Following the successful contract renewal of the Above Ground Geothermal and Allied Technologies (AGGAT) programme with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), the AGGAT Team research leaders kicked off the new year with a meeting to discuss project plans.

The additional members in the group are primarily from the University of Auckland and bring a wealth of research engineering experience to the AGGAT programme. The names of the research leaders and their respective areas of research are given as below:

  • Dr. Boaz Habib is Senior Research Engineer at HERA and is leading the Research Aim 1-1 on Expert Design Tool Development and Research and Aim 2-1 on Standardised Technology Concepts
  • Dr. Michail Karpenko is Welding Centre Manager at HERA and is leading the Research Aim 1-2 on Materials Research
  • Dr. Sadiq Zarrouk is Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland and also coordinates the Postgraduate course in Geothermal Engineering and is leading the Research Aim 1-3 on Geothermal Scaling, Corrosion and its Mitigation
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AGGAT team meeting with team leaders from left: University of Auckland Senior Lecturer Sadiq Zarrouk, HERA's General Manager Welding Centre Dr Michail Karpenko, Research Engineer Holger Heinzel, Director Dr Wolfgang Scholz, University of Auckland Student Ben Taylor, HERA's Senior Research Engineer Dr Boaz Habib, General Manager Industry Development Nick Inskip, Research Engineer Dr Lei Chen, ABS Engineer Pragya Sharma and University of Auckland's Professor Brent Young and Robert Raine.
  • Dr. Farid is Professor in Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Auckland and is leading the Research Aims 1-4 and 2-2 on Heat Transfer Research and Heat Exchanger Design
  • Dr. Lei Chen is a Research Engineer at HERA with specialist turbine modelling expertise and is leading the Research Aims 1-5 and 2-3 in Turbo-machinery Research and Design
  • Dr. Brent Young is Professor and Head of Department in Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Auckland and is leading the Research Aims 1-6 and 2-4 in Control Systems Research and Development.

 

A very exciting team of researchers has been assembled with an excellent pedigree in research and engineering, with many taking ownership of projects and ideas in existing projects and working interactively with other team members. In the upcoming updates, we will be providing regular updates with a special focus in each of the research areas on research activities and progress achieved.