Argus Biofuels Conference

Kevin Struve oversees the methanol business group for OCI, where he has worked for more than 30 years. OCI is one of the world’s largest methanol producers, with 3 million tonnes of production capacity located in the USA and the Netherlands. Struve has led the company’s effort to increase the production of bio-methanol, which qualifies as a second-generation advanced biofuel in Europe. He also serves as chairman of the Methanol Institute, a global trade association for the methanol industry. Read less

Pietro is Director of Biofuels at Ministry of Mines and Energy that is responsible for National Biofuels Policy (RenovaBio). In National Agency of Oil, Gas, and Biofuels (ANP), he was advisor of the Director General and Deputy Manager of Quality and Biofuels. He was a postdoctoral scholar at the Beddie School of Business at Simon Fraser University (SFU). Mendes holds a PhD in Chemical Technology and Biochemical Processes from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Read less

Sean Newsum is Director of Environmental and Geopolitical Strategy at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. In this role, he leads a team that addresses key industry-wide environmental issues, including aircraft emissions and community noise reduction, biofuel development, and other opportunities to enhance commercial aviation’s environmental performance. He is also responsible for developing an integrated strategy to ensure that products and services are aligned with the company’s environmental objectives. This involves representing Boeing with key industry bodies, including the Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection and as a member of the Air Transport Action Group board of directors. Read less

Kona Haque joined ED&F Man in May 2014 as Group Head of Research, responsible for the company’s commodity and macro-economic research team (including Volcafe coffee, Man Sugar, and grains). She joined from Macquarie Bank where she was responsible for agriculture and soft commodities research for 7 years. Previously, Kona spent 4 years as Senior Commodities Editor at the Economist Group. She has also worked for a shipping consultancy as Director of Bulk Commodities and spent 4 years at Metal Bulletin Research, specialising in base metals. Other experience includes working as an Economist for a grains market information provider and with the United Nations in Rome, Italy. Kona has an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and a BSc in Agricultural Economics from Reading University. Read less

Anders joined Swedish forestry firm SCA in 2011 and is responsible for developing the biorefinery business. His biofuels journey in started 2006 in the ethanol business, before he switched focus to the biodiesel industry, where his work focused on compliance with the Renewable Energy Directive and national legislation. At SCA, Anders studies biofuel and biochemicals markets, policy, global and regional trends, new technologies, and how the forestry industry can work with others to replace fossil fuel-fired power with bio-based products. In addition to heading two commercial advanced biofuel projects, he also works in fuel technology development, including a pilot process designed to convert lignin into advanced biofuels such as renewable naphtha, diesel and jet fuel. Read less

Angel Alvarez Alberdi has been Secretary General of European waste-to-advanced biofuels association EWABA since its creation in 2013. EWABA is a Brussels-based trade association defending the interests of waste-based biofuel producers using feedstocks such as used cooking oil (UCO), tallow and other wastes to produce sustainable biofuels with greenhouse gas savings ranking among the highest available on the market. Angel has been working in EU government and institutional affairs in Brussels for the past decade, with a particular focus on energy matters and on EU legislative procedures. He started his career in Brussels with a stint at the European Commission’s Secretariat General, then worked for an international public affairs consultancy, the trade association European Biodiesel Board and a global law firm. A lawyer by training, Angel has an MA in European interdisciplinary studies with a major in EU governance from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. Read less

Elmar has worked for VDB since 2007, and is now focused on transposing the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive II (RED II) and the reshaping of German energy and climate policy. In his current role, he lobbies for the Germany’s biodiesel industry, which has the highest output in Europe, representing members in Berlin and Brussels. Elmar has a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology engineering and a master’s in industrial engineering, and has completed advanced training in investment and financing, logistics and innovation management. Read less

