9th Annual ASPO conference

Three new top experts in their respective fields have confirmed to speak at the ASPO 9 conference.

The first is Prof. Dr Yulong Ding from the Instute of Particle Science & Engineering of the University of Leeds, who will speak about the latest progress in electrical energy storage systems. He will also talk about  the possibilities of Cryogenic Energy Storage, a new electricity storage technique which his chairgroup is conducting research on. The second is Prof. Dr. Aviel Verbruggen from the University of Antwerp who is an applied economist with knowledge about a broad range of subjects in environment and energy, specialised in electricity markets. He will talk about the costs, potential, and barriers of renewable energy sources. The third is Julie Lauder, CEO of the Underground Coal Gasification Association, who has worked on the commercial development of this new coal production technique since 2003. She will talk about the current status and commercial development of UCG globally.

The full conference programma including all confirmed conference speakers can be found under the programme tab.

Prof. Dr. Yulong Ding, University of Leeds

Professor Yulong Ding is a professor of chemical engineering with the School of Process, Environmental and Materials Engineering at the University of Leeds. He was first trained as a thermophysicist / thermal engineer (BEng 1985, MSc 1988) and then a chemical engineer (PhD 1997). His research has been cross-disciplinary, particularly at interfaces among energy engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, materials engineering and, to a smaller extent, chemistry and bioengineering. He has filed 12 patents and published over 300 technical papers and 10 books / book chapters. His current research interests cover both fundamental and applied aspects, with the fundamental research focusing on multiphase transport phenomena across the length scales, and the applied research concentrating on new energy storage technologies, novel thermodynamic cycles and nanostructured materials for energy harvesting and storage applications.

Prof. Dr. Aviel Verbruggen, University of Antwerp

Aviel Verbruggen, Energy & Environmental Economist,  is Professor at the University of Antwerp since 1993. He has a training in engineering and applied economics at Leuven, Antwerp and Stanford University. During his career he founded a number of research and advisory units in Belgium (STEM, REGASA, CENERGIE). He conceived, supervised and edited the State of the Environment Reports (MIRA) in Flanders (1993-98), and was the first president of Flanders’ Environmental Advisory Council (MiNa-Raad) (1991-95). He is a member of IPCC as a part of the Third and Fourth Assessment Reports, Working Group III: Mitigation and Adaptation (1998-2007), and as lead Author of the special report on Renewable Energy (2009-10).

Julie Lauder, CEO, UCG Association (UCGA)

Julie has been involved in the promotion and commercial development of Underground Coal Gasification technology since 2003 and joined the UCG Association full time in 2007. She has over thirty years experience in both Marketing and business development across a wide range of industries. Her role at UCGA is extremely varied and includes full responsibility for the daily operations, external relationships, Training Courses, Membership and Global Expansion. Her unique position within the UCG community enables her to engage with industry, academia, research, governments, regulators, NGO’s, energy associations, finance and the media. She has authored many leading articles and is regularly invited to present on UCG all around the world, most recently in London, Vienna, Brussels, USA, South Africa, Australia and India.