Ben joined the Environment Agency from an environmental consultancy, firstly working in permitting before moving to a compliance role in which he was responsible for inspecting and auditing industrial plants including power stations and energy from waste plants. He then moved to the Environment Agency’s Environment & Business Department where he worked on a number of national regulatory projects before taking over as Senior Advisor for Energy from Waste 7 years ago. Ben is also the UK lead on the Waste Incineration BREF and BAT Conclusions which are currently being implemented through permit reviews.
Colin Bateman
Director of Business Development EMEA
IGS
Colin graduated in 1996 with a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from Newcastle University and has 20+ years of experience in developing and specifying protective barrier solutions for mission critical assets. Working in the Energy Sector, he currently supports asset owners in Europe and the Middle East, helping them to manage and mitigate their erosion and corrosion challenges through the utilization of robust surface protection technologies, developing preventative maintenance programs.
Damir Zibrat
Business Development Manager
Technikgruppe
Damir Zibrat is Business Development Manager of Austrian company TECHNIKGRUPPE , and has more than 25 years’ experience in international strategic selling and marketing. Damir joined TECHNIKGRUPPE in 2016 and has spoken frequently about combustion optimization in waste to energy and biomass plants. After completing his university education in electro-engineering he was engaged for more than 5 years in electronic development and applications of industrial measurement systems.
Edward Thomas
Head of Programme Delivery
Viridor
Edward is a chartered Mechanical Engineer and MBA. Edward has over 30 years’ experience in the process & power industries with Director level design, engineering & construction responsibilities in leading companies in the circular economy sector. This has included responsibility for delivery on safety, maintenance, and operations. He has a track record of delivering projects to time, budget and performance at every scale, including stepping-in to recover distressed projects and delivering plants with first-of-a-kind technology. Currently developing the Runcorn CCS project, which was recently shortlisted by UK government for stage 3 of its Track 1 projects.
Johan Heiszwolf
Global Director Flue Gas Treatment Applications, Research and Development
Lhoist
Johan Heiszwolf PhD. has more than 25 years of research & development experience in chemical reactor engineering and materials science. He authored over fifty technical publications and patents with a H-index of 16.
As global director for flue gas treatment applications at Lhoist, he focuses on the development of innovative products, advanced technical support, and marketing.
Matthias Lukic
CEO, Technical Expert
Technikgruppe
Matthias Lukic is founder, CEO, technical expert and 100% owner of Austria based Technikgruppe. He has over 25 years of experience in combustion optimization on forward moving grates in waste to energy and biomass to energy plants. After finishing his education at Technical University in Graz – Austria, Matthias has worked on automations of complex production systems in the power industry, oil & gas and the chemical & petrochemical industries. Matthias speaks English, German, Croatian and Italian. Over the last few years he has presented at many waste to energy events.
Mike Anderson
Managing Director
KRR Prostream
Michael Anderson, Managing Director, KRR Prostream
Michael is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer with a broad range of experience, from Black belt training at a blue-chip manufacturer to managing one of the UK’s oldest operational power stations after its conversion from coal to biomass and Energy from Waste (EfW). Michael is experienced with operating and maintaining Gas Turbines, Heat Recovery Steam Generators, Steam turbines, conventional boiler plants, coal, gas and specifically the difficulties associated with EfW and biomass plants.
Michael has recently returned to the UK having spent 5 years in the Middle East acting as a technical advisor to financiers on new build and operational power and water projects. One of Michael’s overriding values is ensuring things are done safely with everyone being able to return home unhurt at the end of day; this dovetails crucially with KRR values and with those of our clients.
Paul James, BSc MSc
Technical Director
SLR Consulting Ltd; event chair
Originally trained as a Chemist and in Chemical Engineering, Paul has spent over 30 years working internationally in the Energy and Environment fields for both the Public and Private Sector. His experience covers a wide range of themes including industrial emissions and industrial impact reduction, renewable energy technologies, projects & policy development and delivery, and he has specific expertise in waste-to-energy and biomass energy projects. As the author of the first EU “Best Available Techniques” Reference (BREF) document on thermal waste treatments (2006) he is well known internationally for his expertise in this area. Over the last 15 years he has worked on numerous projects for the development and implementation of waste and energy infrastructure, as an adviser to national and international governments & agencies, and developed leading international consulting businesses in these areas. He is the Chairman of the UK Chartered Institute of Wastes Management (CIWM) Special Interest Group on Thermal Waste Treatment and the author / co-author of papers on issues including low carbon energy and resources/waste management, a supervisor of university projects, and author of technical policy documents regarding national and international emission regulation.
Robert van Kessel PhD
Managing Director / Operating agent
PREWIN; session chair
Mike Hession
Managing Director
E-tech Learning
Mike Hession BEng. CEng. MIMechE. MCIBSE. MCIWM has over forty years’ experience within engineering plant and process engineering environments. For thirty five years he has specialised in waste management and thermal treatment technology based projects.
