Researcher biography
Dr. Perkins has a diverse background in developing and commercialising technologies in the areas of renewable energy, oil and gas production and refining/petrochemicals. His research interests include the development of waste and biomass gasification, hydrogen production, the processing of lignocellulosic materials to produce biofuels and the application of new carbon negative technologies. He is also interested in technology strategy and commercialisation.
Dr. Perkins has expertise and experience in technology development from fundamental and applied research, through concept design to commissioning and operations of large scale plants. He applies laboratory and pilot plant testing, modelling (process, computational fluid dynamic, reservoir) and techno-economic analyses to guide the development and scale-up of new technology concepts.
Dr. Perkins has degrees in Science and Mechanical Engineering from Monash University, Melbourne, a PhD in modeling of gasification from the University of New South Wales, Sydney and an Executive MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles/National University of Singapore.
Dr. Perkins is the co-founder of several start-up companies in the energy domain and an inventor/co-inventor on over 14 separate patent families. Dr. Perkins has previously worked for a range of multi-national corporations including ABB, Rio Tinto and Shell International and several entrepreneurial organisations, mostly in research and technology development, design and production roles across Europe, Australia, Asia and North America.