Dr. ir. Mijndert van der Spek
Associate Professor - Associate Director of Technology and System Assessment
School of Engineering & Physical Sciences, Institute of Mechanical, Process & Energy Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, UK
Biography
Mijndert van der Spek joined the RCCS in July 2019. He trained as an energy systems engineer and policy analyst at Delft University of Technology where he completed his MSc in 2009. After that, he joined Royal Dutch Shell in the Netherlands, working first in the supply chain optimization team of Shell Chemicals Europe and after as process technologist at the polyols plant of Shell Pernis Refinery. He, subsequently, pursued his PhD studies at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development of Utrecht University, supervised by Andrea Ramirez and André Faaij. His PhD research focused on techno-economic and environmental analysis of CCS and CCU technologies. Afterwards, he worked as postdoctoral researcher with Marco Mazzotti at the Separation Processes Laboratory of ETH Zürich, on CCS process design as well as CCUS system analysis.
Mijndert’s research focuses on developing advanced methods and tools to assess the merits of climate change mitigation technologies and systems. This includes CO2 capture and storage, CO2 utilisation, direct air CO2 capture, and ocean alkalinity enhancement. His team takes a multi-scale and interdisciplinary approach, combining frontier experimental and modelling approaches to understand the vast complexities of the climate change mitigation technologies studied. From the molecular to the whole systems level, and including mathematical and process modelling and, truly prospective techno-economic-environmental assessment and uncertainty analysis.
Mijndert is driven by improving the ways we undertake such assessments, aiming to make them most useful to policy and decisionmakers in government and industry. Mijndert is an editor for Frontiers in Climate, the vice-chair of the EU funded Transmit network, and lead developer for the first university-led online course on carbon dioxide removal.
Roles & Responsibilities
RCCS Associate Director of Technology and Systems Assessment
Course leader Carbon Removal from a Systems Perspective
Editor, Frontiers in Climate
Continuous Professional Development director, HWU School of Engineering & Physical Sciences
Research interests
Direct air capture (DAC), CO2 capture, utilisation, and Storage (CCUS), mathematical & process modelling, systems analysis, techno-economic analysis (TEA), life cycle assessment (LCA).