Professor Agustin Valera Medina
Professor of Thermofluids and Combustion Dynamics, University of Cardiff
Interests:
Ammonia combustion processes, engines, gas turbines, furnaces, boilers, heat pumps, refrigeration, cycles, materials, combustion physics, plasmas, health and safety regulations.
Biography:
Agustin is Co-Director of the Net Zero Innovation Institute at the University of Cardiff, and leading academic in the field of NH3 combustion fundamentals, covering NH3 combustion in both gas turbines and IC engines.
His research interests include alternative fuels, hydrodynamics, flame stabilization, fuel injection, heat transfer and combustion technologies, including the use of ammonia fuel to power turbines, furnaces and Internal Combustion Engines. He has led 30 industrial projects with multi-nationals including GE, PEMEX, Rolls-Royce, Siemens, Alstom, Ricardo and EON, attracting almost £10m in research to Cardiff.
During 2015-2018 Agustin led Cardiff's contribution to the Innovate-UK 'Decoupled Green Energy' Project, led by Siemens and in partnership with STFC and the University of Oxford, which aims to demonstrate the use of green ammonia produced from wind energy. He currently chairs the Ammonia Energy Association’s Combustion and Emissions Working Group.
His PhD is in Mechanical Engineering, on ‘Studies in Flashback, Stability, Structural Analysis and Combustion of Alternative Fuels in Gas Turbines for Emissions Reduction’. He also has an MSc in Geoenvironmental Engineering, and a BEng in Mechanical Engineering in ‘Thermo-energy and Environmental Improvement’. He is also the main author of Techno-economic challenges of green ammonia as an energy vector.