The Advisory Council links academic researchers working on the underpinning science base for CCS with both practitioners in the field and researchers across the wide range of related disciplines that all contribute to delivering net-zero. The Advisory Council brings together representatives from other academic hubs, industry and trade associations, policymakers and additional stakeholders with relevant experience and roles to work with the UKCCSRC programme and guide the strategic direction of the Centre.
Advisory Council
Dr Bruce Adderley
Dr Lindsay-Marie Armstrong
Mr Silvian Baltac
Dr Xiaomian Baxter
Dr Chet Biliyok
Mr James Bowers
Prof Nigel Brandon
Mr Jonathan Briggs
Mr Carl Clayton
Mr Jarad Daniels
Mr Graeme Davies
Ms Suzanne Ferguson
Dr Carolina Font Palma
Mr Sam French
Mr David Hanstock
Ms Catrin Harris
Mr Michael High
Mr Ben Kek
Mr Mark Lewis
Dr Bryony Livesey
Prof Ron Loveland
Ms Kirsty Lynch
Prof Niall Mac Dowell
Dr Niall Macfadyen, C. Eng.
Mr Klim MacKenzie
Prof Haroun Mahgerefteh
Prof Mercedes Maroto-Valer
Dr Harsh Pershard
Prof Ian Reaney
Dr Fatemeh Rezazadeh
Ms Catherine Spriggs
Mr Adrian Topham
Mr Mike Wailes
Dr Sara Walker
Dr Gang Wang
Dr Bruce Adderley
Bruce is the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) Challenge Director – Transforming Foundation Industries at UKRI, where he leads his team as they work with industry to deliver this transformation across the cement, ceramics, bulk chemicals, paper, metals, and glass sectors.Bruce has held senior leadership roles at Tata Steel Europe, and its predecessors, and has over 20 years of experience working with colleagues across the Foundation Industries on tackling climate change, and both nationally and across Europe to deliver sectoral decarbonisation roadmaps. With a background in delivery of cross business R&D projects and programmes Bruce has also led teams responsible for emissions monitoring, reporting and trading, as well as improvements in manufacturing energy efficiency. Bruce has an MBA, and a doctorate in Physics, and joined UKRI from The University of Sheffield where he held roles as co-Director of their programme of translational energy research and manager of the UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre
Dr Lindsay-Marie Armstrong
Lindsay-Marie Armstrong is a Lecturer within Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Southampton. She holds the roles of Chair of the Clean Carbon University Strategic Research Group (USRG); Academic Lead for the Solent Industrial Decarbonisation Cluster; and Director of Student Recruitment for School of Engineering.She has a BSc (Hons) Mathematics degree and MSc in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). In 2012, she completed her PhD which developed reactive multiphase models for thermochemical conversion processes within coal and biomass fluidised beds, and upon completion was awarded a New Frontiers Fellowship at the University of Southampton. Lindsay established, and Chairs, the University of Southampton Clean Carbon USRG, a network of over 150+ academic and industrial partners.She has extensive knowledge of reactive multiphase modelling, particularly for carbon capture and utilization technologies. She has numerous highly cited articles in leading journals, including Chemical Engineering Journal, International journal of heat and mass transfer, International Journal of Multiphase Flow; Frontiers in Chemistry GCB Bioenergy; in addition to leading international conferences. Awards include the Institute of Physics 2011 "Award for significant progress in Combustion by an early career researcher" and the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment’s 2013 “Dean’s award for Early Career Excellence”.
Mr Silvian Baltac
Silvian Baltac is a Principal Consultant at Element Energy, a consultancy focused on the transition to net-zero. Silvian leads Element’s activities on industrial decarbonisation, CCUS infrastructure, blue hydrogen and negative emissions. Silvian and his team provide analytic, advisory and strategic support for national governments, industrial clusters, and international companies to inform strategic decision-making regarding deep decarbonisation and identification of new market opportunities. Silvian has led the development of several pivotal reports for the UK industrial decarbonisation, including working with a number of stakeholders in the Humber and Scottish clusters, as well as examining the economic and skills impacts of CCUS and hydrogen roll-out in the UK.
