Mijndert van der Spek joined Heriot Watt University in July 2019. He is 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 pursued his PhD studies at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, where his research focused on techno-economic and environmental analysis of CCS and CCU technologies, under the supervision of Andrea Ramirez and André Faaij. Subsequently, he worked as postdoctoral researcher at the Separation Processes Laboratory of ETH Zürich with Marco Mazzotti, on CCS process design as well as CCUS system analysis.

Mijndert’s research focuses on developing the methods and tools to assess the strengths and weaknesses of prospective climate change mitigation technologies. This includes CO₂ capture and storage, CO₂ utilisation, and greenhouse gas removal using solid sorbent based direct air capture, DAC. His work includes i) process modelling, design and integration (e.g. of CO₂ capture plants with CO₂ host plants), ii) techno-economic-environmental assessment, with special focus on net-zero-CO₂ systems, and iii) advanced uncertainty analysis, e.g. by combining quantitative with qualitative uncertainty analysis methods. He is driven by improving the ways we undertake such assessments, to make them most useable and relevant to policy and decisionmakers (both government and industry).

Lecturer for B49CG: Process Design B

Supervisor for B41FC: MEng Research Project C