Jim Hinkley

Please Note

This person can no longer be contacted through the School of Engineering and Computer Science at Victoria University of Wellington

Qualifications

Bachelor of Chemical and Process Engineering H1 (University of Canterbury, NZ); Masters of Engineering Science - permeability of sinter feeds (University of Queensland, AU); Doctor of Philosophy - Contribution of power stations to atmospheric dust (University of Newcastle, AU)

Research Interests

I'm an experienced chemical engineer with a keen interest in transitioning to more sustainable energy sources. I've worked in diverse roles across operations, research and academia. My longest stint was at CSIRO, Australia's national research agency, where I worked on solar thermal and hydrogen production technologies for 14 years. Before that I worked with Rio Tinto as a process specialist in a coal processing plant, and with BHP Research in mineral processing.

In 2017 I resigned from CSIRO to enable me to move home to New Zealand, and I'm now looking for ways to help confront the inconvenient truth of our impact on this beautiful world we call home so that my children and indeed their children's children have a future. In late 2018 I joined Victoria University of Wellington as a Senior Lecturer in the Renewable Energy Program, which provides both undergraduate and postgraduate courses for science and engineering students.

I have extensive experience in techno-economic evaluation of concentrating solar thermal for electricity as well as developing areas such as hydrogen, solar chemistry, process heat, thermal energy storage and fuel production.

Specialties: Techno-economic evaluation and synthesis of diverse information sources into a sophisticated frameworks and strategy positions. Concentrating solar thermal technologies including heliotstat fields, flux evaluation, receivers, solar chemistry, thermal storage, process heat and process engineering. Much of my work at CSIRO was directly or indirectly related to hydrogen, so I have a good understanding of some of the opportunities and challenges from sustainable production to storage, transport and utilisation.

More information on my research efforts can be found on my ORCID profile https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4069-7362, and LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-hinkley-2744386/