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Prof Junwang Tang named finalist in two IChemE Global Awards 2021 categories
6 October 2021
Prof. Junwang Tang is a Member of Academia Europaea, Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Chemistry and Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering at University College London.
His research interests encompass photocatalytic small molecule activation (eg. CH4, N2, H2O, C6H6 and CO2) and microwave catalysis (e.g. plastic recycling), together with the investigation of the underlying charge dynamics and kinetics by state-of-the-art spectroscopies. In parallel, he also explores the design of the chemical reactors for the above-mentioned processes, resulting in >180 papers published in Nature Catalysis, Nature Energy, Nature Reviews Materials, Chemical Reviews, Chem. Soc. Rev. Materials Today, Nature Commu., JACS, Angew Chemie with >17,000 citations.
Following the RSC Corday-Morgan Prize 2021 and Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellow 2021 awarded, Prof. Junwang Tang is now a finalist in two IChemE Global Awards 2021 categories.
IChemE Global Awards 2021 categories include:
Oil and Gas Finalist - Low Carbon Fuel (LOCAL)
The project of Low Carbon Fuel (LOCAL) targets to convert methane/biogas/shale gas to value-added chemicals and fuels by either solar energy or artificial light sources. Prof. Tang has for the first time successfully developed a photocatalytic technology in a flow reactor, which can directly produce liquid fuels (methanol or ethanol) and high-value chemicals using methane as a feedstock by a rather economic and safe approach operated under ambient conditions, thus bringing about substantial benefit to environment and wellbeing as well as making our society more sustainable.
Research Project Finalist - CO2 to Liquid Fuels
The project of solar fuels has been collective efforts of a few PhD students and PDRA in Prof Tang's group. The catalysts developed by the group set the records in a few areas, e.g. 100% selective conversion of CO2 waste to methanol operated at room temperature and the first conceptual design of polymer-based Z-scheme for H2 production from water driven by solar energy. In parallel, key factors limiting these reactions' kinetics were reported by the group, stimulating the global researchers in this field to improve the reaction selectivity and reduce energy cost.
IChemE Global Awards 2021 winners will be announced in October 2021.