First EAGE Workshop on Hydrogen and Carbon Capture Sequestration in Latin America
5-6 October 2023
MEET OUR KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Eugene Holubnyak
University of Wyoming.
He has recently joined University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources as a Director of Hydrogen Energy Research Center. He previously served over a decade as a CCUS program lead at Kansas Geological Survey and spent five years working on the Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership at EERC. He has been a Principal Investigator on over $50M of the Department of Energy and other sponsored research and development projects on CCUS, Hydrogen, and critical minerals.
Eugene has served on multiple professional committees, including KS Induced Seismicity Task Force, State Carbon Capture Work Group, Regional Carbon Capture Deployment Initiative. Until recently, he has organized and led the KS CCUS Task Force and represented Kansas at CO2 Transport Infrastructure MOU. Today, Eugene is a Program Chair for Society of Petroleum Engineers Hydrogen Technical Section. He also regularly provides training and seminars for the Climate Tech and Carbon Capture & Storage Industry.
Eugene is also interested in space exploration and developments in Advanced Life Support Systems for space settlements. He is continuing research and publication activities in this area.
Juan F. Arminio Recalde
U3 EXPLORE.
Juan graduated as Geological Engineer from Universidad de Oriente, Venezuela in 1981, he holds a Diploma in Geology and MSc in Basin Evolution and Dynamics from Royal Holloway University of London, 1992 and a Diploma in Integrated Reservoir Management at IFP, Paris. His career has focused on Geoscience: Production geology, Exploration geology and Re-exploration with Maraven-Pdvsa and New Business Development, Regional Exploration and Exploration Intelligence with PDVSA; more recently, Exploration Project Manager at Pacific Stratus and Pacific Energy, exploring in Colombia, Peru and Guatemala, and New Stratus Energy in Ecuador. With U3 Explore of Houston, Texas is active in Energy Transition-related initiatives, with emphasis in subsurface modelling and monitoring applied to Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). He is also Aggregate Professor at Universidad Simon Bolivar, Venezuela, teaching post-grad Geoscience courses since 2003.
Ebrahim Takolia
Green Hydrogen Solutions.
Ebrahim has over 25 years of leadership experience across multiple energy and technology sectors. He is an experienced leader focused on business development; corporate finance; corporate governance; strategy development; mergers and acquisitions; full lifecycle project development; capital raising; and developing long term growth opportunities that add value to shareholders and stakeholders. Ebrahim recently founded Green Hydrogen Solutions a company focused on the primary driver of green hydrogen, being electrons. He focuses on harvesting the least-cost green electrons using Big Data and ArtificialIntelligence. Ebrahim uses proven electrolyzer technologies and suppliers, sourcing the most reliable equipment tailored to their solutions. Ebrahim and Green Hydrogen Solutions are working with JRG Energy.
Hassan Dehghanpour
University of Alberta.
Hassan Dehghanpour is a professor and Senior Engineering Research Chair in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alberta. His primary research interests include measurement and modeling transport phenomena in subsurface formations for applications such as hydraulic fracturing, enhanced oil recovery, and energy storage. He is currently leading a major research program on Hydrogen Storage in Alberta’s Salt Caverns supported by Alberta Innovates’ Hydrogen Center of Excellence. Hassan has authored more than 150 refereed-journal and conference papers in this area. He is the recipient of the Canadian Region 2014 SPE Young Member Outstanding Service Award, and the 2015 SPE Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty. He received the 2020 UofA Faculty of Engineering Mid-career Research Award, and was selected as a SPE Distinguished Lecturer for the 2019-20 season. He has served on the program committee of several SPE conferences, and is currently associate editor of SPE Journal, and the Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering. Hassan holds a PhD degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
Juan Higuera
Climate Investment.
Juan has over 15 years of experience in energy, infrastructure and finance. Juan joined Climate Investment as an Investment Principal in 2021 focusing on investments in energy transition and decarbonization infrastructure. Prior to joining Climate Investment, Juan was a Vice President at Macquarie Group where he focused on principal investments in North America and LatAm in the energy and infrastructure space. Previously, he was a Vice President of investment banking at J.P. Morgan covering clients in the energy industry in North America, Europe and the Middle East advising on M&A and capital markets transactions. Juan started his career at Power Costs, Inc. providing consulting services to clients in the power sector. Juan holds an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin, an MS in Industrial Engineering from The University of Oklahoma, and a BS in Industrial Engineering from Universidad Industrial de Santander.
