Dr Sepehr Mozafarian is an expert in the fields of energy, sustainable low-carbon fuels and chemicals, and waste valorisation. He has experience in process modelling and analysis, techno-economic analysis, and environmental assessment. He holds a PhD, MSc, and BSc in Chemical and Process Engineering. He has worked for several years in industry, consultancy, and academia. In academia as a visiting lecturer and researcher on research projects in collaboration with SMEs in the Innovate UK. His career also includes several years of working as an engineer, technical office manager, and consultant. He is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA) and an Associate Member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (AMIChemE).

After obtaining his BSc degree and before starting his MSc, and PhD, he worked in three gas turbine and combined cycle power plant installation and commissioning projects beginning his career as a project engineer and later as a technical office manager. His interest in research and sustainable technologies in energy and material fields encouraged him to pursue his education and start working on academic-industrial research projects.

Sopher’s BSc curriculum focused on gas, refinery and petrochemical industries and he did his final project on simulating a temperature controller for a CSTR reactor using Aspen Dynamic software. He obtained his MSc from the University of Bologna in Chemical and Process Engineering with a curriculum focusing on sustainable technologies and biotechnologies for the environment and materials in 2016. His MSc research project was on the application of statistical methods for the optimisation of feedstock mixture for the production of biogas through anaerobic digestion of agro-industrial wastes, which was in collaboration with a biogas-producing company in Emilia Romagna in Italy and involved experimental work and application of Design of Experiment using Design-Expert software.

He started his PhD at the University of Chester under the supervision of Prof. John Brammer in 2018. His PhD was in collaboration with a UK SME and part-funded by ERDF. His PhD project was an experimental investigation and numerical calculation and Aspen Plus process modelling of plastic waste steam gasification for the production of hydrogen, heat, and power. This included the design and development of the lab-scale process unit, experiments carried out on a pilot-scale unit of the involved company, and Aspen Plus process modelling and sensitivity analysis. The process analysis also included techno-economic analysis and environmental assessment of the process.

While doing his PhD at the University of Chester, as a visiting lecturer he also taught process simulation using PRO II software and mathematical modelling using MATLAB to undergraduate students of engineering, physics and chemistry programmes of the Faculty of Science and Engineering.

After the ERDF PhD project, he moved to Lancaster University to work as a KTP-Associate Chemical Engineer to lead the project of the commercialisation of a process for refining plastic wastes derived wax for Kerax Ltd.

Sepehr's research projects' subjects have been mainly on energy systems analysis, process modelling and analysis using process simulating software including Aspen Plus, HYSYS, and PRO II, waste conversion and valorisation, and specifically plastic wastes valorisation.