The Speakers

Prof Mercedes Maroto-Valer (FRSE, FIChemE, FRSC, FRSA, FEI) is Champion and Director of the UK Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC) that forms part of the UK Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge focused on accelerating the transition to net zero of industrial clusters and establishing the first world net-zero industrial cluster.

Dr Steven King

Manager Technology/Metallurgy, Nyrstar, Australia

Dr Steven King is Technology/Metallurgy Manager for Nyrstar, with 30+ years experience in pyrometallurgy and non-ferrous metals. Dr King has direct experience in the area of decarbonization through the Britannia Silver Project in the UK, and biochar work with Glencore's Mt Isa facility that examined opportunities for CCA timber. As a Chartered Professional with the AusIMM he is keen to develop and support decarbonization opportunities in primary metallurgy.

Professor G.J. 'Gus' Nathan

Adelaide University, Australia

Director, Centre for Energy Technology. AU

Research Director, HILT CRC

Professor Nathan is a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and of the Combustion Institute, an ARC Discovery Outstanding Researcher Awardee (Fellowship) and founding director of The University of Adelaide’s Centre for Energy Technology, who is listed in the top 2% of scientists world-wide both by Elsevier and Stanford University.

Prof Peta Ashworth OAM

Director, Curtin Institute for Energy Transition (CIET), Curtin University, Australia

Professor Ashworth is a renowned expert in energy, communication, stakeholder engagement, and technology assessment. She has researched public attitudes towards climate and energy technologies, including wind, carbon capture and storage (CCS), solar photovoltaic, storage, geothermal and hydrogen, for almost two decades. An accomplished speaker and educator, she actively promotes energy literacy globally and contributes to policy briefings and educational events.

Prior to joining Curtin University, Professor Ashworth was the Director of the Andrew N. Liveris Academy for Innovation and Leadership, and Chair in Sustainable Energy Futures at The University of Queensland (UQ). She was also Chair of the Queensland Hydrogen Taskforce and is a member of CSIRO Hydrogen Mission Advisory Board. Professor Ashworth brings over thirty years’ experience working in a range of senior management, consulting and research roles.

Prof Ellen Stechel

Executive Director, Center for an Arizona Carbon-Neutral Economy, Co-Director of ASU LightWorks®, Professor of Practice, School of Molecular Sciences; and Senior Futures Scientist, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University (ASU), USA

Ellen B. Stechel is the Executive Director of the Center for an Arizona Carbon-Neutral Economy, Co-Director of ASU LightWorks®, Professor of Practice, School of Molecular Sciences; and Senior Futures Scientist, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University (ASU). With a Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of Chicago, her career has afforded her opportunities to build and/or coordinate research programs at a national laboratory, industry, a U.S. government agency, and now in higher education; in both basic and applied research; policy and commercialization of emerging technologies; and in multi-disciplinary R&D strategy and management. Her current research focuses on materials and systems design for solar technologies for producing sustainable liquid hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide, hydrogen from advanced water splitting, clean water, renewable ammonia, and for thermochemical and chemical energy storage.

Prof Christian Sattler

Director, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Germany

Prof. Dr. Christian Sattler studied chemistry at the University of Bonn, Germany. He is Acting Divisional Board Member for Energy and Transport of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Director of DLR’s Institute of Future Fuels, and Professor for solar fuel production at RWTH Aachen University, Germany. He serves as Vice President of the Association Hydrogen Europe Research representing the European research institutions in the European Clean Hydrogen Partnership. He is the national representative to tasks of the IEA’s SolarPACES Implementing Agreement, and member of the ASME’s Clean Energy Technical Group.

Prof Gabriella Tranell

Director, Norwegian Centre for Zero Emission Metal Production; Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Professor Gabriella Tranell holds a MSc in Geotechnology/Metallurgy from LTU, Sweden and a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from UNSW, Australia. Prior to joining NTNU as professor in 2009, she worked as Senior Scientist and Research Manager with SINTEF. She has initiated and led several large EU projects and national research centres for extractive metallurgy. She is currently scientific director of the Norwegian Centre for Zero Emission Metal Production (FME ZeMe).

Her current research interests and activities include:

• Production, refining and recycling of Ferroalloys and Silicon

• Refining and recycling of aluminium

• Solar cell materials

• Environmental issues and emission related to metal production

• Valorization of metallurgical sidestreams

Prof Geoffrey Brooks

Professor at the School of Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

Geoff Brooks is the Joint Swinburne/CSIRO Professor for Sustainable Minerals Processing. He has been a Professor at Swinburne for 18 years and previously held academic positions at the University of Wollongong and McMaster University. Over his career he has worked with many major metallurgical companies, particularly in the steel industry, and published over 250 papers with his co-authors. He and his co-authors won numerous best paper awards from international societies, including awards from the TMS, ASM and IOM3. Geoff was awarded the Bessemer Gold Medal from IOM3 in 2023 for his contribution to the international steel industry.

Jaehoon Park

Vice President of the Future Steel R&D Center; Hydrogen Ironmaking Research Group, POSCO Research Lab; Australia

Jaehoon is an engineer and researcher in process optimisation, technology development of ironmaking and steelmaking.

Prof Qingshan Zhu

Deputy Director of IPE CAS, China

Qingshan Zhu has been a full professor since 2002 at the Institute of Process Engineering (IPE), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and is currently Deputy Director of IPE CAS. His research interests include fluidisation, process intensification, mineral roasting, and low-carbon process innovation. Over the past decade, he has focused on the fundamental and applied aspects of fluidisation intensification of cohesive powders, establishing more than ten fluidised bed technologies at commercial and pilot scale.

