Meet your Organisers

Jonathan Lee is Professor of Carbon Capture in the School of Engineering at Newcastle University. His research interests are in particular: 

• Process Intensification - Rotating Packed Beds and their application to carbon capture processes. • Microalgae Biocomposites for CO2 capture and utilisation and treating contaminated water streams.

 • Biofuel and chemical production from algae • Micro algae harvesting 

Emily is a 3rd year PhD Student under the supervision of Professor Jonathan Lee, working on both experimental holdup measurements in a pilot scale 1m diameter RPB and computational modelling of fluid flows in RPBs. Emily is researching the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) as a novel computational method to overcome traditional challenges in simulating flows in RPBs.

Dr James Hendry pursued his Masters degree in Chemical Engineering from 2007 to 2012 at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. Following this, he continued his academic journey with a PhD in Chemical Engineering at Newcastle University between 2012 and 2017. 

Since 2017, he has been a research associate at Newcastle University, working on RPB technology specialising in carbon capture using RPBs. 

Dr Phil Chen joined Jonathan Lee's group in 2022, with a background in colloidal science. In 2024, he started working on Reuse, a European project that integrates CO₂ capture and reduction. Here in Newcastle, he and his colleagues are developing a novel rotating packed bed (RPB) system that uses immobilised enzymes to improve the reaction kinetics of CO₂ absorption by solvents.