Dr Abdelrahman Zaky - University of Edinburgh

Abdelrahman is a sponsored Research Fellow hosted at French’s Lab at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh.

Abdelrahman is conducting independent research focused on the reduction of water and carbon footprint of bioenergy and other bio-based products. He is also interested in the food-energy-water nexus and the best way to make these elements work together to address global water, food and energy shortages through a renewable, sustainable and eco-friendly system. Abdelrahman proposed and investigated the new concept ‘marine fermentation’ (MF) for the production of bioethanol using marine yeast, seawater and seaweed. He is currently working on developing the MF concept into an integrated marine biorefinery system (IMBS) where seawater, marine biomass and marine microorganisms are used in an integrated system for the simultaneous production of biofuels (bioethanol, biodiesel and biohydrogen) and high-value chemicals. IMBS could also be integrated with other renewable energy systems, such as wind and solar energy, to improve the overall efficiency and economic feasibility of renewable energy. Main areas of interests: Food-energy-water nexus Climate change mitigation Seawater-based fermentation Marine biorefinery Integrated renewable energy Valorisation of marine biomass Sustainable development Public engagement and scientific publication Science policy and research management www.researchgate.net/profile/Abdelrahman_Zaky3

Sarah Asplin - Aston University

Sarah is a PhD student at Aston University within the Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute (EBRI).

Sarah’s research interests include the thermal conversion technologies of biomass into renewable fuels and chemicals. Her PhD aims to utilise inedible vegetable oils and pyrolysis with a modified catalyst to produce high quality aromatics or fuels. The purpose of this is to try and establish a more sustainable method of production for aromatics in particular as these are precursors to a whole host of everyday consumables such as: Nylon, PFTE, polystyrene, adhesives, resins and paints to name a few. Before her PhD, she was a chemical engineering undergraduate at Aston University and completed her Masters in 2017. Her master’s research project was also within EBRI and considered the characterisation of compost oversize for pyrolysis for composting company.

Dr Scott Banks - Aston University

Scott is Research Fellow for the Supergen Bioenergy Hub, based at the Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute (EBRI) at Aston University.

He joined EBRI as a doctoral student in 2009. His research project was about ash control methods to limit biomass inorganic content and its effect on fast pyrolysis bio-oil stability. He completed his PhD in 2014. Since 2014 he has been a research fellow focusing on catalytic fast pyrolysis, ash control, bio-oil characterisation and bio-oil stability.

Research interests: Catalytic pyrolysis of biomass Fast pyrolysis bio-oil stability Ash control methods to limit biomass inorganic content Web page: www.aston.ac.uk/eas/staff/a-z/scott-banks

Dr Paula Blanco - University of Aston

Paula is a Research Fellow or the EPSRC funded SUPERGEN Bioenergy Challenge II, based at the European Bioenergy Research Institute (EBRI) in Aston University, Birmingham. Her current research is based in biomass gasification.

Paula did her PhD at the Energy Research Institute (ERI), at the University of Leeds. Her research was focused on the hydrogen production during the pyrolysis-gasification of refuse derived fuel, using diverse metal-based catalysts. During her PhD she carried out a research stay at the University of Sydney in Australia, and carried out some research work at the Energy research centre (ECN) in the Netherlands as part of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology/Biofuels Research Infrastructure for Sharing Knowledge (BRISK). She also participated in 4 International conferences and published 5 papers in International Journals, 4 of them as 1^st author.

In recognition for her research she was awarded the Foxwell Memorial Prize as best student of the year in energy research, by the Energy Institute Yorkshire region (2014). She also obtained a PhD research excellence from the Graduate Board’s Examinations Group and Acting Dean of Postgraduate Research Studies at the University of Leeds.

Research interests: Pyrolysis Gasification Biomass & RDF Metal-based catalysts H2 production Tar analysis Webpage: http://www.aston.ac.uk/eas/staff/a-z/dr-paula-h-blanco/

Dr Lais Galileu Speranza - University of Birmingham

Lais is a Research Fellow at the School of Chemical Engineering at University of Birmingham since 2017.