He has published over 250 peer-reviewed papers in international journals and is the inventor of more than 180 Chinese patents and over 90 international patents, with more than 10 licensed to industry.

He is currently President of the Chinese Society of Particuology (CSP) and a member of the national carbon neutrality committee. He serves as Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Process Engineering (Chinese) and The Chinese Journal of Powder Technology, and sits on several editorial boards. He has received the Second-Class National Award for Technological Invention, as well as first-class awards from CSP and the Chinese Society of Petrochemical and Chemical Engineering.

Will Reeves

Investment Manager, ARENA, Australia

Will Reeves is an Investment Manager in the Heavy Industry team at the Australian Renewable

Energy Agency (ARENA). ARENA invests in innovative clean energy technologies to accelerate

Australia’s transition to net zero. Will focuses on ARENA’s Low Emission and Green Metals portfolio

as well as Industrial Decarbonisation opportunities. Prior to joining ARENA, Will worked ininfrastructure private markets investment and in PwC’s Deals Modelling team, where he supported

complex transactions across infrastructure and energy markets. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce(First Class Honours) in Finance and Economics from the University of Sydney.

Dr.-Ing. Markus Dorndorf

Senior Business Development Director UPS Tenova, Germany

Markus is Senior Business Development Director at Tenova, with over 20 years’ experience in iron and steelmaking technology, R&D, and commercial strategy. He has held senior leadership roles across Tenova and Siemens VAI, specialising in electric steelmaking and advanced metallurgical processes.

Enrico Malfa

R&D Director, Tenova, Italy

Enrico Malfa holds a degree in Aerospace Engineering, obtained at Politecnico di Milano (Milan, Italy) in 1987.

He gained experience in international corporations in different industrial sectors, like Aermacchi (aerospace), Italcementi (cement) and ABB (Power). In 2002, he joined Centro Sviluppo Materiali (today Rina-CSM), where he became responsible for the branch at TenarisDalmime.

Currently, he is R&D Director of Tenova, a Techint Group company, worldwide partner for innovative, reliable and sustainable solutions in metals and mining.

Enrico Malfa holds several institutional positions:

• Chairman of European Steel Technology Platform (ESTEP) Focus Group Circular Economy)

• Member of PPP Clean Steel Partnership Board

• Member of AFIL (the Association of Smart Factory in Lombardy Region) board

• Member of AIM (the Italian Association of Metallurgy) board

• Expert in Research Found for Steel and Coal - RFCS (EUROPEAN COMMISSION Directorate G – Industrial Technologies Research Fund for Coal and Steel) Technical Group (TGA2) – DOWNSTREAM STEEL PROCESSING

He is the author of several publications and patents.

Dr Tara Hosseini

Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO, Australia

Dr Tara Hosseini is a Senior Research Scientist in the Electrochemical Energy Systems Research Group in the Energy Business Unit of the CSIRO. She joined CSIRO in April 2022 and presently works on different aspects of hydrogen energy systems. Dr Hosseini has 15+ years of experience in process simulation and techno-economic analysis. She specialises in the development of sustainable and clean bio-energy technologies through thermochemical conversion methods. She also has a background in mineral processing technologies through both hydro and pyrometallurgical techniques. With the experience of work as a process engineer in the oil, gas and mineral industries in both Australia and overseas, Dr Hosseini has expertise in the design and development of different chemical and mineral processes, process simulation and modelling using Aspen Plus and HYSYS, techno-economic analysis and reactor design and kinetic modelling.

Nicola Falcon

Executive General Manager System Design, AEMO, Australia

Nicola has more than 25 years’ experience in the energy sector within Australia and overseas. In her current role, Nicola is responsible for leading system design at AEMO, driving the collaborative and industry-wide efforts in meeting the engineering challenges of a net-zero energy system.

In her prior role as Group Manager, Victorian Planning & Connections she led a multi-disciplinary team planning and determining investment in major transmission projects, network, and non-network services, and managing the connections process for new generators and loads.

Nicola holds graduate and post-graduate commerce degrees in Management Science from the University of Canterbury, and is passionate about providing equal opportunities for women in the energy sector.

Prof Chris Dodds

Head of Department, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Nottingham, UK

Chris Dodds is a member of the Advanced Materials Research Group (AMRG), specialising in the design, scale-up and commercialisation of microwave and radio frequency processes. His work focuses on understanding material–energy interactions at a molecular level to improve efficiency, product quality and environmental performance.

Recent applications include:

Sustainable iron reduction with biomass
Sustainable polymer processing
Offshore treatment of drilling wastes
Energy-efficient mineral processing

Prof Joe Coventry

Professor, College of Engineering and Computer Science, ANU, Australia

Professor Coventry is an engineer experienced in development and commercialisation of solar technologies. He presently leads heliostat cost down and receiver performance improvement projects for the Australian Solar Thermal Research Initiative (ASTRI) and prior, he was the Principal Engineer at Wizard Power, and led the engineering team and development of the Big Dish CSP technology since the company was established in 2005. Dr Coventry holds a BE/BSc from the University of Melbourne (1997), and a PhD from the Australian National University (2004).

Current research projects span the following topics:

Development of low-cost heliostat technologies
Sodium receiver technologies
Optical absorber coatings for CST
High temperature thermal energy storage
Hydrogen supply for industry

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