Dr Xiaomian Baxter
Xiaomian Baxter, Carbon Capture Engineering Lead at SSE Thermal.
Xiaomian joined SSE Thermal after achieving a PhD in biomass combustion properties at University of Leeds in 2011. Xiaomian specialises in new and novel low carbon technological analysis and business opportunity identification. Specialist areas cover carbon capture and storage, low carbon hydrogen, all forms of energy storage and energy from waste gasification. Xiaomian has many years of market analysis experience, tracking market trends by regular attendance at conferences, association with university research bodies and meeting with key market players. Xiaomian has project management and development experience leading feasibility studies, concept design development, safety and risk reviews.
Dr Chet Biliyok
Chet works at Petrofac as the Technical Director of New Energy Services, leading the technical development and delivery of Energy Transition projects. He has 17 years 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 – recently serving as Process Consultant on the Stockholm Exergi BECCS Project and the FOV Oslo CCS Project, as the Process Lead during Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) of the Arrowsmith Green Hydrogen Project, and was part of the engineering team that delivered the Peterhead CCS FEED Project. He has a PhD from Cranfield University, where his research focused on CO2 Capture and has authored over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles. He is a Chartered Process Engineer, a member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and Project Management Professional (PMP).
Mr James Bowers
James Bowers PhD CEng MIChemE has diverse experience within the power generation industry, initially specialising in gas turbine combustion and operational support to power stations he now leads the Low Carbon Technologies team within SSE Thermal. James has a central role within the Power-CCS and H2 Power generation projects that SSE Thermal is developing including running the companies Research and Development portfolio, technology risk management and engineering of project conceptual designs.
Prof Nigel Brandon
Nigel Brandon's research is focused on electrochemical devices for low carbon energy applications, with a particular focus on fuel cells, electrolysers, and batteries. He is Director of the UK Hydrogen and Fuel Cells SUPERGEN Hub, and Chair of Imperials Sustainable Gas Institute. He is a founder of Ceres Power, an AIM listed fuel cell company spun out from Imperial College in 2000, a founder and Director of RFC Power, a flow battery company spun out from Imperial College in 2018, and a Partner in Galvanic Energy, which offers specialist Consultancy services in the electrochemical technology space.
Mr Jonathan Briggs
Jonathan Briggs is the Project Director for the Humber Zero project at VPI’s 1200MW combined heat and power plant in Immingham.Mr. Briggs has 30 years working in the Oil & Gas industry with BP, OGCI Climate Investment Fund, and now manages the Humber Zero project, a decarbonization project at scale around the Immingham refining, power and industrial complex. He has held several roles in upstream, LNG, power and CCUS. Previously Mr Briggs was the Managing Director for the Hydrogen Energy Joint Venture between BP and Rio Tinto in North America and managed both BP’s initial CCS project at the North Sea’s Miller platform and later the Don Valley Power Project that participated in the UK’s CCS commercialization competition in 2011.Mr. Briggs graduated with a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Imperial College London, and holds an MBA from INSEAD, France.
Mr Carl Clayton
Carl Clayton works in the Energy & Resources team at EY, focused on delivering Sustainable Infrastructure & Business Transformation within the Energy Transition. Prior to consulting, Carl was the Head of Bioenergy, Carbon Capture & Storage (BECCS) for Drax Group PLC where he led the commercial and technical project management of the Carbon Capture retro-fit project at Drax Power Station, aiming to delivery 8mpta of Negative Emissions by 2030. Carl was also heavily involved in the origination of the Zero Carbon Humber Consortium with co-founding partners National Grid & Equinor and in Project Development activity outside of the UK.Carl is a Chartered Engineer and Member of the Institute of Engineering & Technology, and holds an MBA from the University of Warwick, MSc from the University of Derby & an BEng(Hons) from the University of Bradford.
