IChemE Mini Conference - 'Towards sustainable production: the scaling up challenge'

Rob Peeling is a Chartered Chemical Engineer with 40 years experience. He has held roles in Research and Development, Process Design, Plant Operations and Process Safety across  titanium pigments, catalysts, fine chemicals and platinum group metals refining.  Since 2016 he has been delivering process understanding training and facilitation services to clients for Britest Ltd. where he is the Technical Services Director. Britest helps people across  a range of process industry sectors including pharmaceuticals, catalyst manufacture, contract chemicals and food processing. Britest also engages in government funded industry/academic collaborations which in recent years have focussed on sustainable, circular processing. Rob is Chair of IChemE Congress and Treasurer of the Pharmaceuticals Special Interest Group.

Co-founder and lead advisor at HancockHamlin, a freelance research, facilitation, education and coaching company that helps people and organisations operate effectively in complex and emergent environments. With a particular emphasis on digitalisation and sustainability, HancockHamlin’s aspiration is on realising the potential of technology and engineering to enable the transition to a just and sustainable future for all. Chris’s career started in manufacturing, progressed through global technical and business consultancy to recent leadership and incubation of critical capabilities in digital start-ups. Chris is a Fellow of the IChemE, recently chaired the ChemEng Evolution Futures panel, and is vice-chair of the PMCSIG. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and sits on the Regional Talent Engine and Sainsbury Management Fellowship Steering Groups, and chairs the RTE activity in the North-East. He is a qualified Co-Active coach with a passion for helping technical and scientific leaders to expand their awareness and consideration to secure the fulfilment that they work so hard to try to achieve.

James Winterburn is a Reader in Chemical Engineering at The University of Manchester, where he is involved in both teaching and research and is the academic lead for Business Engagement and Innovation within the School of Engineering.  James is also Co-Founder of Holiferm, spun out from the Winterburn Group in 2018, who are commercialising biosurfactant production technology. His main research interest is in the development of efficient manufacturing methods for bio-based products, via a bioprocessing and biochemical engineering route.

Dr Anna Parsons (Process Engineering Associate Director) joined AstraZeneca in 2000 and has followed a career as a process engineer within drug substance development. Anna currently manages one of the Chemical Development process engineering teams, collaborating to define ways of working for process engineers to support drug projects to deliver robust, sustainable processes.

Anna has a passion for sustainability and has been instrumental in the development of waste stream assessment approaches and the implementation of technologies for solvent recovery with the work up team. This approach has Identified opportunities to improve the PMI (Process Mass Intensity) on AZ projects and will form a key part of sustainability strategy for projects.

Andy lectures in the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham.  His teaching responsibilities including coordinating the third-year Design Project and the second-year module, Sustainable Process Engineering.

His research focus is on developing fundamental understanding and predictive capability of powder handling and fluid processes across a range of industries including food and secondary pharma.  The general aim of this work is to improve manufacturing and product performance with an underpinning theme of increased efficiency and the sustainability gains that come with that.

Before joining the University, Andy worked for Courtaulds in Research and Process Development.  Among other roles, he was part of the team developing and scaling up the manufacturing process for the now very successful and environmentally lauded cellulosic fibre Tencel (Lyocell).