Yucel Akkutlu
Texas A&M University
Dr. I. Yucel Akkutlu is Petroleum Engineering Professor and William Keeler faculty fellow at Texas A&M University in College Station. He is the holder of the John Edgar Holt ’27 Chair. He is a chemical engineer and received Ph.D. in petroleum engineering from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He has written more than 150 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings, six book chapters, and has four patents. He has received over $6 million in external research funding from various sources such as the Department of Energy and unconventional oil and gas industry. Dr. Akkutlu is a distinguished member of the SPE since 2018. He was SPE distinguished lecturer 2014-15. He received the SPE Lester C. Uren Award for distinguished achievement in the technology of petroleum engineering in 2020 for his contributions to petroleum engineering before the age of 45. He was executive editor of the SPE Journal 2013-2016. He has received 2021 Texas A&M College of EngineeringFaculty Excellence award, and 2015 AIME Rossiter W. Raymond memorial award.
Yosmel Sanchez
Fugro
Yosmel Sanchez is an engineer and licensed professional geoscientist with more than15 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. His areas of expertise include drilling operations, geophysical applications, and geohazard assessments for drilling and development. Yosmel joined Fugro in 2014 where he holds a Technical Advisor position and is leading the company solutions to support carbon capture and storage in the Americas Region. He is actively working on baseline site characterization and in the adoption of existing and emerging technologies for monitoring, measurement, and verification of geologic CO2 storage sites. Dr. Sanchez is also interested in developing a novel geophysical solution to support site characterization for offshore wind farms. Yosmel has published several articles addressing the mechanisms of enhanced carbon sequestration during the early Aptian. He holds an Engineering and a Specialist degree in Drilling and Production, a Ph.D. in Geosciences, and a Certificate in Sustainable Finance and Investment.
Victor Salazar
CMG
Victor Salazar is a petroleum engineer with a M.Sc in petroleum engineering from Unicamp and MBA from Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, has over 29 years of experience in the petroleum industry with emphasis in numerical reservoir simulation, he is currently the Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean for Computer Modelling Group
Alvaro Perez
AFRY
He graduated from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid with a Energy Engineering Degree. He also graduated from ICAI with a Master’s Degree in the Electric Power Industry and fromUniversity Carlos III with a Master’s Degree in RenewableEnergy in Electric Systems. Álvaro joined AFRY Management Consulting in August 2019. He previously worked for two years and a half in the Spanish and Portuguese Nominated Electricity Market Operator (OMIE), where he was involved in the operation of the Day-Ahead and Intraday Iberian Electricity Markets as well as in the Iberian Gas Market (MIBGAS).
As Consultant in AFRY, Álvaro has worked on a different range of projects, for instance, modelling projects as well as dispute work. He participated in Gas dispute in Algeria.
Alejandro Perez
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
Dr. Pérez’s research line (Materials for the development of catalysts and structured systems for energy and environmental applications) presents highly innovative contributions to relevant scientific fields such as materials science, heterogeneous catalysis, water treatment, nanotechnology, clean hydrogen production and valorization of clays as catalysts. These contributions can be classified in five hot topics closely related with the fields cited above: Design of catalytic materials for the clean hydrogen production; Materials for the development of catalysts and structured systems for energy and environmental applications; laminar structures for environmental treatments; materials for water treatment; nanotechnology to improve asphalt mixes.
Frank Dinter
Fraunhofer Chile
Professor Dr. Frank Dinter wrote his Master's thesis at the Plataforma Solar de Almería, Spain, in 1986/87. In 1992 he received his doctorate in thermal energy storage systems for concentrated solar power plants, CSP. He worked for the German company RWE, where he led different teams. Among them he was the research and development leader for the optimization of fossil fuel-fired power plants.
In 2008 he joined Solar Energy as Head of Solar Energy at RWE Innogy, Germany. From 2013 to 2017 he was Director in the Eskom Chair in CSP and led the Solar Thermal Energy Research Group (STERG) at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. In July 2017 he became Director of the Center for Solar Energy Technologies of Fraunhofer Chile Research (FCR-CSET) and since 2018 he is the Executive Director of Fraunhofer Chile.
Dr. Dinter is a founding member and since 2022 President of the Association of Concentrated Solar Power, ACSP, in Chile and also Principal Investigator at Solar Energy Research Center, SERC, Chile.