Mr Jarad Daniels
Jarad is the Global CCS Institute's Chief Executive Officer. Prior to joining the Institute, Jarad led the Office of Strategic Planning, Analysis, and Engagement within the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Carbon Management.He has over 20 years of international collaboration and leadership on clean energy and sustainable development, with broad expertise in energy and deep experience in Carbon Capture and Storage, having worked with many countries, multilateral organisations, NGOs, and companies on technology development and deployment and government policy. Jarad holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Kansas State University and a Master of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.
Mr Graeme Davies
Graeme Davies is the Project Director of Harbour Energy’s VNZ CO2 Transport and Storage project, to provide high-capacity transportation of captured CO2 to well-defined depleted gas storage reservoirs in the Southern North Sea. Graeme is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and has previously held leadership roles in Operations, Asset Management and Development delivery in the Upstream Oil and Gas industry. Graeme holds a Master of Science degree from NTNU, Trondheim, Norway, and an Honours degree in Mechanical and Offshore Engineering from Heriot Watt University.
Ms Suzanne Ferguson
Suzie is the Carbon Capture Technical Lead in Wood’s Specialist Engineering and Consulting team and has been working on CCS and decarbonisation projects for 13 years. She has worked on a number of the UK Government competition FEED projects, undertaken extensive benchmarking of different types of process plants with CO2 capture, from oil refineries to glass plants to hydrogen plants, and has evaluated many novel CO2 capture technologies on behalf of potential investors.
Dr Carolina Font Palma
Dr Font Palma is Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at the Department of Engineering, University of Hull, where she works on process simulation and integration of energy systems, cryogenic separation and carbon capture. She previously worked at the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Chester.She has a PhD from the University of Manchester and post-doctoral experience in carbon capture at the University of Leeds. She worked on the OxyPROP (Oxygen Penalty Reduction Options Programme) jointly with Costain, the Universities of Leeds and Edinburgh, funded by DECC CCS Innovation Programme. She worked on the Advanced Cryogenic Carbon Capture (A3C) project (Ref.132957) with PMW Technology, University of Sheffield, WSP and DVN GL funded by Innovate UK, and led the CO2-FROST project funded by the UKCCSRC Flexible funding 2020 jointly with the University of Edinburgh.Carolina has recently been awarded the prestigious RAEng/The Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship 2020/2021. She is committee member of the IChemE Clean Energy Special Interest Group.
Mr Sam French
Sam currently works in Business Development at Johnson Matthey, leading the development of the strategy and programme for Low Carbon Hydrogen – both Blue and Green.Previous roles at Johnson Matthey include Technology Manager for the steam reforming catalyst and technology R&D team. After moving from R&D into Business Development, he was tasked with developing a portfolio of new opportunities for processes from new feedstocks, such as biomass, waste and renewable energy. Sam sits on the Hydrogen Council Management Board, Chairs the UK Hydrogen Advisory work group 2020 Deployment Roadmap, as well as representing JM on a number of other organisations focused on solutions to decarbonisation.
Mr David Hanstock
David is a Founder and Director of Progressive Energy. He has a long and successful track record of Technology and Business Development at Senior level, with over 30 years’ experience in the electricity and energy sector, including 15 years in the area of CCS and more recently energy storage. This includes development and commercialisation of new and emerging technologies, project management, project and business financing, plant operational support, international marketing, commercial management and negotiation and business strategy.
Ms Catrin Harris
Catrin is a 2nd year PhD student in the subsurface CO2 research group, part of the Earth Science and Engineering department at Imperial College London. Her research is supported by BP and the Imperial ‘Transition Towards a Zero Pollution Society’ DTP. Catrin’s project uses the latest in petrophysical and digital rock core technology to improve our understanding of the impact of heterogeneity on capillary trapping of CO2 in the subsurface. Her research encompasses mathematical analysis, numerical flow simulation and laboratory X-ray CT core flood experiments. Catrin is developing workflows to create physics-based representations of capillary heterogeneity trapping in field scale simulations, with the aim to improve the reliability of models used to assess potential geological CO2 storage sites.