Emmanuel leads the ePURE team, which he first joined in 2013 as Director of Government Affairs responsible for energy and environmental affairs. Before coming to ePURE, Emmanuel was Senior Manager for Public Affairs with Novozymes. His career in public affairs and advocacy also includes positions with UNICA, the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association, and the Industrial Ethanol Association. He holds a Master's Degree from the Institute of Political Studies of Bordeaux and an LL.M in European Law from the University Carlos III of Madrid. A French citizen, Emmanuel also speaks English and Spanish. Read less

As Head of Policy for Plastic Energy, Cloe leads the work on EU and national regulations associated with chemical recycling, plastic recycling, and circular economy. She is also heavily involved with the communication side of the business. Prior to Plastic Energy, Cloe was a researcher in European political and policy environment for Eurasia Group. Cloe holds an MPhil degree in European politics from the University of Oxford and a BA in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. Read less

Laura joined clean transport campaign group Transport and Environment (T&E) in April 2013 after working for two years as a parliamentary assistant in the European Parliament. Laura manages T&E’s energy campaigns and focuses on making European fuels policy more sustainable, moving away from oil towards alternatives such as renewable electricity, and phasing out support for land-based biofuels. She has worked extensively on campaigns around the Renewable Energy Directive and the Fuel Quality Directive, as well as the EU-delegated act that labelled palm oil diesel unsustainable. During her time in parliament, Laura worked on different files being discussed by the environment committee, with a focus on biodiversity, and closely followed the work of the petitions committee. Laura hails from the east of France and studied public administration at the Institute of Political Studies in Strasbourg, followed by environmental law at the University of Strasbourg. Read less

Jan Henke has studied International Economics at the University of Tübingen in Germany. He has worked for four years at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in the research area of environmental and resource economics. During that time he also acquired his PhD from the University of Potsdam in Germany. After that he joined Meo Carbon Solutions, a management consultancy focussing on sustainability, climate change and renewable resources. While working with Meo, Jan was involved from the beginning in the development of GRAS Global Risk Assessment Services and ISCC (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification). Jan is working on topics of renewable resources, recycling, sustainability, renewable energies, climate change, land use and land use change, GHG calculations and certification. The regional focus of Jan’s work is Europe, the Americas and South East Asia. Read less

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Rachel has been head of low-carbon fuels at the UK Department of Transport since 2018. Before this, her career covered various aspects of energy and environment policy, including leading Whitehall work on the UK Climate Change Act and Feed-in Tariffs scheme, and a year as interim managing director of a thinktank. Read less

James Standage is a Biodiesel Physical Broker at London-based energy brokerage OTC Europe. James joined the company in 2014, bringing the team he had established in his previous role at Oil Brokerage, specialising in swaps and physical products. James joined Oil Brokerage in 2008, after three years at HBI in Paris, where he sold market reports, brokered castor oil derivatives and started in an emergent biodiesel market. James graduated from St Andrews University in Scotland in 2005. Read less

Panu Routasalo is Vice-President at UPM Biofuels, which offers customers in the transport and petrochemical industries ways to replace fossil fuels with renewable and sustainable alternatives. He has more than 10 years of experience in the oil and biofuels industries, including commercial and technical roles, and was previously Director of Sales & Product Management for UPM BioVerno. Read less

Chris Judge is Vice-President for Products at the Argus head office in London. He is responsible for the development of market-appropriate price assessments, methodologies and editorial training and development. Chris was previously editor of the daily European Products report, which publishes price assessments used in physical and derivative indexation for the European gasoline markets, among others. Chris graduated in English literature at the University of Kent. Before joining Argus, Chris worked for other media organisations, including energy price reporting service Platts, where he headed up the European products team in London, before moving to New York to manage the coverage of US markets. Read less

Colin has worked and traded for 15 years in oil and renewable fuels, including for Chevron and Greenergy. He has pioneered many sustainable waste feedstock supply chains, including one of the first ISCC certificates for used cooking oil (UCO) in China and the first bulk exports of UCO from the Middle East. Colin has also worked on numerous renewable storage developments — most recently development of a bio feedstock terminal, later sold to Neste. A UCO specialist, he appreciates the complexities of supplying, trading, storing and refining this waste commodity, the need for good sustainability processes and the requirements of REDII policy. In July, Colin founded Focus Renewables, which provides bespoke consultancy services on sustainable waste feedstocks and renewable fuels. Read less

