Hydrogen Energy for Queensland

Fiona Simon is the CEO of the Australian Hydrogen Council (AHC), the peak body for the Australian hydrogen industry. AHC connects the hydrogen industry and its stakeholders in building a secure, clean and resilient energy future that sustainably produces and uses hydrogen within the energy mix. AHC’s members are from a range of sectors, including energy, transport, consulting, banking and technology. Prior to joining the Australian Hydrogen Council, Fiona worked for close to 20 years in energy policy and regulation, specialising in energy retail competition and consumer protection matters. Fiona holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Melbourne. She has published a well-regarded academic book on retail energy regulation in Australia.

Professor Peta Ashworth OAM is the Director of the Curtin Institute for Energy Transition. 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. Professor Ashworth is a globally-recognised expert in the fields of energy, communication, stakeholder engagement, and technology assessment. For almost two decades, Peta has been researching public attitudes toward climate and energy technologies, including wind, carbon capture and storage, solar photovoltaic, and hydrogen.

Chris is Deputy Director-General for Hydrogen within the Department of Energy and Public Works. He leads a newly created Division within the Department that has responsibility for leading strategic planning and coordination for the hydrogen industry across Queensland Government. He works closely with industry, counterpart agencies and the Queensland Government’s Hydrogen Taskforce to ensure policy, planning and regulatory activities are effectively integrated and enable value for the Queensland public from the rapidly emerging hydrogen industry. Chris has a successful track record of industry development and facilitation, most recently as Executive Director – Resources Policy within the Queensland Government, as well as relevant experience leading regulatory reform for the onshore gas industry in the Northern Territory and as a strategy and approvals consultant to the resources and infrastructure sectors across Australia.

John McGagh has over 35 years of industrial experience spanning a range of commercial and technical Global roles. He served the President of the International Professional Body, the Institution of Chemical Engineers. Ex Rio Tinto Head of Innovation, he led the successful effort to deliver industrial implementation of significant technological change. He has extensive experiences in dealings with Political, Commercial and other Representative bodies spanning a range of countries and cultures for Safety and Sustainable Development.

Dr Matthew Brannock has 25 years of experience in the evaluation and design of water treatment processes covering conventional water treatment, demineralisation, water for cooling, desalination & brine management within engineering consulting & academia. He has over 30+ publications and conference presentations in high impact journals and industry conferences covering water treatment for the power, oil and gas sectors, brine management, CFD modelling and membranes. Recently Matthew and his GHD co-authors have published a number of papers on water for hydrogen including one awarded runner up for Best Environment Paper at the IDA World Water Congress in Sydney in October 2022 and a conference paper at the IWA World Water Congress in Copenhagen Denmark in September 2022.  He was also recently a panel member for the “Water Opportunities for the Energy Transition” session at the Global Water Summit in Berlin.  Matthew is also the co-creator of the software package EVS: Water (formerly AqMB Designer) which is process engineering design, simulation and predictive analytics software for water and waste water treatment. He has also been involved in teaching courses for process modelling for water treatment professionals for the last 10 years with of Institution of Chemical Engineers and IWES.

Thom is a senior leader within Aurecon, focused on the development of hydrogen and chemicals. With experience in design, project execution and licenced hydrogen and ammonia technology, he provides strategic advice and technical oversight through the design, development and delivery of hydrogen and chemical projects, small and large.

Evan Gray is a Professor of Physics at Griffith University with more than 35 years of experience in research on hydrogen storage materials. Evan’s applied research spans hydrogen microgrids, hydrogen storage for off-grid electricity supply, metal-hydride compressors for hydrogen vehicle filling stations, hydrogen embrittlement and computer modelling of all aspects of hydrogen-based renewable energy systems. Evan is the Program Leader for Offshore Renewable Energy Systems in the Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre, with strong involvement in the CRC’s activities related to hydrogen microgrids.

Prof. Xiwang Zhang is the Endowed Dow Chair in Sustainable Engineering Innovation at the University of Queensland, Director of UQ Dow Centre, and Director of ARC Centre of Excellence for Green Electrochemical Transformation of Carbon Dioxide (GETCO2). He was the Founding Director of ARC Industry Transformation Research Hub for Energy-efficient Separation (EESep) and the Deputy Director of Monash Centre for Membrane Innovation (MCMI) at Monash University before he moved to UQ in 2022. Prof. Zhang has more than 15 years of R&D experience in both academia and industry with demonstrated achievements in technology development and translation. His research focuses on energy-efficient separation, water and wastewater treatment, resource recovery, green chemical synthesis and hydrogen production. Prof. Zhang was the recipient of the prestigious ARC Australian Research Fellowship, Future Fellowship and Monash Larkins Fellowship.