Professor Astley Hastings

BSc, MSc, PhD, MIMechE, CEng.

Personal Chair

Email Address: astley.hastings@abdn.ac.uk
Office Address: G43 23 St Machar Drive Aberdeen AB24 3UU UK
School/Department: School of Biological Sciences

Biography

1968-1971 Graduate Apprenticeship with English Electric/Lanchester Polytechnic. Gained a BSc in Mechanical engineering. CEng in 1974.

1971-1972 Postgraduate research (wet steam turbines) at Lanchester Polytechnic.

1972-1973 Schlumberger, Field engineer, Burgos and St Carlos, Spain

1974-1975 Schlumberger, Lead engineer, Siracusa,Crotone & Pescara, Italy.

1975-1977 Schlumberger, Training Center Manager, Livingstone, Scotland

1977-1980 Schlumberger, District Manager Qatar, Doha, Qatar.

1980-1981 Schlumberger, Product Development Engineer, Paris, France.

1981-1985 Schlumberger, South American Interpretation Manager. Caracas, Venezuela.

1986-1989 Schlumberger, Principle Scientist, Schlumberger DRC, Ridgefield, Ct, USA.

1989-1993 Schlumberger, Marketing Director United Kingdom. Aberdeen.

1993-1995 Schlumberger, Marketing Manager Europe & FSU. Hannover, Germany

1995-1998 Schlumberger, Corporate New Technology Manager, Paris, France.

1999-2003 Schlumberger, Evaluation Services Manager - North Africa, Algeria

2003-2004 Schlumberger, Operations Manager-N Africa. Hassi-Messaoud, Algeria.

2004-2005 MSc. Environmental Science – 51cg.

2004-2008 PhD in Systems Biology –51cg

2008-2014 Research Fellow –51cg

2014-2017 Senior Research Fellow –51cg

2017-present Reader –51cg

Memberships and Affiliations

Internal Memberships: Line Manager.

Co-Champion of CCUS and Nature Based Solutions Theme.
External Memberships: Member of the Academic Assessment Committee of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers

Memeber of the Advanced Apprenticeship Committe of IMechE

Program committee Memeber for the EUROPEC meeting a collaboration of the EAGE and SPE.

Paper selection Committee for Offshore Europe SPE technical meeting.

Reviewer for Biomass and Bioenergy, GCB, GCB-B, AgForMEt, AGEE, JPT, JCPT, SPE-FE, Sustainable agriculture, Bioenergy Research, European Journal of Forest Research, Environmental Science and Technology, Soil and Tillage research.

Project Reviewer for Ireland EPA, DECC-UK, Croatian Science Foundation, FAO, University of Hong Kong.

Yachtmaster

Research

Research Overview

Currently a reader in environmental science in the Institute of Biological and Environmental Science at the 51cg conducting research into the GHG emissions and environmental impact and its mitigation from land use, low carbon energy and transport infrastructure and also on greenhouse gas removal using afforestation and bioenergy carbon capture and storage. Decomissioning and reuse of offshore energy assets and the impact on the environment.

Current Research

UKERC - 4 – Theme 3.

NERC-ADVENT – Impact of low carbon electricity generation on ecosystem services and natural Capital.

NERC-ADVANCES – Landscapes decisions. - Impact of temporal and spatial scale on land use simulations

NERC-FAB-GGR – GHG removal using BECCS and afforestation.

EU-GRACE - Developing Miscanthus and Hemp as a Bioenergy Feedstock for the bio-economy

EU-EcoWinery - Building a tool to calculate GHG emissions from Wine production

NDC - Estimating GHG emissions from Decomissioning

NDC - Decomissioning bundles

DDC - Curtin - The environmental impact of decomissioning subsea structures with residual NORM and Hg on the marine environment.

EU-VERIFY - Building a methodology to quantify European GHG emissions

Collaborations

Jatropha growth and soil carbon modelling with Prof. Meenu Saraf University of Gujarat, India.

Miscanthus biomass growth and use Aberystwyth - Hoenheim, Zagreb - Piacenza - INTA - Braunscheig

GGR with Exeter, UEA, CRU, Leeds and Aston.

Low carbon infrastructure impact on the environment - UEA - UCL - Imperial - Leeds - Lancaster - CEH - Southampton - Davis - Sydney.

Decomissioning - Curtin

GHG emissions quantification - The EU GHG group.

Funding and Grants

UKERC - 4 – Theme 3.

NERC-ADVENT – Impact of low carbon electricity generation on ecosystem services and natural Capital.

NERC-ADVANCES – Landscapes decisions. - Impact of temporal and spatial scale on land use simulations

NERC-FAB-GGR – GHG removal using BECCS and afforestation.

EU-GRACE - Developing Miscanthus and Hemp as a Bioenergy Feedstock for the bio-economy

EU-EcoWinery - Building a tool to calculate GHG emissions from Wine production

NDC - Estimating GHG emissions from Decomissioning

NDC - Decomissioning bundles

DDC - Curtin - The environmental impact of decomissioning subsea structures with residual NORM and Hg on the marine environment.

