Prof Hongwei Wu 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, Prof Wu was appointed as a junior lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Curtin University, Australia, in August 2002. He was then promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2006 and Associate Professor in 2008. In January 2010, he was made a full professor of chemical engineering at Curtin University.

Prof Wu 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 by the American Chemical Society.

Prof 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, chacterisation 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.

Prof. Gus Nathan is a Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Adelaide, a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, the Combustion Institute and Engineers Australia, a recipient of a Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award from the Australian Research Council and an ATSE KH Sutherland medallist. He was the bid leader for and is now the Research Director of HILT CRC. This builds on his leadership of an ARENA-funded program to develop technology with strong potential to provide energy to the Bayer alumina process with concentrated solar thermal heat in partnership with Alcoa and Hatch, together with his co-leadership of program to develop innovative hydrogen production technologies within the Future Fuels Cooperative Research Centre.

Gus has led the development of six technology platforms, three of which are in ongoing commercial use and include the flame for Sydney Olympic Relay Torch, while three are currently being upscaled to decarbonise heavy industry. Gus has published more than 300 papers in international journals, 250 in peer reviewed conferences, 50 commissioned reports and 13 patents. He is also the founding chair of the High Temperature Minerals Processing (HiTeMP) Forum and co-founder of the Hydrogen Production Technologies (HyPT) forums, both of which attract some 170 delegates from more than 13 countries, drawn equally from industry, research and government agencies. He is also a joint founder of the international ISF Workshop for the Measurement and Computation of Reacting Flows With Carbon Nanoparticles, which engages some 100 researchers from around the world and is aligned with his own speciality in optical diagnostic methods to de-risk emerging technologies in hydrogen production and heavy industrial processes.

Adrien Guiraud is a process engineer with experience in minerals processing, metal production and decarbonisation of heavy industries. He specialises in translating research into practical outcomes for industry, by leading networks of multidisciplinary teams from world-class research and technology providers to deliver process optimisation and innovative technology development projects, with a focus on safety, productivity improvement, energy savings, and reducing industrial wastes and emissions across the value chain.

Adrien’s expertise covers a broad range of projects across multiple commodities, including: dry granulation and heat recovery from metallurgical slags; production and use of metallurgical-grade biochar in ironmaking; mass and energy balance modelling of green steel processing routes; microwave processing of copper ores (including ore sorting and pre-comminution); and novel energy efficiency aluminium reduction cell technologies (including sidewall heat recovery and high amperage/low energy designs).

Andrew is a principal research engineer and leader of the Solar Thermal Applications team within the CSIRO Energy Technologies research program. His current research areas involve development of process simulation and financial analysis models for solar thermal and hybrid biomass technologies for power generation, chemical production and industrial heat applications. His previous roles in CSIRO have included simulation of coal and gas to liquids processes, modelling of advanced thermal power generation technologies, and development of novel technologies for Greenhouse gas and environmental impact mitigation in mining.

Andrew also has a broad range of prior experience in practical chemical engineering in large-scale power generation and raw sugar processing industries. This includes design and implementation of specialised plant items in industrial applications, covering a wide range of water/wastewater treatment plant, coal utilisation equipment, and raw sugar pans and centrifuges.