Mr Michael High
Michael is a third year PhD student at Imperial College London focusing on oxygen carrier development for chemical looping applications under the supervision of Professor Paul Fennell and Dr Kyra Campbell. The aim of my research is toward the rational design of oxygen carriers by developing synthesis-structure-
Mr Ben Kek
Ben Kek is Deputy Project Director responsible for technical integration on the Net Zero Teesside (NZT) and Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) project (www.netzeroteesside.co.uk). Net Zero Teesside will enable Teesside’s ambition to be the first net zero industrial cluster in the UK through CCUS, anchored by a dispatchable gas with carbon capture power station to complement renewables in further decarbonizing the electricity grid. Northern Endurance Partnership will aim to develop the UK’s largest scale offshore CO2 transportation and storage system serving both Teesside and Humber clusters, enabling industrial decarbonisation of the largest emitters in the UK via CCUS. Ben has been a core member in the conception of this project since early 2019, and is a Chartered Engineer (CEng IET) and a Project Management Professional (PMP). Throughout his career with BP, he has experienced the full lifecycle of several large mega projects from drawing board to production operations in several countries. In particular, he spent over 5 years in the engineering of the Shah Deniz 2 project which was recognized with the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Major Project Award in 2019, an example of a complex mega project spanning the full gas value chain, with many analogues to the NZT/NEP full chain CCUS project. Ben is passionate about the role that the NZT/NEP project will play in the UK and BP’s net zero ambitions by 2050, as part of the global energy transition.
Mr Mark Lewis
Mark Lewis MA C.Eng FIETMark came to Teesside in 1978 with ICI. He joined the Process Industry Cluster NEPIC in 2006 and since 2015 he has been working in the Tees Valley Combined Authority, developing the region as a leading Industrial Carbon Capture & Storage cluster for the UK. His focus now is working to show how the region with its industrial cluster can lead in achieving the UK’s decarbonisation goals. Tees Valley uniquely in one place combines all of the elements needed to make the transition to Net Zero and Mark is now working on hydrogen projects including road and rail deployment. Having set up the original CCUS industry group in the Tees Valley 10 years ago, he now supports the Net Zero Teesside project - a power and industrial CCS system aiming to secure Teesside’s industrial economy in a low carbon world and meet UK’s 2050 goal.
Dr Bryony Livesey
Dr Bryony Livesey, ISCF Director – Industrial Decarbonisation ChallengeBryony leads the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge (IDC), which forms part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF). IDC is a £210m programme with £261m match funding from industry, designed to deploy low carbon technologies and enabling infrastructure in heavily industrialised regions of the UK.Bryony was previously Head of Technology at Costain, with responsibility for the identification and development of new technology. She was a member of BEIS' CCUS Cost Challenge Task Force, a Director of the CCSA (where she co-chaired the Technical Working Group) and has previously chaired the Independent Advisory Panel for the UKCCSRC.Prior to Costain, she was head of the R&D centre for Doosan Babcock, where she established their global R&D Centre, focussing on clean energy. Bryony previously worked for AEA Technology, leading technology and innovation in senior management roles both in the UK and internationally, including four years as President of a Joint Venture company in Tokyo.
Prof Ron Loveland
Prof Ron Loveland F.Inst.PEnergy Advisor to the Welsh GovernmentProf Ron Loveland is a very experienced technologist and member of the senior civil service- having worked extensively at the industry/government interface on technology, innovation, enterprise and energy matters over the last 30 years. Following holding the post of Director: Sustainable Energy and Industry in the previous Welsh Assembly Government, he was appointed nine years ago as the energy advisor to the Welsh Government with a mix of path-finding, advisory and ambassadorial roles (local and international) associated with helping to deliver the ambitious low carbon energy-related objectives for Wales on a joined-up government basis.
