MEI Fellow Dr Gang Li awarded the David and Valerie Solomon Award

Dr Gang (Kevin) Li, MEI Fellow and senior lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Melbourne, has been awarded the David and Valerie Solomon Award as part of the 2020 ATSE Innovation and Excellence Awards. This Award recognises early-mid career science or technology graduates working in academia, research or industry R&D, who demonstrate the substantial ability to foster research-industry collaboration and knowledge transfer for the benefit of Australia.

Dr Li has invented a new technique to capture greenhouse gas methane, and reduce emissions from coal mines and natural gas production. His ionic liquid zeolites (ILZ) – a porous absorbent mineral – has advanced gas separation technologies. This ILZ has the highest adsorption selectivity towards methane in the world amongst all commercial adsorbents. Using the ILZ and pressure swing adsorption (PSA) processes developed by Dr Li and his team, he managed to enrich low grade methane of less than 10% to valuable pipeline gas in an economically viable manner. A spin-out company named Gas Capture Technologies Pty Ltd has successfully commercialised this technology with support from the Australia Government through the Global Innovation Linkages program.

To find out more please contact Dr Li.