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Keynote

Switching gear towards a rapid energy transition has never been more important!

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the climate crisis with recent catastrophic extreme weather events has sparked an energy revolution of a new dimension with the need of a revised timeline. 

The 2022 Turbo Expo opening session will set the scene for the conference by highlighting the important role of turbomachinery both for the energy transition and in a carbon-neutral society. 

The relevant stakeholders will in the opening session highlight the common vision and commitment to solving the “Energy Trilemma”. You will receive essential information for the design of a future road map to be built on dispatchable, efficient and reliable energy and storage solutions that can work together with intermittent renewable energy solutions without compromising security of supply.

Priscilla Chandrasekaran, Global LNG Technology Innovation Manager at Shell, will explain Shell’s strategy to accelerate their business transition in partnership with various sectors. She will focus in particular on the synergies between LNG and hydrogen.

From the utility user community, Pedro Lopez, COO Uniper and President of ETN Global will stress the importance of a wide cooperation and showcase Uniper’s dedication to empowering the energy evolution by becoming carbon-neutral and by offering sustainable energy solutions.

The energy transition in air transport is also underway with hydrogen ecosystem as one of the essential building blocks which will be shown by Michael Grootenboer, Senior Vice President Engine Products for the Air France KLM Group. 

Overall, the opening session will provide valuable input to the road mapping of the future of propulsion and power and address how we can accelerate our common journey towards secure, climate neutral energy solutions. Are the policy makers, the gas turbine user community, the suppliers and distributers of sustainable fuels and the gas turbine industry all onboard?  Any guidance to the Turbomachinery R&D community that enable an even stronger and more dedicated support?

Astonishing achievements in this direction have already been made by the R&D community and as usual the ASME IGTI’s annual award program will at the end of this session present and honor the individuals who have made significant contributions to advancing the turbomachinery industry.

Welcome Speaker

Pedro Lopez Estebaranz

Victor van der Chijs​, Chairman, Deltalinqs
Victor van der Chijs (1960) is Chairman of Deltalinqs which represents the logistics, port and industrial companies in 'mainport' Rotterdam. He is also Chairman of the Rotterdam Port Promotion Council, President of the Board of BOM (Brabant Development Agency), Chairman of Cito (testing and assessments) and member of the Board of Deerns (engineering).

Previously, he was President of Twente University of Technology, Managing Partner of OMA (architecture & design), managing director of Schiphol International (airport management) and he started his career at ING (financial services).

 

 

Keynote Speakers

Pedro Lopez Estebaranz

Pedro Lopez Estebaranz, COO, Uniper
During his 17 years of professional life Pedro gained an extensive international experience in the energy business, including engineering of conventional and renewables technologies, asset management experience in coal, gas and hydro assets as well as CCGT operations.

In his current role as Executive Vice President Asset Operations in Uniper since 2019, he is responsible for the Uniper European Power generation portfolio of around 25GW installed capacity and Uniper Gas storage assets. Before that he has held various leadership roles in Asset Operations and Asset management in Uniper and its predecessor companies, including European Gas Fleet Director, CCGT plant manager in Italy, Head of Local Fleet Management Centre in Spain and Director of Operational Support Director in Germany. He is the President of ETN Global since 2020, a gas turbine global association, and he is the Chairman of the Supervisory Board in different Uniper generation companies in Germany and the Netherlands as well as Member of the board of Directors in Uniper UK Generation companies and in Uniper Sweden.

Pedro holds a master degree in Industrial Engineering and an Advance Management Executive Program by Esade Business School.

 

Michael Grootenboer

Michael Grootenboer, Senior Vice President Engine Products, Air France KLM Group
Michael Grootenboer, 43, is an aircraft engineer who graduated from the Delft University of Technology (Netherlands). Until joining Air France-KLM, he spent his entire working life in the Airbus Group, occupying a range of technical and management functions, especially as part of the airframer's A350 and A330neo programs. Since 2016, he has been Head of Plant Programs at the Airbus facility in Bremen (Germany). As of February 2018 Michael is Senior Vice President E&M Engine Products at AFKL Engineering & Maintenance.

He is involved in preparing the Engine products for the future including sustainability & digitizing and introduction of new engine types for new ECO friendly airplanes.

