Mark has over 20 years’ experience in research and development, technical support, project
management and consulting in metal production industries.
His background includes a PhD in Chemical and Materials Engineering and time spent working in an
aluminium smelter and an electric arc furnace steel mill.
He became the Director of the Light Metals Research Centre at the University of Auckland, a
commercially focussed consulting, training and R&D provider to the aluminium smelting industry.
After LMRC, Mark was the founding CEO of EnPot Limited, the commercialisation company bringing
energy modulation enabling technology for aluminium smelters to the market.
He is now an independent consultant on energy efficiency & flexibility and decarbonisation across
aluminium smelting and other energy intensive heavy industries.
Moderator: SESSION: Technology and Application
Vision without Execution is Hallucination: How can we move from targets to execution? From commitment and planning to action and results?
Moderator: SESSION: Energy
Wealth Flows from Energy and Ideas: The future is green energy. How does the aluminium industry get there?
All Sessions by Dr. Mark Dorreen
- To deploy new technology we need to mainly consider: Capital, Operating cost, and Operational skills among others. Where do we stand on each? What are the implications in the real world?
- Will the performance be as good as it is being marketed? What is the transition from invention to commercial use? What are the timelines we are looking for?
- What do operations people need in order to get the best out of new technology? How to take technology to the next level in terms of efficiency, lean manufacturing, increase productivity and improve performance on initial results? Are processes and protocols in place for the next wave of R&D?
- How can academia and R&D take us to the next level of performance? What specializations are needed? Is academia in the loop as an active partner? Are they shaping the minds of future generations to lead the operations and address the needs of the industry?
- How can we deploy Industry 4.0 to help our industry reach our operational goals?
- The industry relies on Automation to eliminate mundane tasks as well as improve safety where operators are in the line of fire and the need for human intervention. Can we optimize Automation in new technologies?
- How to ensure that we can streamline supply chain and responsible sourcing? How to balance strategic supply imperatives with cost reduction, just-in-time sourcing and logistics for raw material?
- What else can procurement people do to maximize profitability? In terms of logistics, transportation, taxes, and supply versus demand?
The world needs to act on climate change. The aluminium industry generates around 1.1 billion tons of CO2 emissions per year constituting 1% of the total global caused CO2 emissions. Our industry must do our part to reduce our carbon footprint and improve the world's fight against climate change. We need to reboot commitments and actions to meet the needs of the environment. We especially need to re-evaluate our energy supply.
- How can we achieve the 80% reduction in emissions that we need?
- How many shades of green are there in Aluminium?
- What’s the challenges and opportunities for Hydroelectricity, Wind and Solar energy?
- What about Nuclear Energy? is it classified as green energy? is it a potential? How is uranium waste safely disposed?
- What about other inventions and new breakthrough solutions? Like large scale storage batteries farms and facilities?
- Do governments recognise the value in allocating scarce energy resources to aluminium?
- Until we reach our utopia of zero environmental impact, what can we do with our current technology?
- What other new technologies do we need to develop?
