What I do, and how I do it.
Independent techno-economic and life-cycle assessment for founders of GreenTech and carbon removal companies. This page sets out the services, what each one looks at, how an engagement runs from first call to findings, and the way the work is done.
Chartered Engineer4,860 citations, h-index 39Top 2% most-cited in energy, 2022–2024Work delivered for IEAGHG, Innovate UK, PolyCapture and The Catalyst Group
01Here are my services
There are 3 ways to work together, and most founders start with the review.
Recommended starting point
Independent TEA/LCA Review
Fits when
You already have a model and I test it. Best when a raise or offtake diligence is live.
You receive
- An assumption register, tagged by source
- A challenge log with a verdict on each priority assumption
- A sensitivity summary with the downside case
- A report you can hand to an investor as it stands
- A findings session with your leadership
Build it independently
Scale-up & TEA Assessment
Fits when
You need the economics built by someone with no stake in the answer.
You receive
- An ISO 14076 eTEA assessment
- Capex and opex estimates
- Cost per tonne estimate for the plant build today and the trajectory to
an Nth-of-a-kind plant - Sensitivity analysis
- A benchmark against competing pathways
- A report and the live model
For buyers and registries
LCA & Carbon Integrity Assessment
Fits when
You need carbon numbers a buyer or registry will accept.
You receive
- An ISO 14040/44 life-cycle assessment
- Carbon intensity per tonne removed or per unit of product
- Documentation aligned with registry requirements
Each has a fixed scope and a fixed fee, agreed in writing after a 30-minute fit call. No hourly billing; the fit call determines the right service.
02This is what I do
I test whether your cost and carbon numbers will hold up when someone independent checks them.
You have a cost model, a carbon footprint and pilot data. Your team built them, so anyone deciding whether to fund you or buy from you will treat them as claims until someone without a stake has checked them. I do that check before diligence, while there is still time to fix what it finds.
The 3E Framework: what I look at
Engineering
What the pilot proves
What your pilot proves about a plant at commercial scale, and what is still extrapolation.
Economics
What the plant costs and earns
Capex, opex and revenue under realistic changes in energy price, yield, utilisation and scale, including the downside case.
Environmental integrity
What each tonne removes
Whether your TEA, LCA and MRV use the same boundaries, and what the lifecycle numbers say about net removal rather than gross capture.
Tested together
Each can be right on its own and the case can still fall apart where they meet, so all 3 are tested on the same boundaries, throughput and plant.
What I also record
Which site, permit, storage and offtake assumptions are secured, which are under negotiation, and which are still assumed. I flag these dependencies; I do not assess or negotiate them.
What I do not do
- Design, build or sell plant, or take on follow-on delivery work
- Permitting or offtake negotiation
- Primary data collection or laboratory work
- MRV protocol development or registry submission
03This is my process
From first call to findings, in 8 stages.
The first 3 stages happen before any of your data is shared. The 5 review steps that follow are the same for every service.
- Fit call30 minutes
- ProposalIn writing
- NDABefore any data
- Scope90-min kick-off
- SurfaceRegister
- ScrutiniseChallenge log
- SynthesiseScenarios
- SupportFindings
Stages 1 to 3
Before we start
Fit call, proposal, NDA
What happens
A 30-minute fit call to check whether a review is the right step. Then a written proposal: scope, exclusions, deliverables, dates and one fixed fee. An NDA is signed before any data changes hands.
You provide
A 30-minute call, and your decision to go ahead.
You receive
A written proposal. Nothing starts until you accept it.
Where you end up
You know what will be done, by when, and for what fee.
Step 01
Scope
Frame the decision
What happens
We agree what the evidence has to support, whether a raise, an offtake agreement, a grant or the next engineering commitment, and who will scrutinise it. Then we fix the technology, system boundary, feedstock, site and maturity assumptions.
You provide
A 90-minute kick-off workshop, and the documents, models, pilot data and earlier studies you already have.
You receive
A decision-framing note, a defined system boundary and commercialisation stage, and a map of your existing evidence.
Where you end up
Your engineers, CTO and CEO work from one agreed description of the system and the decision.
Step 02
Surface
Find the assumptions that decide the outcome
What happens
Every assumption that carries weight in your TEA, LCA and financial model goes into one register, tagged by source and ranked by how far it moves your headline cost and carbon numbers.