Throughout his consulting career Mike has project managed numerous technical studies, technology based due diligence reviews plus managing a number of incineration and waste capital projects from inception through to commissioning including the very first incineration and waste management facility to be designed and constructed in the UK to satisfy the, then incoming, EC Directive on the incineration of hazardous wastes, Council Directive 94/67/EC.
He has assisted many clients by providing on-site training and trouble shooting existing energy from waste and other thermal processes, bringing about significant performance improvements in terms of energy efficiency, process performance and environmental compliance.
Mike remains passionate about training and personal development within the waste industry and for the last 3 years has been developing e-tech learning limited which specialises in technical training for process plant operators and managers.
Elaine Oliver
Director and Trainer
Luddington Learning
Originally trained as a marine engineer, Elaine Oliver has spent the last 20 years working in power generation facilities. Her experience covers a variety of themes including maintenance, operations, Permit for Work, commissioning activities, and owner’s engineer on power trains fuelled by oil, gas and waste derived fuels.
For the last five years Elaine has been a trainer providing services to Energy from Waste and Biomass Plants, specifically aimed at Operations Teams.
2015/01 – 2022/06: Head of Product Development, Steinmüller Babcock Environment GmbH (SBE), Gummersbach, Germany
2013/01 – 2014/12: Engineer for process engineering (WtE plants), focus on research and development (NOX reduction, efficiency improvement)
2002/10 – 2012/12: Study of Mechanical and Process Engineering and Phd., Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany
Daniel von der Heide
Managing Director
M & S Umwelttechnik
Daniel von der Heide is the managing director and technical expert for DeNOx systems in second generation for M&S Umwelttechnik. He has planned, commissioned and optimized SNCR systems for over 10 years for various combustion plants with focus on WtE plants all over Europe. As a mechanical engineer and one of the owners of the VDH-Group, to which M&S belongs, he is responsible for the technical side for environmental technologies, process and plant engineering.
Mr. de Montard has been involved in the soil and air pollution control for the past 30 years with a specific focus on heavy industries. He originally started his career focused on domestic waste landfilling but is currently providing an engineering support in EMEA for Gore’s portfolio of filtration products serving the metals smelting and the waste-to-energy industries. He has a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering as well a master degree in business administration.
Brigitte Jacobs
Business Development Manager, Energy Transition Industry
TNO
Brigitte Jacobs works as a Business Leader Energy Transition Industry with TNO. She holds a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering with a Post graduate degree in Business Economics. Prior to working with TNO, she has held both technical and commercial roles within a variety of large chemical multinationals (e.g. ExxonMobil, DuPont, DSM) in different places across the globe. At TNO, she supports different industry partners with the introduction of new technology developments that help them reduce their carbon footprint and meet their climate goals.
Tobias Mettler
Managing Director
P-Wave
Mechanical engineer with post graduate business administration degree. MD of P-Wave since March 2021, after 30+ years in various roles in Power Generation at ABB, Alstom and GE in Switzerland, Japan, Malaysia and Germany.
Jonathan Maclaren
Director, Thermal Power
Stantec UK Ltd
Jonathan is an experienced engineer with over 20 years of experience in the power and utilities industry. He has been involved in a number of highly successful projects ranging from the UK’s first industrial scale biomass power station, to the development of smaller scale advanced pyrolysis systems. From these projects Jonathan has gained significant experience in the specification, design, commissioning and operation of numerous Energy and Advanced Thermal Treatment processes.
Dr Oliver Gohlke
Technology Advisor of the Board of Directors
Dublix Technology, a Yokogawa company
Adam Jelly
Sales and Business Development Manager UK
NSI Mobile Water Solutions
Adam is a strong sales and business development manager with over 20 years of experience selling and renting equipment across multiple sectors of oil and gas, petrochemical, energy, and municipal industries. Most recently spending 8 years in the rental industry with liquid treatment, containment, and transfer equipment.
Robert Stancombe
Sales and Business Development Manager UK
NSI Mobile Water Solutions
Robert has accumulated a wide range of engineering skills and experience through his long career in different engineering fields. Following the completion of his apprenticeship, he worked as a project engineer for complex turnkey solutions in the automotive industry before transitioning to business development providing technical solutions to the water, process, and oil and gas industries. Rob makes use of his expertise with mobile water treatment equipment to provide complex solutions for planned large-scale projects or emergency requirements.
Guy Sharp
Senior Project Manager
RJM International
A Chartered Mechanical Engineer with 20 years operational and maintenance experience of large-scale conventional and energy from waste combustion plant. Responsible for the management of projects which resolve complex challenges for combustion plant through the application of innovative cost-effective solutions.
Ian Crummack
MD
Cobalt Energy; session chair
A qualified Mechanical Engineer, Ian Crummack has over 27 years’ experience in Energy from Waste and thermal power generation markets on a national and international basis, with worldwide technology experience. He has worked across Europe, managing projects to fruition from development, through the planning, consultation and tender stages, and then into construction and operation. Ian has significant experience with associated contractual matters and taking financial and management responsibility for energy business units. Ian is the founder and managing director of Cobalt Energy Limited which offers Engineering Resources, Project Construction Services and Plant Operational Management.