Caroline Midgley PhD is director of oleochemicals and biofuels research at LMC International, a firm that provides economic, marketing, and consulting services for a broad range of industries related to agricultural commodities and their downstream derivatives. She is based in Oxford and her work — which is supported by LMC’s oilseeds, grains, sugar and starch teams — includes investment appraisals for new plants, assessing the impact of domestic policy changes, analysis of agricultural raw material and by-product markets, and analysis of the impact of technological developments. Read less

Kees began his commodities career in 1997 as a grains trader for the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe at two major Rotterdam-based agricultural trading houses. In 2006, he became involved with biofuels trading and, in 2008, he launched his own business, providing interim management at an integrated rapeseed crush/RME production plant in the Netherlands. He then began brokering biodiesel and later founded the biofuels desk at TFS London, moving into derivatives. Since October 2012, he has run his own business in Rotterdam, brokering biodiesel, biodiesel feedstock, and by-products at Global Bio Broker. Kees has an MA in economics from the Amsterdam Free University. Read less

Prior to joining Argus, Josefine spent nine years with Shell Downstream in the strategy, marketing and sales departments. She has a master’s degree in economics from Lund University, Sweden, and is now Vice-President at Argus leading Business Development in Europe. Read less

Alberto started working at telecommunications company Abengoa in 1999. He has a background in financial and trading commodities, promoting and financing renewable energy projects in Europe, the US and the South Americas. Alberto has also professionally traded ethanol and related commodities across Europe, the US and Brazil since 2005. He has led global trading operations over the last 12 years. Alberto graduated from the University of Seville in Spain and the University of Paderborn in Germany with a bachelor in economics and business administration and an executive MBA from the Institute San Telmo. Read less

Charles is a Senior Manager in Argus Media’s consulting practice in London. Charles specialises in providing market due diligence analysis in the bio and fossil fuel industries, helping clients to plan investment, acquisition and market entry strategy. Over the past five years, Argus has advised oil majors, national oil companies, fuels wholesalers, feedstock providers and national governments, on the development and outlook for the biofuels industry globally. Beginning in the energy strategy practice at Accenture, Charles spent seven years managing client engagements in biofuels and bio-based specialty chemicals. Prior to joining Argus Media, he worked for the UK government as Head of Foresight, on long-term policy making in the energy and transportation sectors. Read less

An economist by training, Stephen works with government bodies, civil society, industry and companies to drive RSB’s impact around the globe. With more than 20 years’ experience in sustainability and a career spanning four continents and environmental sectors, he brings unique perspectives and skills garnered from various roles and leadership positions. Stephen has a track record in merging sustainability and business development to drive success. Read less

Dickon has been working in the biodiesel industry since 2004. Initially the Development Director for Argent Energy in the UK, he has managed the marketing for Argent and is now focused on advocacy and the relevant legislative and regulatory instruments that affect biodiesel markets in Europe and around the world. Argent specialises in the production of waste-based biodiesel and has recently constructed a second plant in the UK able to handle very low-grade waste feedstocks. Dickon was involved in setting up the supply chain for high blends of waste-based biodiesel into London buses, works closely with the UK’s Department of Transport on policy and is Vice-President of the European Biodiesel Board, where he has chaired the Advanced Biodiesel sector group for a number of years. Read less

Nuno has been CEO at Hardlevel since 2018. Hardlevel is a leading company on used cooking oil (UCO) collection and its pre-treatment for use as biofuel feedstock. For the past year, Nuno has also led several research and development projects, as well as the development of a method to characterise UCO. Before this, Nuno worked for more than 11 years in biofuel production as Chief Operating Officer at PRIO — one of the top European UCO based biodiesel producers. Nuno has a PhD in chemical engineering from IST – University of Lisbon — and has completed advanced training in management at Catolica Porto Business School. Read less

