Professor Alan Guwy has led the Sustainable Environment Research Centre (SERC) at the University of South Wales since 2004. Previously he was the Director of the Energy and Environment Research Institute at USW and led Task 34 of the IEA’s Hydrogen Implementing Agreement and previously the Western Europe lead of the International Water Associations Anaerobic Digestion Group. He has led the SERC team on a number of large RCUK and EU FP consortiums and been part of funded research worth more than £50M to the university. He jointly led the creation and development of the Hydrogen Research Centre which was opened in 2008. He is a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales and a member of the Royal Society’s Hydrogen Steering Group. His current work is focused on the sustainable hydrogen energy systems, urban biorefining, the conversion of syngas to carboxylates, biohydrogen and optimisation of anaerobic digestion. He has published 140 peer reviewed papers (H-Index 54) and leads the hydrogen energy systems research in FLEXIS and is the USW lead on the FLEXISAPP and RICE projects. In collaboration with TATA and Welsh Water he is the lead on an industrial biorefinery concept “The VFA Factory for Decarbonisation” for making carboxylic acids from biowastes and syngases funded through UKRI’s IDRIC and SER Cymru’s Accelerator programmes. This work at pilot scale was recently awarded the Lettinga Award.
Dr Christian Laycock's research investigates the application of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology to the utilisation and disposal of renewable and waste gas feedstocks. More generally, the aim of his research is to demonstrate the technical benefits and versatility of fuel cell technologies and why they are key to future energy infrastructures alongside other energy technologies.
Dr Gareth Owen, Associate Professor, is Senior Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry. His main research interests lie in the chemistry of boron based ligands which act as reversible hydrogen atom stores and the investigation of hydrogen shuttle-type transformations for the development of novel transformations.
Dr Jaime Massanet-Nicolau's research interests involve adapting microbial processes to produce fuel and other useful compounds from waste materials and biomass. He develops anaerobic digestion methodologies that can cope with ‘real world’, structurally complex biomass types including, food waste, crop residues and wastewater biosolids. He also collaborates with colleagues in the SERC on novel ways to integrate anaerobic digestion with emerging bio-energy technologies such as microbial fuel cells, microbial electrolysis cells and electrochemical separation.
Dr James Reed is a Senior Lecturer in renewable energy. His research interests include the upgrading of non-conventional methane rich gases such as biogas to hydrogen via steam reforming utilising compact heat exchanger technology, with a focus on modelling of the fuel processing system to optimise thermal integration and reduce the cost of development. He is also involved in developing the use of Fourier transform near infrared spectroscopy (FT-NIRS) for use as an online process monitoring and control system for anaerobic treatment processes.
Jon Maddy is Senior Lecturer/Hydrogen Centre Manager.
He is the only academic member of the UK Government (BEIS) Hydrogen Advisory Council, and the Green Hydrogen Working Group, with similar positions on the WelshGov Hydrogen Reference Group, and the Low Carbon Vehicle Steering Group.
Professor Richard Dinsdale is the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies. His research activities are directed at optimizing microbial cultures for the production of energy either in the form of methane, hydrogen or as electricity directly from bioelectrochemical systems as well as other chemical products such as bioplastics, single cell protein and lipids from low grade biomass resources. This includes either liquid or solids wastes as well as from CO2, H2 and CO gases. He is also interested in the development of novel instrumentation and its implementation in control systems for bioprocess optimization. In recent years Prof Dinsdale has been concentrating on the development of biolectrochemical systems (BES).
Professor Sandra Esteves is a Professor in Bioprocess Technology for Resource Recovery: Energy and Materials at the Sustainable Environment Research Centre and also directs the Wales AD Centre.
Her research has focused on design, monitoring, modelling, control and optimisation of anaerobic and aerobic processes, sensor development, microbial ecology and profiling, feedstocks and digestates characterisation, pre and post processing, power to gas conversions and biological biogas upgrading, carboxylic acids and polyhydroxyalkanoates production and systems LCA/economics benchmarking. Current interests extend to a wide remit namely the integration of anaerobic bioprocesses in biorefining as well as with a number of other industrial processes and energy systems.
Professor Esteves is the UK Representative in the European Biogas Association's Scientific Advisory Council, and a member of the International Scientific Group for the Swedish Biogas Research Centre, the Industrial Expert Advisory Board for the H2020 Circular Agronomics, the Circular Economy and Innovation Group for Wales, the UK REA Bioenergy Strategy Green Gas Group, and the UK ADBA Cost Competitiveness Task Force.
Dr Stephen Carr specialises in modelling, control and optimisation of hydrogen energy storage components.