Ms Kirsty Lynch
Kirsty Lynch, Communications Director, Pale Blue DotKirsty has over 12 years’ experience working internationally in the low carbon energy industry with deep expertise and enthusiasm for public engagement and education.Kirsty joined Pale Blue Dot Energy in 2018 after more than six years at the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, leading all international public and community engagement programmes and establishing the highly successful CO2degrees Education initiative, that was adapted and translated for use in more than nine countries. Kirsty also comes with nearly four years of project delivery experience, having managed the stakeholder and knowledge share activities of one of the early UK carbon capture and storage projectsIn her life before low carbon energy, Kirsty held a variety of communication and event roles for elite sport and community health improvement initiatives.
Prof Niall Mac Dowell
Niall Mac Dowell is a Professor in Energy Systems Engineering at Imperial College London. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of both the IChemE and the Royal Society of Chemistry. His research is focused on understanding the transition to a low carbon economy. Since 2010, he has published more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers at the molecular, unit operation, integrated process, and system scales in this context. His work has been presented more than 100 times at conferences in the UK, EU, North America, Middle and Far East. A full list of publications can be found here and he currently serves on the Advisory Board of Joule.Niall has more than a decade’s experience as a consultant to the public and private sectors. He has worked with a range of private sector energy companies, and has provided evidence to members of the Select Committee on Energy and Climate Change and has given advice to DECC/BEIS, the IEA, the IEAGHG the ETI and the JRC. Niall is a member of Total’s Scientific Advisory Board, was also a member of the US National Petroleum Council (NPC) CCUS Roadmap Team. Niall has been a member of the technical working group of the Zero Emissions Platform (ZEP), the Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA) and from 2015 – 2019 served as the Secretary of the IChemE's Energy Centre. He was awarded the Qatar Petroleum Prize for his work on Clean Fossil Fuels in 2010 and the IChemE’s Nicklin medal for his work on low carbon energy in 2015.
- UKCCSRC Core Research Projects - Capture: A1, Materials Development, Systems & Policy: CAB1 - Cross-cutting Value of CCS and Systems & Policy: CA1 - BECCS within the energy system
Location
Imperial College London
Dr Niall Macfadyen, C. Eng.
Niall is based in the Cheshire West and Chester local authority region, home of the Hynet project and 5% of UK emissions. Cheshire also has the highest density of cows and cow related emissions and waste of any county in England. In addition to Hynet, the Hamilton field (for CCS) and the salt deposits (for storage), the region has been the site of a low carbon industrial cluster for almost 1000 years, since the Norman invasion and the construction of a weir on the River Dee. Niall is a Speaker for Greenpeace and a member of the Cheshire West and Chester Climate Emergency Task Force. His background is in the data communications industry. Current interests are in educating the public about solutions to climate change and decarbonising agriculture, including co-locating greenhouses and industry along with vertical farming, for a CCUS based circular food and energy economy. The CCC says that 75% of the population are worried about climate change but do not understand what causes it and do not realise that there are engineering solutions available to fix it.
Mr Klim MacKenzie
Klim MacKenzie is an Associate Director with AECOM’s Renewables and Energy Transition business. He holds Chartered Chemical Engineer status with the IChemE and an MEng in Chemical Engineering from Heriot-Watt University. Klim's background is in petroleum refining, gas sweetening and power generation. At AECOM, he leads multi-discipline design teams across multiple projects developing both carbon capture and low-carbon hydrogen production in the UK and abroad. His specialisms include process simulation, process design and process control.