Sonja joined Longitude, a Financial Times group company, in 2018 to expand its thought leadership regarding energy and industry. She has more than 10 years’ experience as an editor in news and business-to-business publishing and has worked as a correspondent covering European energy markets. Read less

John Houghton-Brown is an editor at independent media organisation Argus Media, writing about global biofuels market trading and the wider theme of renewables in transport. He is responsible for the daily publication of the Argus Biofuels report. Read less

Gileade Borges is the founder of Treefex, a biofuel brokering firm focused on physical trades of ethanol and other bio commodities. Before founding his own company Gileade worked for commodities trading firm Vitol on the biofuel and crude desk. Prior to that he worked for Spain’s Abengoa on the ethanol trading desk for more than seven years. Gileade has a master’s degree in business administration from Erasmus University, Rotterdam. Read less

Alessandro Schiavone is the supply and portfolio manager of biofuels at Eni. Aside from 10 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, he has held a variety of roles in the supply chain, from refineries optimisation to the trade of oil products. Schiavone holds an MS and BE in mechanical engineering, an MBA in business administration and has completed post-university education in trading, shipping and quantitative finance. Read less

Octavio Lelis Carvalho is a technologist for the Clean Fuels and Bio Technology Group of Axens. Octavio has been deeply involved in Axens’ Hydroprocessing Technology of Renewable Lipids since 2014, first as Process Engineer Referent of the technology, and nowadays as Technologist. Octavio started his career in Axens in 2010 as a Process Engineer, where he could participate in various refining and petrochemical projects. He holds a double degree of Chemical Engineering from the University of Sao Paulo, as well as a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering and Refining from the IFP School in France. Read less

Alice is the Executive Assistant to the CEO of Essar Oil. Alice has nine years of experience in the Oil and Gas Industry and has worked in Essar’s Economics and Strategic Planning team at the Stanlow Refinery team and was a Process Engineer for refining units, including the catalytic cracker and oil movements. Alice has been involved with the refinery’s bio-fuel strategy since she joined in 2013 in both a technical and economics capacity. Read less

John Kirkpatrick is one of two chief investigators in the Trade Remedies Investigations Directorate of the Department of International Trade. He is responsible for the teams developing operational policy and guidance and preparing for trade remedies casework. Much of his career has been spent in the UK’s competition authorities, but he has also led strategy, policy, finance and operational functions at the Audit Commission and in the departments of education and employment, and worked as a strategy consultant advising public and private sector clients. Read less

Dr Melanie Williams is an expert in sustainability and supply chain traceability. She has been an independent consultant for the past five years working with both companies producing biofuels and bio-based chemicals plus EU approved Voluntary Sustainability Schemes. Melanie started her career with BP. She spent ten years developing new processes for the chemicals and refining businesses. She led the work to develop and implement new BP processes for the production of both bulk chemical and speciality products. Melanie then worked for SERCO, leading the Environmental Measurements Group at the National Physical Laboratory in the UK for over seven years. The Group provided high quality, accredited, environmental monitoring and instrumentation certification services to government and industry customers worldwide. She has a MA in Natural Sciences and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge. Read less

Darrin joined SkyNRG in 2018 from the Boeing Company, were he was Director of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) for 12 years. At Boeing, he was one of the primary aviation industry architects of the emerging SAF industry and has been involved in, or founded, many of the significant aviation fuel efforts to date. Prior to this, he led the selection of new energy projects at Puget Energy. Read less

Barry Hedley is Chairman of and an investor in Nova Pangaea Technologies. He spent his early career at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which he joined in Boston after gaining an MBA from Harvard. He returned to England to help establish BCG’s London office in the early 1970s, and became a Director of the firm. He later founded international strategy consulting firm Braxton Associates, which was eventually sold to Deloitte Consulting and became its global strategy practice, with Barry remaining as its CEO. Barry has degrees in mechanical and chemical engineering from Cambridge University, has worked extensively in oil and chemicals and been involved in many private-equity ventures. Read less

