Ross Bryson: Technical Assurance Adviser, Hydrogen and Industrial Carbon Capture, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

Originally educated in Aeronautical Engineering, Ross was drawn into the energy sphere via wind turbine aerodynamics and then tidal turbine hydrodynamics. After a brief stint working on tidal and wave energy resource in the Outer Hebrides, Ross joined General Electric where he spent over a decade planning and executing the commissioning, optimisation, and testing their heavy-duty gas turbines across the globe. This ultimately led to exposure to carbon capture technologies and, building on this, with the goal returning to a more sustainable energy role, Ross moved to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s Technical Assurance Team, responsible for advising on the design of, then leading, the technical assessment and due diligence processes within the UK Government’s Carbon Capture Sequencing programme.

Catherine Spriggs: Net Zero Programme Manager, Health and Safety Eexecutive

Catherine is the programme manager for the HSE Net Zero Hub. HSE has established a Net Zero Hub with associated senior level governance to facilitate work on Net Zero topics across HSE, supporting links between science, regulatory and policy work. Catherine works closely with a network of Net Zero Contacts who provide intelligence to the Hub in terms of asks of HSE from other government departments and industry with respect to growing and emerging Net Zero technologies.  As part of the Net Zero Hub Catherine has also established internal HSE Common Interest Groups, including a group focused on Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS).  These groups bring together colleagues from across HSE to engage on key topic areas and enable sharing of science, regulatory and policy knowledge and information. Prior to working at HSE Catherine spent 15 years working in the construction industry as a project and programme manager.

Prakash Patel: Insurance Risk Engineer – Global Technical Lead, CCSU, Marsh

Prakash Patel is a Chartered Chemical Engineer with more than 30 years of experience in various fields, including Industrial Gases  (including hydrogen, carbon dioxide and air gases), Plant Design, Process Safety Management and Hazard and Risk Quantification. Since 2019 he has been the Global Hydrogen and CCUS Risk Engineering Lead at Marsh. Prakash is a member of the Energy Institute’s Hydrogen and CCUS Committees and chairs the working group that revised the Good Plant Design and hazard Analysis guidance documents.

Andy Brown: Engineering Director, Progressive Energy

Andy worked for the CEGB on power stations for 20 years covering coal, gas turbine and nuclear. He then spent nine years in the headquarters of the successor companies, as a technical/engineering strategist, considering what generating technologies would best meet the needs of the future. The opportunity arose to play an active role in seeing his vision for the future take place, and in 1998 he became a founder member of Progressive Energy as their Engineering Director, a company then developing 'clean coal' power projects, as well as waste-to-energy, and now engaged in developing low carbon projects, including the HyNet, Peak and Bacton clusters. Progressive Energy allows him to draw on his broad engineering background and to develop new skills and expertise, and he spends most of his time working on projects involving CO2 capture and storage, particularly its transportation.  Andy also represents the UK on the ISO Committee addressing CO2 transport and on the CEN Committee developing a set of European Standards for CO2 capture and storage.  He is a co-chair of the CCSA’s Technical Working Group and chairs the Energy Institute’s CCS technical committee. Andy is a Fellow of the IMechE. 

Rafay Anwar: VP – Project Development and Technical Services, International CCS Knowledge Centre

As the Vice-President of Project Development and Technical Services for the International CCS Knowledge Centre, Rafay maintains a deep understanding of industry trends and CCS best practices to facilitate the delivery of leadingedge engineering solutions for developing CCS projects in Canada and
internationally.

Prior to joining the Knowledge Centre, Rafay spent over 15 years in the oil and gas industry gaining hands on experience through the execution of capital projects. His areas of technical expertise include carbon capture technologies, amine plants, CO2 compression, dehydration and transport and heat and power integration.

Blair McMaster: Senior CO2 Capture Consultant, DNV

Blair works as a Senior CO2 Capture Consultant at DNV, supporting CCUS projects across the world. He is a chartered process engineer with 10 years of experience across various industries and holds a Master's degree in Chemical & Process Engineering from the University of Strathclyde. Prior to joining DNV, Blair worked for 4 years at Technology Centre Mongstad, the world's largest demonstration site for CO2 capture technologies, where he gained insight and hands-on experience with the risks and challenges of CO2 capture.

Graham Steel: Senior Engineer, Peterhead Carbon Capture Project Engineering, SSE Thermal

Graham is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and has over 15 years’ experience in Thermal Power Generation industry. He is currently the Senior Engineer at SSE Thermal, responsible for the Design Development of the Peterhead Carbon Capture Power Station Project. Graham is a Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and holds a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering with Aeronautics from the University of Strathclyde.

Daniel Mullen: Engineer – Low Carbon Technologies, SSE Thermal

Daniel’s background is on power plant outages in Ireland. In 2020, Daniel began a PhD in post-combustion CO2 capture at the University of Edinburgh focusing on all things related to ultra-high CO2 capture rates in post-combustion CO2 capture plants. In early 2023, Daniel began work in the low carbon technology team at SSE Thermal, supporting the development of large-scale commercial CO2 capture facilities and managing CCS related R&D projects.

Tiana Walker: Principal Concept Engineer, Storegga

Storegga chartered engineer, Tiana Walker, has a wealth of knowledge at her fingertips after spending 30 years working in the energy sector. Her experiences range from commissioning small power stations in Australia to leading multi-discipline teams in operations and production engineering in the oil and gas industry – and everything in between.

Tiana, who is passionate about sustainability, joined Storegga in 2018 and has been involved in the Acorn project and CCS ever since, with a particular interest in CO2 composition and flow assurance.