Orla Williams is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering (M3) at the University of Nottingham. Dr Williams is an expert in biomass processing and is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer with over eight years of industrial experience in the rail, defence aerospace, construction and power sectors in the UK and USA. Dr Williams completed a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bath and worked as a Chartered Building Services Engineer in Bath and Los Angeles for several years. Dr Williams was awarded an Engineering Doctorate from the Efficient Fossil Energy Technology Centre at University of Nottingham in 2016. During her Engineering Doctorate at the University of Nottingham, she focused on the milling of biomass for power generation, and her current research includes sustainable metal extraction using mechanochemical processing and life cycle analysis of manufacturing processes for net zero applications.

Teke Xu, University College London

Teke Xu is currently a research fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering at University College London, working on CCS projects such as C4U and ENCASE. He holds a PhD in applied mathematics, with expertise in optimisation, pipeline flow modelling, and control systems. His research is focused on optimising the monitoring and control systems of CO₂ pipeline transport networks, ensuring safe and efficient operation. Specifically, he investigates methods to enhance sensor placement and real-time data collection, which are critical for detecting leaks, maintaining pressure control, and reducing operational risks. Teke’s work contributes to the broader goal of enabling large-scale deployment of CCS technologies, which are essential for meeting global decarbonisation targets and achieving long-term climate goals.

Fengyuan Zhang, University College London

Dr. Fengyuan (Felix) Zhang is a Research Fellow at the Department of Chemical Engineering, University College London. He was a Research Associate at the School of Engineering and Information Technology, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia. He received his PhD degree at The Australian National University (ANU) in 2022. His research includes kinetics enhancement for effective carbon capture and storage (CCS) in advanced materials with both experimental and simulation work, and multi-objective optimization for European CCS supply chains, including economic optimization and risk mitigation. Dr. Zhang has published 25 peer-reviewed leading papers (e.g. Chemical Engineering Journal, Chemical Engineering Science, Energy, Applied Energy, etc.) and four book chapters. His h-index is 13 with total citations of ~700 until May 2024. He has worked on various research projects funded by the Australian Research Council and European Union Horizon, etc.

 Presentations from our conference sessions are available below (where we have permission to share them).

Posters from the poster reception on 5th November 2024 will be published below shortly.

A call for presentation and poster outlines/abstracts from members of the UKCCSRC Network+ closed on 30th September 2024. Thank you to the abstract review committee for their support in assessing proposals and input at the abstract review committee meeting:

Usman Ali (Teesside University)
Luma Al-saadi (University of Leeds)
Andrey Bezrukov (NEG8 Carbon)
Mrinal Bhowmik (Durham University)
Ankush B Bindwal (CSIR Indian Institute of Petroleum)
Diarmaid Clery (University of Manchester)
Iain de Jonge-Anderson (University of Strathclyde)
Christopher de Leeuwe (University of Manchester)
Mehdi Ghasemi (University of Manchester)
Dawid Hanak (Teesside University)
Alexander Harrison (University of Oxford)
Song He (Cranfield University)
Lee Hosking (Brunel University London)
Fei Jin (Cardiff University)
Alireza Kazemi (Sultan Qaboos University)
Ewa Marek (University of Cambridge)
Akshay Modi (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal, India)
Theodoros Papalas (University of Cambridge)
Mohammadjavad Shokriafra (University of Manchester)
Chee Loong Teo (Agri Season Sdn Bhd)
James Watt (WSP)
Orla Williams (University of Nottingham)
Chris Wiseall (DESNZ)