Yesterday we hosted 65 people from over 30 businesses for the first PINZ Conference at Newcastle University!

The PINZ team, including our colleagues from University of York, delivered a series of talks and discussions about the Process Industries and how we are training our PhD students to be able to work towards making Net Zero a reality. We also heard directly from our students about their projects and what they hope to achieve over the next four years.

Our PINZ CDT Co-directors Professor Adam Harvey and Professor Helen Sneddon opened the day with a welcome talk, giving an insight in to the formation of the PINZ CDT and how the Process Intensification Group at Newcastle and the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence came together. This was followed by our special guest speaker, Jon Hetherington from NEPIC, who delivering an excellent session on the North East Process Sector and set the scene for an amazing day.

We also had sessions on the range of training opportunities that are provided for our students, and our approach and commitment to ensuring EDI best practice is followed throughout the student journey. Delegates heard directly from our first cohort of students, discussing their aims and hopes for the wide range of projects they are working on, and also took part in an interactive cocreation session, looking at the challenges facing the industry and how we can work together to make improvements for the future.

Thank you to everyone who attended this conference – we will be holding more events in the future so if you’d like to attend please follow our LinkedIn page for updates here.

Thanks to Biofuel Evolution, Huber Uk Temperature Control Ltd, Asynt and HORIBA UK LIMITED for joining us as exhibitors and making sure our Stephenson building foyer was buzzing throughout the day.

Join us on the 22nd January 2025 9.30am – 4pm for the first annual PINZ Conference.

The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Process Industries: Net Zero (PINZ CDT) is a collaboration between the Process Intensification Group at Newcastle University and the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence at the University of York. 

Focusing on three key research themes of Energy, Feedstocks and Data, we bring together diverse expertise from academia, industry, and beyond, to foster an environment of interdisciplinary synergy – where ideas flourish, and solutions are born.

This free event will bring together our current PINZ students, Newcastle University and University of York staff, our industry partners and esteemed guests. This will be an opportunity to learn more about the past, present and future of Process Industries and how we are supporting our students to become future leaders in this area. 

This conference will take place in the Stephenson Building at Newcastle University – our recently refurbished, state of the art engineering facility. The event will run from 9.30am – 4pm with opportunities to network after the event closes. There is also an option to take a tour of our engineering facilities – if you would like to take the tour, please select this option on the registration form. 

The deadline for registration is Wednesday 11th December 2024.

PINZ CDT Staff members and students attended the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Awards Dinner on the 24th October. This event celebrated Chemical Engineering in the North East region, and we were thrilled to be able to sponsor a table and speak to a lot of people about the PINZ CDT.

And that’s a wrap on the 2024 edition of the Process Intensification Network Meeting (hashtag#PIN30) which took place yesterday at Newcastle University. Just wanted to take the time to share my thoughts on how the day went:

We had a packed schedule covering a range of topics such as flow chemistry, reactor technologies, and bioresource utilisation from both industrial and academic perspectives. I am extremely grateful to all the speakers for taking the time to share their knowledge, which clearly resonated with the audience.

Speaking of which, this event would not work without the people attending – it’s in the name – Network! We had a total of 50 attendees yesterday from 17 organisations, with a 20-30 split between industrial and academic guests. Thank you all so much for giving up a day from your busy schedules to learn more about Process Intensification. It was great to see so many questions being asked after each talk, and it was fantastic to see lots of networking taking place during the breaks. I felt that I gained some new ideas myself from the presentations and many conversations that I had during the day.

I would like to specifically thank Amanda Lane and Angela McLaughlin for their administrative support; I don’t think the event would have ran as smoothly or as professionally without them! Obvious thanks to my fellow organiser Adam Harvey for helping to arrange speakers and booking the venue. Finally, thanks to PhD students Tom Carr and Henry Baker for organising a successful poster session – it was great to see PhD students showcasing their research to all of the guests.

Adam and I already have speakers lined up for the 2025 edition of the meeting! But until then, I now have nearly a year off of organising duties before it all starts again.

I hope to see you again next year!