Andy is the Chief Executive at Advanced Biofuel Solutions, an engineering services company specialising in advanced biofuel production. Andy previously worked in the telecoms sector in the UK and US. He has worked in the industry for more than 10 years, is an active participant in industry bodies and regular contributor to the trade press. Read less

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Keeley is responsible for biofuels and renewable fuels policy, including any future changes to the UK’s Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation. She has over 10 years’ experience working on biofuels policy and sustainability issues for the UK government. She has a background as an environmental scientist conducting research on the ecological impacts of motor vehicle pollution and air quality impacts of biomass combustion. Read less

Leonidas Kanonis is a deputy editor at independent media organisation Argus Media, assessing European biodiesel feedstocks and other biofuels prices and is writing for the daily publication of Argus’ biofuels report. Prior to this, he worked for the Office for Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) public body as a compliance manager for the UK’s Feed-in Tariffs (FiT) scheme and has been an energy analyst for the waste-to-energy and biomass markets at Visiongain business intelligence. He completed his degree in Environmental Economics from the University of York in the UK. Read less

Tom is the Commercial Development Manager for Biojet at Air BP. He oversees the sourcing and supply of sustainable aviation fuel. Tom joined BP as a research chemist, working on the development and scale-up of technologies, including BP’s Fischer-Tropsch process. He has since held business development and strategy roles in technology licensing, BP’s fuels businesses and in downstream commercial development, and led BP’s Advanced Bio Products team at its inception before joining Air BP in 2017. He has a master’s and D.Phil in chemistry from the University of Oxford. Read less

Fabien set up Greenea, a pioneering brokerage for waste-based feedstock and biofuels, in 2007. Greenea also offers consulting services and has carried out over 30 projects in the biofuels sector. Before establishing Greenea, Fabien was a clean technologies project manager at Czech firm CEZ, central Europe’s largest power company, where he had responsibility for e-mobility projects in the central and eastern European region. Before this, Fabien was at Boston Consulting, working in the renewable energy and biofuels sectors, analysing and researching second-generation biofuels, biomass markets, plantation business maps, and solar and wind power. Read less

Industry and policy analyst with Pannonia Bio. One of Europe’s largest and most innovative producers of bioethanol for the fuel sector, Pannonia Bio makes over 500 million litres of climate friendly fuel annually at its refinery in Hungary. The plant feedstock is maize, assuring well over a hundred million euros per year in income to the farm community and the same again in economic activity generated by the refinery. Pannonia’s ethanol yields 70% greenhouse gas savings compared to fossil oil with no adverse side effects and no cost to governments. It is the safest, most effective and scalable climate solution for the petrol sector. James Cogan qualified as an electronics engineer and later took an MBA. His professional interests span energy, nutrition, materials, construction and IT. Read less

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Robert has worked for BZK since 2012. He is responsible for the trading of bioethanol, biodiesel and derivatives, as well as coordination and determination of the commercial strategy for chemicals, oils, esters, ethanol and co-products. He previously worked for PKN Orlen as Director of the Biofuel Department. Read less

Felix Anyakudo is the R&D/chromatography manager at Bureau Verita Antwerpen’s oil and petrochemical division. He joined Inspectorate Antwerp NV in 2004, and the company was acquired by Bureau Veritas six years later. Anyakudo oversees projects relating to the expansion of laboratory capabilities, chiefly but not exclusively in the field of chromatography. He has extensive knowledge of biofuel analysis and has published several articles in peer review journals as first author along with Katholieke universiteit Leuven. Read less

Alexis joined Cargill in September 2014 as biodiesel trading manager. In 2016, he became biodiesel Managing Director. He built up his expertise on biodiesel at Total trading (TOTSA). He also has held various leader roles in petroleum trading at Total and in trade finance at BNP Paribas, successively in Paris, Moscow, and Geneva. He holds a degree in political science and government, international relations and public law, from Paris and Berlin universities. Read less