EU-VERIFY - Building a methodology to quantify European GHG emissions

Teaching

Teaching Responsibilities

Course co-ordinator Marine EIA masters course

Lecture on GHG emissions and mitigation

Environmental modelling

Publications

Update

51cg

Biography

Memberships and Affiliations

Research Overview

Current Research

Collaborations

Funding and Grants

Teaching Responsibilities

An estimate of the technical potential for land-based carbon sequestration using the perennial biomass crop Miscanthus x giganteus: A case study in Wales, UK

Winds of change: modelling the onshore wind energy landscape of Great Britain for Net Zero targets

Dynamics of Methane Flux in Permafrost-Affected Wetlands: A Meta-Analysis of Permafrost Continuity Effects and Hydrological Controls

Identifying explanatory variables for willow biomass growth: Application of random forest to a global dataset.

A Global Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) Willow Dataset for the Bioeconomy: Implications for the Yield in the United Kingdom

A comparative LCA of field grown vs vertically farmed lettuce

An estimation of Network Rail soil carbon stocks based on data from disused rail lines

Filling the evidence gaps in understanding the Values of Marine Artificial Structures (ValMAS)

Assessing the Sustainability of Miscanthus and Willow as Global Bioenergy Crops: Current and Future Climate Conditions (Part 2)

Numerical Analysis for Cutting a Subsea Bundle

Sustainable Solutions to Repurpose Wind Turbine Blades for Offshore Applications

Techno-economic assessment of liquid carrier methods for intercontinental shipping of hydrogen: A case study

Assessing the Sustainability of Miscanthus and Willow as Global Bioenergy Crops: Current and Future Climate Conditions (Part 1)

A cradle-to-customer life cycle assessment case study of UK vertical farming

Upscaling Miscanthus production in the United Kingdom: The benefits, challenges, and trade-offs

Is OSPAR 98/3 science-based politics or politics-based science?

Repurposing an Offshore Oil and Gas Platform for Green Hydrogen Production: A North Sea Case Study

Assessing Life Cycle Methods for scalable Carbon Dioxide Removal

Negative emissions: developing the potential of perennial crops for the bioeconomy.

Open letter to leaders of the UK political parties - June 2024

An approach to assessing subsea pipeline-associated mercury release into the North Sea and its potential environmental and human health impact

High resolution visualisation of tiemannite microparticles, essential in the detoxification process of mercury in marine mammals

Low risk management intervention?: Limited impact of remedial tillage on net ecosystem carbon balance at a commercial Miscanthus plantation

Spatial context matters: Assessing how future renewable energy pathways will impact nature and society

A Review of Life Cycle Assessment Methods to Inform the Scale-up of Carbon Dioxide Removal Interventions

Advances in biorenewables-resource-waste systems and modelling

A first estimate of blue carbon associated with oil & gas industry marine infrastructure

Tensions and Trade-offs in the Energy-Environment Nexus: section in UKERC Review of Energy Policy 2023

Modelling the impact of forest management and CO2-fertilisation on growth and demography in a Sitka spruce plantation

Considerations for future quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) modelling for heavy metals: A case study of mercury

Repurposing an Offshore Oil and Gas Platform for Green Hydrogen Production: A North Sea Case Study

Lifetime greenhouse gas emissions from offshore hydrogen production

A Spatially Explicit Evaluation of the Economic Performance of a Perennial Energy Crop on the Marginal Land of the Loess Plateau and China

An approach to assess potential environmental mercury release, food web bioaccumulation, and human dietary methylmercury uptake from decommissioning offshore oil and gas infrastructure

Building the Policy Ecosystem in Europe for Cultivation and Use of Perennial Biomass Crops

Energy production from municipal solid waste in low to middle income countries: a case study of how to build a circular economy in Abuja, Nigeria

Greenhouse gas emissions from decommissioning manmade structures in the marine environment: current trends and implications for the future

Perennial biomass cropping and use: shaping the policy ecosystem in European countries

A review of planting principles to identify the right place for the right tree for ‘net zero plus’ woodlands: Applying a place-based natural capital framework for Sustainable, Efficient and Equitable (SEE) decisions

Novel Miscanthus hybrids: Modelling productivity on marginal land in Europe using dynamics of canopy development determined by light interception

Uncertain effectiveness of Miscanthus bioenergy expansion for climate change mitigation explored using land surface, agronomic and integrated assessment models

Method for assessing the potential of miscanthus on marginal lands for high temperature heat demand: The case studies of France and Belgium

Threshold values for the protection of marine ecosystems from NORM in subsea oil and gas infrastructure

Soil organic carbon significantly increases when perennial biomass plantations are reverted back to annual arable crops

Decarbonising UK transport: Implications for electricity generation, land use and policy.

The development of a new crop growth model SwitchFor for yield mapping of switchgrass

Expanding the Miscanthus market in the UK: Growers in profile and experience, benefits and drawbacks of the bioenergy crop

Use of Winery and Animal Waste as Fertilizers to Achieve Climate Neutrality in Non-Irrigated Viticulture

Current understanding of the ecological risk of mercury from subsea oil and gas infrastructure to marine ecosystems

Quantifying the land-based opportunity carbon costs of onshore wind farms

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Books and Reports

Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings

Contributions to Conferences

Contributions to Journals

Contributions to Specialist Publications

Non-textual Forms

Working Papers

Other Contributions

Modelling the impact of forest management and CO₂-fertilisation on growth and demography in a Sitka spruce plantation