You provide
The current status of site, utilities, permits, suppliers, partners and offtake, where they apply.
You receive
A critical-assumption register, an evidence-gap assessment, and a check of which external dependencies are secured, under negotiation or assumed.
Where you end up
You know which handful of numbers decide the case.
Step 03
Scrutinise
Test the evidence independently
What happens
The priority assumptions are tested against published evidence, comparable technologies, benchmarks and my own modelling, including what your pilot data can and cannot support at commercial scale.
You provide
Answers to focused technical questions by email.
You receive
A challenge log recording your value, the independent view and the evidence behind any difference, with a verdict on each.
Where you end up
Someone with no stake in the answer has asked the hard questions before an investor or buyer does.
Step 04
Synthesise
Put the case together and stress it
What happens
Engineering, economic and environmental evidence are reconciled onto the same boundaries, throughput, energy use, plant lifetime and scale, then stressed with several assumptions moving at once.
You provide
Nothing new.
You receive
Scenario and sensitivity analysis with the downside case and break-even conditions, and a reconciliation of your TEA, LCA and engineering evidence.
Where you end up
Economics that survive an imperfect year, and carbon claims built on boundaries anyone can inspect.
Step 05
Support
Make the stage-gate call
What happens
The findings are written for the decision you named at the start: what is defensible now, what remains uncertain, and what has to happen before the next commitment.
You provide
Time with your leadership to review the findings and choose the next step.
You receive
A report you can hand to an investor as it stands, an executive brief, and a findings session with your leadership.
Where you end up
A single, independently challenged evidence base for investors, grant assessors, customers and your board.
The proposal lists exactly which deliverables your engagement includes.
04This is how I do it
Evidence first, independent by design, on fixed terms.
- Every number traced to its sourceEach assumption is tagged as measured, supplier data, literature or engineering judgement, so everyone can see what rests on measurement and what rests on judgement.
- Effort where the number movesAssumptions are ranked by how far they move your headline cost and carbon numbers. The review goes where the long bars are.
- Challenged by someone with no stakeI do not design, build or sell plant, and there is no follow-on delivery contract for me to win.
- Cost and carbon on one basisYour TEA, LCA and MRV are reconciled onto the same boundaries, so your cost and carbon figures describe the same plant.
- Stressed the way diligence willSeveral assumptions move at once, with the downside case and break-even conditions written down.
- Written for your decisionThe findings say what is defensible now. Sometimes the answer is that the case is not ready yet, and the report says what would have to change.
Assumption register
What moves your cost per net tonne
Summary of terms
The terms that apply to every engagement
| Scope | Fixed, and written down in the proposal, including what is excluded. |
| Fee | A single fixed fee for that scope, agreed in writing before work starts. No hourly billing. |
| VAT | None added. Aiia is not VAT-registered, so the fee in the proposal is the total you pay. |
| Payment | Set out in the proposal, before any work starts. |
| Duration | Weeks, not months. The proposal fixes the dates. |
| Your time | A 90-minute kick-off, a findings session, and short answers by email. No new documents to produce. |
| Confidentiality | An NDA is signed before any data changes hands. |
| Exclusivity | On request, no direct competitor for the length of the engagement plus 6 months. |
| Deliverables | Yours to keep and use with investors, buyers, grant assessors and your board. |
| Contract | With Aiia Consultancy and Management Ltd, separately from my university role. |
This page summarises how I work. The written proposal for your engagement sets the binding terms. There are no prices here because each fee is fixed to a written scope, agreed after the fit call.
Questions founders ask
The short answers.
Which service should we start with?
Most founders start with the Independent TEA/LCA Review, because it works from the models you already have. The fit call settles it.
We already have a TEA and LCA.
Good. The review starts from them. The question is not whether the work is competent. It is whether anyone without a stake in the answer has challenged the assumptions underneath it.
We don’t have enough data yet.
That is when a review helps most. It separates what has to be measured now, what can be bounded, and what does not matter for the next decision.
Can we share the report with investors?
Yes. It is written so you can hand it to an investor or buyer as it stands.
What if you find nothing wrong?
Then you go into diligence with an independent record that the assumptions were examined and hold up.
What if the case is not ready?
The report says so, and says what would have to change before the next commitment. You decide what happens next.
Book a fit call
Talk through your case before anything is agreed.
A 30-minute call to work out whether a review fits and what it would cover. If it does not, I will say so.
contact@drhanak.com