Klim is particularly interested in the response of carbon capture facilities during transient conditions, as well as the development of long-term data for solvent-based capture degradation processes. Recent work includes multiple studies for private and public sector clients such as BEIS – see 'Start-up and shut-down times of power CCUS facilities' or 'Review of Next Generation Carbon Capture Technology for Industry, Waste and Power'.
Prof Haroun Mahgerefteh
Haroun Mahgerefteh is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at UCL. His research spans all aspects of CCUS, particularly CO2 pipeline safety and operational issues. He is the coordinator of several UKCCSRC funded projects and the EC FP7 and H2020 projects, CO2PipeHaz, CO2QUEST and C4U involving the collaboration between academics and industry partners in Europe, China, Canada and USA. Project highlights include the development of best practice guidelines for injection of CO2 into highly depleted gas fields and the construction of world’s longest fully instrumented CO2 pipeline rupture test facility. Haroun is one of the two lead authors of the Zero Emission Platform report titled 'A Trans-European CO2 Transportation Infrastructure for CCUS: Opportunities & Challenges'. The report is aimed at facilitating the development of a pipeline and ship infrastructure for transporting several Mt/yr of CO2 captured from major regional industrial emitters for permanent offshore geological storage; considered as key enabler for meeting Net Zero emission target by 2030.
Prof Mercedes Maroto-Valer
Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer (FRSE, FIChemE, FRSC, FRSA, FEI) is Champion and Director of the UK Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC) focused on accelerating the transition to net zero of the UK industrial clusters and establishing the first world net-zero industrial cluster. Mercedes is Deputy Principal (Global Sustainability) and Director of the Research Centre for Carbon Solutions (RCCS) at Heriot-Watt University. Her internationally recognised track record covers energy systems, CCUS, integration of hydrogen technologies and low-carbon fuels. She has over 550 publications, holds leading positions in professional societies and editorial boards and has received numerous international prizes and awards.
Dr Harsh Pershard
Harsh has 13 years’ experience in energy, with 8 years in low carbon energy technology consultancy. Harsh leads on CCS at InnovateUK (hitherto known as Technology Strategy Board). Before that Harsh was Principal Consultant at Element Energy Ltd and heading up Element’s activities in carbon dioxide capture, transport, storage and enhanced oil recovery. He has led analysis for the UK, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, German and Scottish Governments and their agencies, FTSE100 energy companies, technology and project developers, the Energy Technologies Institute, Committee on Climate Change, the International Energy Agency. He specialises in techno-economics, infrastructure business models and public policies for managing the transition to a low carbon economy. Harsh has been an invited speaker for more than 50 national and international energy conferences, is an invited reviewer for four energy journals and was a judge at the UCL-London Business School 2013 CleanTech Business Plan Challenge. Prior to joining Element Energy, Harsh carried out work in the venture capital sector at Library House Ltd. Harsh was a Fulbright Scholar in the University of California at Berkeley and also carried out research as a Wellcome Trust Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Medical Research Council in Cambridge. Harsh holds a D.Phil. from Oxford University and a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry from Imperial College, London (year rank 1st). He is currently pursuing part-time an Executive MBA at the Imperial College Business School, London, where he has a scholarship.
Location
InnovateUK
Prof Ian Reaney
Prof. Ian Reaney leads the Functional Materials & Devices Group in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering (MSE). IMR is a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society and the IOM3 and Dyson Chair in Ceramics. He has published >400 papers, has a H-index = 69, with > 18,000 citations. He has won numerous awards including the Verulam Medal (2017) and was recently elected to the World Academy of Ceramics. He is an Adjunct Professor at Pennsylvania State University (PSU) and University of Aveiro, Portugal and European site director of the Centre for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics in partnership with PSU and North Carolina State University. He is the PI on the newly awarded £2m, Transforming the Foundation Indutries Network+ grant.