Currently, Lais is working in the H2020 flexJET project that aims to produce jet fuel from food waste and used cooking oil by SABR-TCR technology at pre commercial scale. She obtained her PhD in Chemical Engineering at UoB and graduated in Environmental and Urban Engineering and Science and Technology’s Bachelor at Federal University of ABC (Universidade Federal do ABC – UFABC), Brazil. She has experience with biofuels policies, environmental analysis and the use of thermo-catalytic reforming, pyrolysis and supercritical fluids for the production of biofuels.

Samira Garcia Freites - University of Manchester

Samira is a doctoral researcher at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester. She is a mechanical engineer with an MSc. in mechanical engineering and has almost 10 years’ professional experience in academia, where she has undertaken a wide range of roles, from researcher and teaching assistant to project manager.

Samira conducts interdisciplinary research on the environmental and techno-economic impacts of deploying bioenergy technologies using agricultural residues to provide low-carbon energy to rural communities and agro-industries. She is also interested in research on how to overcome the techno-economic barriers and potential environmental impacts of the implementation of BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage) to tackle climate change.

Dr Miao Guo - Imperial College London

Miao Guo is a EPSRC Research Fellow hosted at CPSE, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London. She has a multi-disciplinary background, holds a PhD from Department of Life Sciences Imperial College London and a BSc from Renmin University of China. Her transition from Natural Sciences to Chemical Engineering has led to a unique academic path at the engineering-science interface. Her research interests include whole systems modelling and optimization, process-based agro-ecosystem modelling of food/non-food biomass and the environmental modelling of the biomaterials/biofuel/bioenergy from renewable resources. Her EPSRC Fellowship research project Resilient and Sustainable Biorenewable Systems Engineering Model (ReSBio) focuses on developing an open-source biorenewable system model from user-perspectives and providing insights into sustainable design of the future biorenewable systems, which best adapt to and mitigate future changes, contribute to UK sustainability and resilience agenda and support UK bioeconomy evolution.

Biorenewables (bioenergy, biofuel, biochemical) system modellingResearch Interests: Multi-objective optimisation of resource-competition systems Integration of ecosystem services with bioenergy/biorenewable system optimisation Whole systems modelling of circular bioeconomic sectors Game theory based model to understand the policy implications for innovation market or low-carbon technology deployment Biorenewable systems analyses and design under emerging economy context Process-based biogeochemical modelling Life cycle sustainability of biorenewables processes and supply chains Optimisation for resource-efficient urbanisation system Website https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/miao.guo

Dr Zoe Harris - Imperial College London

Dr Zoe M Harris is a NERC Industrial Innovation Research Fellow in the in the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London. Her fellowship is on the impacts of land use change, bioenergy and how we can use agri-innovation to help address some of these issues. She is currently looking at the relationship between vertical farming for food and energy, and the implications this may have on land use, ecosystem services and BECCS. Prior to work on her fellowship, Zoe worked on the MAGLUE and Asess-BECCS projects at Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London. She spent time working at DEFRA, BEIS and DfT. Zoe completed her PhD at the University of Southampton in 2015, as part of the ELUM project,  on the impacts of land use change to bioenergy on GHG and soil carbon balance.Dr Zoe M Harris is a NERC Industrial Innovation Research Fellow in the in the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London. Her fellowship is on the impacts of land use change, bioenergy and how we can use agri-innovation to help address some of these issues. She is currently looking at the relationship between vertical farming for food and energy, and the implications this may have on land use, ecosystem services and BECCS. Zoe is also interested in how we can use theatre to communicate complex scientific issues. She has her own theatre company, Nexus, which works at the interface of science and the arts. If you are interested to find out more, or collaborating on a communications project please get in touch.

Dr Fanran Meng - University of Nottingham

Fanran Meng is a Research Fellow in the Faculty of Engineering since 2017. His current research focuses on life cycle environmental sustainability of waste valorisation opportunities, with specific focus on carbon fibre composite materials and municipal solid waste. He obtained his PhD degree in Materials Engineering and Materials Design at University of Nottingham UK in 2017.

