HILT CRC project webinar: Biofuels and biomass-derived syngas for low-carbon heavy industry

WEBINAR REGISTRATION – Biofuels and biomass-derived syngas for low-carbon heavy industry (ID #6613)

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SPEAKERS

Woei Saw, Associate Professor, School of Chemical Engineering, Adelaide University

A/Prof. Woei Saw is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Chemical Engineering at Adelaide University. With an exemplary track record in the development and demonstration of novel technology in the decarbonisation of high-temperature industrial processes, Saw leads HILT CRC’s AlumiNEXT™ Project. He has also developed a patent on net-zero steam alumina calcination, which allows steam generated from the alumina calcination process to be recovered and utilised in the bauxite digestion within the Bayer process.

Saw has research and hands-on experience in designing and operating pilot-scale systems, and expertise relevant to thermal conversion technologies. He has previously been involved in concentrated solar thermal (CST) research projects funded by ARENA and co-led the development of process integration (including techno-economic assessment) of CST plant and high-temperature storage into alumina calcination process and contributed to scaling up of and lab-scale demonstration of Adelaide University solar expanding vortex receiver (SEVR). He is also working towards a transformation of agricultural waste through the development of technologies to produce value-adding energy co-products.

Dr San Hla, Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO

Dr San Hla has worked on coal gasification, biomass gasification, waste-to-energy, computational fluid dynamics, development of catalytic membrane reactors, and catalytic water-gas-shift reactions. His current research interests include catalysis and mechanisms of reactions, numerical modelling and mechanical characterisation, energy generation, conversion and storage engineering, and chemical engineering design. Prior to moving to CSIRO in 2004, he was a Research Associate in the Energy Program, at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. He completed his PhD in Renewable Energy and Biomass Gasification at the University of Melbourne.

Dr Vahid Shadravan, Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO

Dr Vahid Shadravan is a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO with over a decade of experience in sustainable energy and decarbonisation processes across Australia and Europe. His expertise spans catalytic processes and low-emission pathways for hydrogen, ammonia and methanol, alongside biomass and waste utilisation via thermochemical routes such as gasification. He has worked closely with industry and research partners to translate these technologies into practical solutions for hard to abate sectors.

Henry Anning, CEO – Energy, ResourceCo

With over 17 years’ experience and expertise across waste, finance, energy and sustainability, Henry Anning leads ResourceCo’s energy business in Australia and Southeast Asia. He previously led Clean Energy Finance Corporation’s waste team and is a former Associate Director at Low Carbon Australia. Henry is also a Director of the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia (WMRR) and Bioenergy Australia. 

Ash Walker, Project Manager, Business Development and Innovation, Forest Products Commission

The Forest Products Commission (FPC) supports a sustainable Western Australian forestry industry by supplying timber products and services across three business segments – softwood, native forest and sandalwood. The FPC works to ensure that responsible forest management, sustainable harvesting and innovation secure long-term environmental health and economic growth for Western Australian’s timber future.

Hear from Ash as he presents information about forestry residues generated through FPC’s operations and the potential it has for bioenergy markets.

Hongwei Wu, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Curtin University

Prof. Hongwei Wu’s research interests include: fuel science and engineering; production of green chemicals from biomass; bioenergy science and engineering; thermochemical processing or co-processing of fuels; biochar production, tuning, characterisation and applications; transformation of mineral matter in fuels; hydrogen production from solid fuels; solar-thermochemical processing; safety, loss prevention and risk management in industrial processes; and metallurgical reductants including coal, biomass charcoal, methane and hydrogen.

Hongwei received his Bachelor and Master of Engineering in Thermal Power Engineering, from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China. He then pursued his PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Newcastle, Australia. After a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Monash University, Australia, he moved to Curtin University, becoming a full professor in 2010. Hongwei won the 2010 Curtin Commercial Innovation Award and 2011 Western Australia Innovator of the Year Woodside Encouragement Award. He was also the recipient of the inaugural 2018 Curtin Awards for Excellence in Higher Degree by Research Supervision. He is a fellow of the Combustion Institute (2019). After serving as Associate Editor (2008-2019), Prof Wu has was in January 2020 appointed as the Editor-in-Chief of Energy & Fuels journal (published by the American Chemical Society).

Dr David Wong, Project Manager & Team Leader, Energy Technologies group, CSIRO

David is a Brisbane-based energy-technologies specialist with a PhD in chemical and materials engineering, whose work ranges from technology scale-up and commercialisation in the hydrogen and low-carbon fuels sector to energy efficiency, emissions mitigation and benchmarking for industrial systems. He is currently Project Manager and Team Leader in the CSIRO Energy Technologies research program, based at the Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies (QCAT) site in Pullenvale.

David was a lead author for the IPCC’s 2019 Methodology Report for emissions accounting for industrial aluminium and rare-earth metal smelting. He has led multi-party implementation projects that cut fluorinated greenhouse gases by 50% in trials at one major aluminium smelter and delivered energy savings of 100–150 kWh per tonne of metal two other smelters. He has over 30 publications, has advised industry and governmental bodies internationally, and has received awards from The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) and The International Committee for Study of Bauxite, Alumina & Aluminium (ICSOBA). He also trains global smelting professionals through long-running technical courses.