About

The 19th Fuellers Annual Energy Lecture, inaugurated by Lord Ezra MBE, will be held on Wednesday 10th September 2025 at City & Guilds Building, Imperial College London. It is being given by Professor Hervé Morvan, Chief of Future Platforms at Rolls-Royce’s Advanced Concept and Future Proofing Capability.

This lecture will explore the opportunities and challenges of using sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) as part of the transition to a low-carbon future. It will look at key issues such as feedstock needs, electricity use, competition with other sectors, economic factors, and how aviation fuels fit into the broader energy system.

The speaker will present different scenarios looking ahead to 2050 and beyond, highlighting the importance of long-term planning. The lecture will also show how the aerospace industry is technically ready to use a range of new fuels, thanks to significant efforts made to support this shift.

Beyond fuels, the talk will consider other important factors like aircraft efficiency, fleet renewal, and production rates. Overall, it will offer a broad view of aviation’s role in the energy transition and explore what it will take to make flying more sustainable.

Principal Speaker

Professor Hervé Morvan leads the company advanced concepts team at Rolls-Royce, working for the Group Engineering, Technology & Safety (ETS) directorate and reporting to the Group Director for R&T, on issues in the ‘beyond business as usual’.  He is the company specialist on Energy Systems & Disruptive Concepts, an ICAO expert on long-term planning; he serves on Jet Zero Task Force for future & hydrogen aircraft, AZEA in Europe and ACAAF, and advises ATAG. Together with his team, he gave birth to the RR eVTOL concept, works on electric flight, and also incubated and gave birth to the RR Hydrogen Accelerator Programme which went on to demonstrate aeroengine gas turbines running on 100% hydrogen. Hervé connects energy systems to power conversion to value added and impact, in a nutshell, fusing the company on future energy systems, what they mean to us and exploring how we could technologically exploit them as RR to deliver value to customers and society.  To Hervé, sustainability sits at the intersect of society, economics and the environment. Beyond this, he also provides support to our Defence, Power Systems and Nuclear businesses on energy, novel concepts, concept appraisal and triaging and support RR Group leadership in its interactions with Govt and other key stakeholders on the above. Prior to joining Rolls-Royce, Hervé spent 15 years at the University of Nottingham where he led the Institute for Aerospace Technology (IAT), receiving a personal chair in 2014 and being elected a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) back in 2016.  

Moderator

Professor Nigel Brandon OBE FREng FRS is Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Professor of Sustainable Development in Energy. His research is focussed on the development of electrochemical technologies for the low carbon energy transition, in particular fuel cells, energy storage and hydrogen.

He is a founder of Ceres Power, a FTSE listed fuel cell company spun out from Imperial College in 2000, RFC Power, a flow battery company spun out from Imperial College in 2018, and M-SPIN, a company developing & manufacturing low cost high surface area materials for electrolysers, fuel cells and batteries, in 2024.

Professor Brandon received an OBE in 2011 for services to UK-China science and is a Fellow of the following institutions: Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering, Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining; and the Energy Institute (2006). He was recognised as an International Member of the US National Academy of Engineering in 2022.

Panel Speakers

Professor Laura Mainini is the Chair in Aerospace Computational Design at the Department of Aeronautics at Imperial College London as well as the Associate Director for the Brahmal Vasudevan Institute for Sustainable Aviation.

Prof. Mainini is a leading expert in advanced computational and mathematical methods for sustainable aviation and space exploration. With experience spanning industry and academia across Europe, the US, and Singapore—including roles at Collins Aerospace, United Technologies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Politecnico di Torino —her research focuses on computational design, digital engineering, real-time data to decision and scientific machine learning for aerospace systems. She has led internationally recognised projects in multidisciplinary optimisation, digital twins, and Mars exploration concepts, and entered the 2021–22 ESA astronaut selection process. Prof. Mainini is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, an Associate Fellow of the AIAA, and serves in leadership roles on several international committees and task forces.

Air Commodore Craig Watson MA BEng (Hons) CEng MIMechE RAF. Craig is currently Head of Engineering & Logistics in HQ Air Command, where he is responsible for policy and assurance of engineering, logistics and related safety management across the Royal Air Force, alongside in-service management of enabling capabilities including air weapons, aircrew systems, movements, vehicles, fuels, support equipment, air platform protection systems, commodities, catering and clothing. He also leads on engineering & logistics operating concepts and capability development and is Deputy Head of the Engineering & Logistics Professions.

Alex Chikhani MBA is the CEO of CirculAIRity which was born on the premise of a long-term solution, which produces credible and scalable SAF at commercially competitive prices. The company is focussed on turning jet fuel exhaust gases back into jet fuel by using renewable power and high TRL equipment at scale. 

Alex, a former RAF Fuels Subject Matter Expert, gained extensive leadership and energy systems experience from his military service. Notably he managed the fuel supply chain for the Falkland Islands and managed the country-wide fuel supply chain for all UK assets across Afghanistan, attracting a $1Bn budgetary responsibility. 

He was recently head-hunted into a consultancy working to help the Ministry of Defence decarbonise, and it was there where he saw the opportunity to do something profoundly special for the aviation sector, using both his fuels subject matter expertise, coupled with his strong entrepreneurial background. CirculAIRity was born on the premise of a long-term solution, which produces credible and scalable SAF at commercially competitive prices. The company is focussed on turning jet fuel exhaust gases back into jet fuel by using renewable power and high TRL equipment at scale.

Alex sits on two global fuel technical standard committees and helps steer the process in the adoption of SAF through contributing to international and national policy/legislation. He is a Chartered Fellow of the CMI and is on the IoD’s Chartered Director programme. He is currently a NED to two startups. He is a charity trustee, a volunteer consultant for The Cranfi eld Trust, and is the Diversity Ambassador for the IoD South West.

Date

Wednesday 10 September 2025 5:45 PM - 9:15 PM (UTC+01)

Timings

5:45 PM - Doors open

6:20 PM - Lecture starts

8:05 PM - Reception

9:15 PM Carriages 

Location

Get directions

City and Guilds Lecture Theatre 200
Imperial College London, South Kensington, London SW7 2AZ

Gratefully supported by CirculAIRity

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