Dr Fatemeh Rezazadeh
Fatemeh has more than 17 years of experience in Energy industry. Currently she is the Director of Hydrogen and CCS Business Development at Air Products where she works with a range of global customers across the energy value chain on topics related to the Energy Transition. Prior to this role, she was the Venture Owner of Carbon Capture Technologies at Siemens Energy Incubator where she developed technology development and go-to-market strategies to build the CCS business for which she successfully pitched the business to potential investors to raise sufficient fund to take the venture to the next level up to the “Exit/Launch” phase.Fatemeh’s background is Mechanical Engineering, she has Masters in Renewable Energy from Heriot-Watt university and PhD in Carbon Capture Technologies from the University of Leeds in collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin.
Ms Catherine Spriggs
Catherine is the programme manager for the HSE Net Zero Hub. HSE has established a Net Zero Hub with associated senior level governance to facilitate work on Net Zero topics across HSE, supporting links between science, regulatory and policy work. Catherine works closely with a network of Net Zero Contacts who provide intelligence to the Hub in terms of asks of HSE from other government departments and industry with respect to growing and emerging Net Zero technologies. As part of the Net Zero Hub Catherine has also established internal HSE Common Interest Groups, including a group focused on Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS). These groups bring together colleagues from across HSE to engage on key topic areas and enable sharing of science, regulatory and policy knowledge and information. Prior to working at HSE Catherine spent 15 years working in the construction industry as a project and programme manager.
Mr Adrian Topham
Adrian Topham is Senior Development Manager CCUS, at The Crown Estate.
Adrian's role as sector lead is to help create a pipeline of geological CO2 storage prospects that delivers CB6 targets and meets market expectations, while playing a lead spatial planning role to optimise seabed use between CCUS, wind and other sectors.
His previous experience as an engineer, team leader, general manager and now development manager stems from academic training in chemical and petroleum engineering. He has worked as a reservoir engineer, aiding hydrocarbon extraction in many countries and is now committed to the carbon cycle and returning the by-products after use to the subsurface.Adrian's CCUS sector interests are both technical (geophysical, geomechanical, geological) and economic (capture feasibility, transportation, removals). He is currently involved in supporting research into windfarm / seismic monitoring interaction.Mr Mike Wailes
Mike Wailes (Strategy Manager, Europe) has worked for Phillips 66 for 23 years, including roles in refining, business development, corporate strategy and commercial within the UK, US and Germany. Mike manages Phillips 66 joint venture in the MiRO refinery in Karlsruhe, Germany and is responsible for European Strategy including work on industrial decarbonisation and low carbon liquid fuels.
Dr Sara Walker
Prior to joining Newcastle University, Dr Walker spent eight years at De Montfort University, five years in energy related consultancies, and eight years at Northumbria University. Dr Walker joined Newcastle University in the School of Mechanical and Systems Engineering in 2015. She later became Director of Expertise for Infrastructure research for the School of Engineering, and recently became Director of The Centre for Energy. Her research focus is on renewable energy and energy efficiency in buildings, energy policy, energy resilience, and whole energy systems. She is Director of the National Centre for Energy Systems Integration, Deputy Research Director for the Active Building Centre, and Deputy Director for the Supergen Energy Networks Hub.
Dr Gang Wang
Dr Gang Wang has been a postdoctoral research fellow at Heriot-Watt University since 2020. Gang holds the Leverhulme ECR fellowship in decarbonisation, with a particular interest in hydrogen and CO2 storage.He completed his PhD in Petroleum Engineering and MSc in Reservoir Evaluation and Management at Heriot Watt University. His research focuses on using numerical simulations to fill the knowledge gap related to the interactions in the subsurface between various disciplines. Currently, he is working to understand the flow behaviour of CO2 (cushion gas), H2 and water when they co-exist in porous media, with the aim of giving insight to optimize the recovery performance of the back produced H2 and the ultimate CO2 storage in subsurface geological formations.Gang and his research group welcome new data and collaborations to address the central concerns of the industry on hydrogen storage in subsurface porous media. Please email to G.Wang@hw.ac.uk.