His expertise is in the application of systems analysis approaches (technical, environmental, and economic analysis with optimization algorithm) to materials and biomass. This research involves the integration of a number of analytical methodologies and the impact assessment of resources, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, cost, and other impact factors.

Angela Mae Minas - University of Manchester

Angela is a PhD Researcher at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at Aston University. Her research focuses on identifying communication and capacity building pathways to engage farmers in rice straw bioenergy development in Southeast Asia.

Prior to joining Tyndall Centre, Angela worked in international agricultural research and development organisations as knowledge management and communication specialist.

Main areas of interest: Agricultural innovation systems Social innovation for rural development Qualitative network research Climate change adaptation and mitigation Translating research to practice

Dr Patrick Mason - University of Leeds

Patrick is part-time Bioenergy Research Fellow in the biomass combustion research group in Leeds. His research has focused on combustion behaviour of pulverised biomass fuel and the fate of potassium during combustion but has also included studies on thermal properties including thermal conductivity of biomass and emissivity of high temperature materials. He is also a Chartered Electrical Engineer and works part-time as free-lance consultant with experience in areas diverse as data centres, railways and, more recently, large scale biomass combustion plant. He is a member of Council of The Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Research interests: solid biomass fuels: handling, storage, combustion, ash behaviour thermal properties: thermal conductivity of biomass, emissivity of high temperature materials electrical power generation technologies

Dr Mohamad Anas Nahil - University of Leeds

Anas is a research fellow at the University of Leeds.

Keywords: Activated carbon, Catalysis, Pyrolysis, Gasification, Hydrogen, Bio-fuels. For more information, please visit his University profile: http://www.engineering.leeds.ac.uk/people/eri/staff/m.a.nahil

Kiran Parmar - University of Leeds

Kiran is a postgraduate researcher at the Energy Research Institute (ERI) at the University of Leeds.

His PhD project focuses on the opportunities to valorise digestate and other organic waste materials through integration of anaerobic digestion (AD) and hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC). With this approach there is potential to convert digestate in to a safer, higher quality product with multiple uses, whilst increasing AD efficiency and operator revenue by increasing biogas yields. This approach also has environmental benefits and mitigates fugitive methane emissions (by reducing disposal of digestate to land) whilst providing additional supply chains for solid fuels.

As well as enhanced biogas generation via anaerobic digestion, treatment of HTC process water via mesophilic and thermophilic degradation maybe a direct route for production of biofuels and fine chemicals. New research links developed through this project with the University of Akureyri in Iceland are developing the production of biofuels and fine chemicals via thermophilic microbes. Next steps include investigating microbial inhibitory mechanisms and extending the focus towards treatment of a wider range of feedstocks such as algae.

Webpage: ORCiD

(http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8765-4730)

Research Interests: Organic wastes Hydrothermal carbonisation Agronomics and combustion Anaerobic digestion Microbial inhibition

Will Rolls - University of Leeds

Will’s background is in the UK forestry industry where he worked for a number of years for both the Forestry Commission and Forest Research, mainly looking at the development and support of the UK biomass sector. In 2013 he began work as a self-employed consultant supporting clients with biomass and forestry work, he continued this while working part time on an MSc until 2017 when he began his PhD studies. Will is working on the links between forest management, biomass fuel, carbon emissions and climate change.

Keywords:   carbon forests biomass You can find out more about what Will is up to, on twitter (@w_rolls) or via his website (wrolls.co.uk/about/)

Jennifer Spragg - University of Leeds

Jeni is completing her PhD at the CDT in Bioenergy at the University of Leeds. Her research is exploring advanced reforming methods for the conversion of bio-compounds into hydrogen. This involves modelling the sorption-enhanced chemical looping steam reforming (SE-CLSR) process, which aims to combine more efficient hydrogen production with integrated carbon capture, using the compounds within bio-oil as a feedstock.

