(HyPT-3) Overview of Session 6A - Hydrogen from Bioresources and Waste

Thursday 14 September 2023 10:00am - 11:30am ACST (UTC+9:30)

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Dr Katherine Chou (NREL), Dr. Joshuah Stolaroff (Mote), Hanna Breunig (LBNL), PANELLISTS Jean-Louis Kindler (Ways2H), Dr Tara Hosseini (CSIRO), CHAIR Dr Woei Saw (UoA)

SESSIONS AIMS TO:

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Dr Katherine Chou (NREL)

Katherine J. Chou, Ph.D. is a Senior Research Scientist leading the Bioenergetics Group within the Biosciences Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). This national laboratory under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is dedicated to energy efficiency and renewable energy research.  She is serving as the Director of the national lab-led BioH2 Consortium supported by the U.S. DOE.   Her work primarily focuses on developing a microbial, dark fermentation technology for economic green H₂ production using waste lignocellulosic biomass as feedstocks. 

Katherine has received numerous awards including NREL Outstanding Publication Award, twice Outstanding Mentor Awards, Director’s and President’s Awards.  She has a Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) where she also received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering.

Dr. Joshuah Stolaroff (Mote)

Dr. Stolaroff spent 11 years at LLNL as a staff scientist and Carbon Capture Technology Manager, leading projects in carbon capture, advanced manufacturing, and clean energy. At LLNL, Josh’s team brought an environmentally friendly, low-cost carbon capture technology to pilot, in partnership with SoCalGas and Xebec. Dr. Stolaroff was on the team at LLNL that completed the research “Getting to Neutral” which was in the inspiration for Mote. Prior to joining LLNL, Josh held an AAAS Science and Technology Fellowship at the U.S. EPA doing climate policy research and a post-doctoral fellowship at Carnegie Mellon’s Climate Decision Making Center.

He has a PhD in Engineering & Public Policy and Civil & Environmental Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and a B.S. in Environmental Engineering Science from the University of California, Berkeley. His thesis on the feasibility of direct air capture, under Greg Lowry and David Keith, formed the groundwork for the company Carbon Engineering.  Dr. Stolaroff has been at Mote for over 2 years previously as the Chief Technology Officer and his guidance and expertise has proven pivotal in creating a reputable and successful climate tech startup.

Hanna Breunig (LBNL)

Dr. Hanna Breunig is a Research Scientist and Deputy-Head of the Sustainable Energy and Environmental Systems Department in the Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division. She holds a secondary joint appointment in the Earth Systems and Society Domain in the Climate and  Ecosystem Science Division. Hanna specializes in techno-economic analysis, process modeling, market analysis, and environmental and human health impact assessment (life-cycle assessment) of emerging energy and negative emissions technologies.

These include high temperature thermal energy storage, bioenergy, enhanced weathering, and gas (H₂, CO₂, CH₄) capture, production, storage, utilization, and management technologies. She holds a B.Sc. in Environmental Engineering from Cornell University and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley.

PANELLISTS

Jean-Louis Kindler (Ways2H)

Jean-Louis Kindler is CEO of Ways2H, a leading commercial provider of Waste-to-Hydrogen solutions for mobility and grid applications. Jean-Louis and his team are developing projects that transform the world’s worst waste - MSW, plastics, medical refuse - into clean energy and fuel.

A 30-year veteran of the cleantech industry with work experience in Europe, Asia and North America, Jean-Louis led the development of various technologies including electrochemical water treatment, bio-based waste-to-energy as well as fuel cell components manufacturing.

Dr Tara Hosseini (CSIRO)

Dr Tara Hosseini is a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO in Australia and contributes to solving the greatest energy challenges in Australia. Since joining CSIRO in April 2022, she works on the design and development of tailored energy solutions for various industries seeking to decarbonise their sectors. She is also contributing to a couple of projects related to the decarbonisation of heavy industries in the HILT CRC. She received a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Monash University in 2016 and since then she has worked on research and development of renewable and low-emission energy technologies. Dr Hosseini has worked on different aspects of the hydrogen supply chain including hydrogen production technologies, hydrogen distribution, end-use and integration of intermittent renewable energies with hydrogen production, storage and supply to hydrogen users. She is also experienced in the thermochemical conversion of coal and biomass into hydrogen and other low-emission fuels through pyrolysis, co-pyrolysis and gasification. 

Before joining CSIRO, she worked at the University of Adelaide as a research fellow (2019-2020) and Lecturer (2020-2022). She completed a couple of projects for the Future Fuels CRC. She also has experience of work at Monash University as a research fellow working on the design and development of low-emission energy technologies including hydrogen from pyrolysis and gasification (2016-2019).