 

 

Priscilla ChandrasekaranMs. Priscilla Chandrasekaran, Global LNG Technology Innovation Manager,  Shell Global Solutions International
Priscilla joined Shell as a Process Engineer in 1999 after completing a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering, and has been involved in all LNG development phases from design to operational support. She has worked in Brunei, Malaysia, Australia and Nigeria and supported Shell’s global portfolio in both technical and business roles. As the Global LNG Innovation Manager, her role is to ensure the delivery of sustainable, deep decarbonization solutions for the existing portfolio as well as envision ground breaking new pathways to support Shell’s strategy.

 

 

 

Thomas Thiemann

Prof. Dr. Thomas Thiemann, Senior Vice President, Siemens Energy
After his PhD Thomas Thiemann worked for five years in international iron- and steelmaking R&D projects. He joined Siemens in 2001 and worked in various steam turbine management positions. As a special task he was heading an energy transition technology team and worked closely with customers and partners on decarbonization concepts for industrial assets. Solutions based on climate neutral Hydrogen played a key role in these investigations.

In April 2020 he became the Senior Vice President for Energy Transition Technologies. In this role, he helps to shape the Siemens Energy decarbonization portfolio according to the future needs.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Thiemann is also active in a variety of external duties: He is president of the European association of turbine OEM's (EUTurbines), vice chair of the board of VDMA power systems, holds a lecture series at the university of Bochum and is also engaged in international conferences and doctoral committees.

 

Moderators

Jaroslaw Szwedowicz

Jaroslaw Szwedowicz, R&D Senior Principal Key Expert for Gas Turbine Modules, Siemens Energy AG
Jaroslaw Szwedowicz D.Sc., Ph.D., Eng. received PhD for his research on the Robot Dynamics from Gdansk University of Technology and DSc from AGH University of Science and Technology in Cracow. His 30-year professional career relates to turbomachinery. In R&D for turbochargers, industrial and heavy-duty steam and gas turbines he worked at the Institute of Fluid Flow Machinery in Poland, the Instituto de Investigaciones Eléctricas in Mexico, ABB, Alstom Power, and General Electric in Switzerland. Since 2017, Jaroslaw works as a Senior Principal Key Expert for R&D Gas Turbines at Siemens Energy AG.

Jaroslaw is the author of 60 papers, 130 technical reports and holds 4 patents with over 16 patent applications pending. His skills and experiences have a proven track record in innovation-based projects, technology roadmaps, and successfully leading international teams for various programs like e.g.: (1) Component Design against HCF based on non-linear dynamics, Acoustic- & Fluid-Structure Interaction, damping technologies, (2) System Design for end-of-life applying Predictive Maintenance, (3) Wireless sensing and digital solutions at elevated temperatures and pressure, (4) Additive Manufacturing for Gas Turbines.

Jaroslaw is the former chairman of the IGTI and Gas Turbine Segment of ASME. He chaired the IGTI "Structure and Dynamics" committee, started a new Committee "Production & Maintenance Engineering", and established Blade Mechanics Seminar and AMRGT (Advanced Manufacturing and Repair for Gas Turbines) conference meeting industrial needs. He was a Technical Program Chair and Review Chair of previous Turbo Expo Congresses. For 6 years he was acting as an Associate Editor in ASME Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines & Power. Since 2015, he is an Associate Editor of IMechE Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science. Jaroslaw is a member of the Nominating Committee of ASME Board of Governors, 2020-22.

Sharing good engineering practices & enabling innovative technologies to industrial-scale use are key drivers of Jaroslaw's work.

 

Christer Björkqvis

Christer Björkqvist, Managing Director, ETN Global
Christer Björkqvist is the Managing Director and founder of ETN Global that brings together gas turbine users, OEMs, suppliers & service companies and R&D community. The mission of the turbine network is to bring together the gas turbine value chain to accelerate research, development and demonstration of save, secure and affordable carbon-neutral gas turbine-based energy solutions by 2030.

Prior to the foundation of ETN in 2005, Christer Björkqvist was the General Manager of the association of European Manufacturers of Gas Turbines for a period of 5 years. In his current position he has successfully coordinated several research projects and established a platform for technology advancement, knowledge sharing and development of best practices and standards.