Keywords: Hydrogen production, Sorption-Enhanced Chemical Looping Steam Reforming, process modelling, bio-oils

Dr Andrew Welfle - University of Manchester

Andrew is a researcher at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on biomass resource modelling, bioenergy scenarios, the global trade of biomass trade for energy end uses, and the wider benefits and impacts of bioenergy pathways. Andrew also has experience of lifecycle assessment and analysis of bioenergy policy. Prior to joining the Tyndall Centre, Andrew worked for an engineering consultancy specialising in sustainability and energy of the built environment.

Main areas of interest: Biomass resources Resource modelling Bioenergy scenarios Lifecycle assessment Biomass Trade

Robert White – University of Leeds

Robert is a postgraduate researcher at the Energy Research Institute (ERI) at the University of Leeds under the centre for doctoral training.

His PhD focuses on gasification of biodiesel waste glycerol to methane. Aspen Plus© process modelling software is used to design and optimise a low temperature glycerol steam reforming (LT-GSR) process, with a focus on heat integration, steam recuperation and gas upgrading. Future work includes a life cycle and technoeconomic analysis to determine the feasibility of a plant based on the different product use scenarios and comparison against competing technologies.

Research Interests Biomass Gasification Methanation Gas Cleaning Process Modelling Life Cycle Analysis Technoeconomic Analysis LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertwilliamwhite/ CDT Profile: https://cdt.engineering.leeds.ac.uk/bioenergy/student-profiles/RobertWhite-CentreforDoctoralTraininginBioenergy.shtml

Dr Yang Yang - Aston University

Yang is currently a Research Fellow for the EPSRC funded SUPERGEN Bioenergy Challenge Project 14, based in EBRI at Aston University.

He joined EBRI as a doctoral student in 2010. His research project was about intermediate pyrolysis of biomass/waste material and use of pyrolysis oils as diesel engine fuels for renewable energy production. He completed his PhD in 2014. Prior to that, he did a 14-month industrial secondment under an EC Marie Curie IAPP project at WEHRLE-WERK AG in Germany.

In recognition of his Ph.D study at EBRI, he was awarded the prestigious “Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad” by the Chinese Ministry of Education’s China Scholarship Council in 2014.

Yang is currently a Research Fellow for the EPSRC funded SUPERGEN Bioenergy Challenge Project 14, based in EBRI at Aston University. He joined EBRI as a doctoral student in 2010. His research project was about intermediate pyrolysis of biomass/waste material and use of pyrolysis oils as diesel engine fuels for renewable energy production. He completed his PhD in 2014. Prior to that, he did a 14-month industrial secondment under an EC Marie Curie IAPP project at WEHRLE-WERK AG in Germany. In recognition of his Ph.D study at EBRI, he was awarded the prestigious “Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad” by the Chinese Ministry of Education’s China Scholarship Council in 2014.

Dr Xi Yu - Aston University

Dr. Xi Yu is a lecturer in Chemical Engineering at Aston and leading CFD modelling Unit in European Bioenergy Research Institute (EBRI). He has high-profile expertise in areas of bioenergy, particle technology and multiphysics modelling. In past five years, his research has results in 16 academics papers, 1 book chapters and over 18 presentations international conferences. Dr Yu has won 1 studentship and 3 travel grants (e.g. Newton fund). He was PDRA in one biomass gasification project (£1.25M, EPSRC, EP/M01343X/1) and one particle technology project (£175K, Leverhulme Trust, RPG-410).  Dr. Yu is serving as peer reviewer of 10+ academic journals and 2+ funding agencies. He is also serving as guest editor of Elsevier Journal: Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process intensification. He has/is supervising 4 PhD students and 6 masters.

Research interests   Biomass Pyrolysis Gasification Granulation Crystallisation Phase change materials Modelling and optimisation CFD   Website: http://www.aston.ac.uk/eas/staff/a-z/yux/ Personal website: https://xyu384.wixsite.com/xiyu