Masterclass

Bio - waste to Hydrogen 

18 October 2022/ 1430 - 1600 IST/ 1000 - 1130 BST  

Through this Masterclass we intend to bring together bioenergy experts from the UK and India to share knowledge and brainstorm on pathways for Biomass waste to Hydrogen conversion and pave the way forward for future collaborations through the Hub.

Dr Amir Amiri, Aston University                                            

Dr Amiri is a Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at Aston with more than 10 years’ experience in Hydrogen and Fuel Cell (H&FC) technologies. He extensively engages with industries (e.g. Adelan Ltd, CFCL, etc.) in projects, e.g. the Smart Energy Network Demonstrator and has successfully completed an Australian Research Council research project to develop a FC simulator for then industrial partner CFCL Ltd. He has published 26 papers in high rank journals and conferences, received ca. £360k research grants as Principal Investigator and supervised six PhD students in the UK and Australia. He currently leads Aston’s work-packages for HyDEX projects.

Jade has 10 years’ experience in the petroleum industry as an exploration geoscientist employed by international oil and gas companies. She has a master’s degree in Energy from Heriot Watt University, a master’s degree in Integrated Petroleum Geoscience from the University of Aberdeen, and a bachelor’s degree in Geology and Physical Geography from the University of Liverpool. 
She is a final year PhD Mechanical Engineering student at the James Watt School of Engineering at the University of Glasgow. Her PhD research is focused on the feasibility of Waste-to-Hydrogen technology for sustainable waste management and green public transport in Glasgow, Scotland. The study involves using life cycle assessment (LCA), cost benefit analysis (CBA) and multi objective optimisation techniques to assess the viability of Waste-to-Hydrogen (WtH) conversion technology and systems in the production of hydrogen. She is the first author on three published papers reviewing WtH technology and applications, the techno-economic feasibility and environmental impact of thermochemical and biochemical WtH technologies. 

Dr Onwudili is an experienced researcher, having worked on a number of EPSRC-funded and industrially-funded research projects on catalytic and non-catalytic thermochemical (hydrothermal, combustion, pyrolysis and gasification) processing of biomass, plastics, algae and municipal solid wastes for the production of fuels, chemicals and materials. He is currently developing and leading a Sustainable Chemicals Laboratory at the European Bioenergy Research Institute, Aston University. 

Dr Blanco Sanchez is a Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at Aston University. She has been working for 15 years in the bioenergy research area both in academia and industry. Her main research focus is in the conversion of biomass via gasification for hydrogen production, she is also interested in catalytic development and products upgrading to yield high-value fuels and chemicals. She is the gasification UK topic representative for the International Energy Agency (IEA) Task 33: Thermal Gasification of Biomass. She is currently involved in a project with India to reduce emissions during the thermal conversion of paddy straw, funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng). She is also involved in the HyDEX project which was designed to support and foster the creation of a new hydrogen industrial economy in the Midlands. There are several partners involved and we will talk more about that today.

Prof. Patricia Thornley is director of the Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute at Aston University. She is a chartered physicist with over 25 years’ experience of bioenergy in the commercial and academic sectors. Her main research interests are in engineering sustainable bioenergy systems that reconcile disparities between environmental, economic and social impacts of energy provision. Her particular expertise is in process design, modelling and life cycle evaluation.

Patricia is the Director of the Supergen Bioenergy Hub.