James Varney is a Study Manager, Principal Consultant and Hydrogen SME at io consulting with fifteen years’ experience in the energy industry. James is a Chartered Chemical Engineer and PRINCE2 Certified Project Manager with experience leading projects in all project stages from conceptual studies to detailed design projects and due diligence assessments in Hydrogen, Power-to-X, CCS, energy storage and oil & gas.

As a Study Manager, James has led several of io's PtX, oil & gas and reliability engineering projects, from concept select to PreFEED. Most recently, James led the Abraxas Power Nova Scotia Green Ammonia project where the team used the decision quality framework and systems modelling to assess the project optionality for the power sources, energy storage and facility design to identify the optimum concept that aligned with the client value drivers.

James holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from Birmingham University and an MSc with Distinction in Renewable Engineering Systems Technology from Loughborough University