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Adjunct Professor Greg Perkins

Adjunct Professor

School of Chemical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
g.perkins@uq.edu.au

Overview

Dr. Perkins has a diverse background in developing and commercialising technologies in the areas of renewable energy, oil and gas production and refining/petrochemicals. His research interests include the development of waste and biomass gasification, hydrogen production, the processing of lignocellulosic materials to produce biofuels and sustainable aviation fuels and the application of new carbon negative technologies. He is also interested in technology strategy and commercialisation.

Dr. Perkins has expertise and experience in technology development from fundamental and applied research, through concept design to commissioning and operations of large scale plants. He applies laboratory and pilot plant testing, modelling (process, computational fluid dynamic, reservoir) and techno-economic analyses to guide the development and scale-up of new technology concepts.

Dr. Perkins has degrees in Science and Mechanical Engineering from Monash University, Melbourne, a PhD in modeling of gasification from the University of New South Wales, Sydney and an Executive MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles/National University of Singapore.

Dr. Perkins is the co-founder of Wildfire Energy and an inventor/co-inventor on over 14 separate patent families. Dr. Perkins has previously worked for a range of multi-national corporations including ABB, Rio Tinto and Shell International and several entrepreneurial organisations, mostly in research and technology development, design and production roles across Europe, Australia, Asia and North America.

Research Interests

  • Techno-economic analysis
    Application of techno-economic analyses to optimise energy technologies and energy systems
  • Gasification & Hydrogen
    Conversion of carbonaceous materials, such as wastes, biomass and coal into synthesis gas and hydrogen using gasification.
  • Modelling
    Application of process, computational fluid dynamic and reservoir modelling to optimise the design of energy systems.
  • Energy transition
    Investigating how we may transition to a sustainable energy system with predominately renewable energy sources. Optimisation of transition pathways and consideration of managing the social, environmental and economic trilemma.
  • Biofuels
    Conversion of wastes and biomass into renewable fuels via pyrolysis, liquefaction and gasification and catalytic synthesis.

Research Impacts

The risks of climate change and the development of intermittent renewables such as wind and solar is leading to the transformation of the energy sector, which will continue for decades to come. Together with electric vehicles, renewables are catalysing major changes in how society generates and consumes energy. Dr. Perkins works on developing improved technologies within the energy sector to increase functionality and to reduce costs and environmental impacts. His research focus is largely on optimisation of future energy systems to better utilise waste feedstocks such as municipal solid waste and biomass, on the integration of intermittent renewables and the production and use of hydrogen at distributed scale.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering, Monash University
  • Bachelor of Science, Monash University
  • Master of Business Administration, National University of Singapore
  • Doctor of Philosophy, University of New South Wales

Publications

  • Book Chapter: Advances in liquefaction for the production of hydrocarbon biofuels

    Fraga, Gabriel, Batalha, Nuno, Kumar, Adarsh, Bhaskar, Thallada, Konarova, Muxina and Perkins, Greg (2022). Advances in liquefaction for the production of hydrocarbon biofuels. Hydrocarbon biorefinery: sustainable processing of biomass for hydrocarbon biofuels. (pp. 127-176) edited by Sunil K. Maity, Kalyan Gayen and Tridib Kumar Bhowmick. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/b978-0-12-823306-1.00009-1

  • Book Chapter: Fischer-Tropsch synthesis to hydrocarbon biofuels: present status and challenges involved

    Konarova, Muxina, Aslam, Waqas and Perkins, Greg (2022). Fischer-Tropsch synthesis to hydrocarbon biofuels: present status and challenges involved. Hydrocarbon biorefinery: sustainable processing of biomass for hydrocarbon biofuels. (pp. 77-96) edited by Sunil K. Maity, Kalyan Gayen and Tridib Kumar Bhowmick. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-823306-1.00006-6

  • Journal Article: What does the success of Tesla mean for the future dynamics in the global automobile sector?

    Perkins, Greg and Murmann, Johann Peter (2018). What does the success of Tesla mean for the future dynamics in the global automobile sector?. Management and Organization Review, 14 (3), 471-480. doi: 10.1017/mor.2018.31

View all Publications

Supervision

  • Development of catalytic systems for the conversion of mixed solid waste

    Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Publications

Featured Publications

Book Chapter

  • Advances in liquefaction for the production of hydrocarbon biofuels

    Fraga, Gabriel, Batalha, Nuno, Kumar, Adarsh, Bhaskar, Thallada, Konarova, Muxina and Perkins, Greg (2022). Advances in liquefaction for the production of hydrocarbon biofuels. Hydrocarbon biorefinery: sustainable processing of biomass for hydrocarbon biofuels. (pp. 127-176) edited by Sunil K. Maity, Kalyan Gayen and Tridib Kumar Bhowmick. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/b978-0-12-823306-1.00009-1

  • Fischer-Tropsch synthesis to hydrocarbon biofuels: present status and challenges involved

    Konarova, Muxina, Aslam, Waqas and Perkins, Greg (2022). Fischer-Tropsch synthesis to hydrocarbon biofuels: present status and challenges involved. Hydrocarbon biorefinery: sustainable processing of biomass for hydrocarbon biofuels. (pp. 77-96) edited by Sunil K. Maity, Kalyan Gayen and Tridib Kumar Bhowmick. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-823306-1.00006-6

  • Production of electricity and chemicals using gasification of municipal solid wastes

    Perkins, Greg (2020). Production of electricity and chemicals using gasification of municipal solid wastes. Waste Biorefinery: Integrating Biorefineries for Waste Valorisation. (pp. 3-39) edited by Bhaskar, T, Pandey, A, Rene, ER and Tsang, DCW. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-818228-4.00001-0

Journal Article

Conference Publication

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

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Links

ORCID: 0000-0002-3157-1792

Scopus ID: 56204317600

Google Scholar ID: _lzfjnQAAAAJ

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