- Top award for Clean TeQ Water’s unique bacteria-based process to remove harmful nitrogen compound
- Saudi Aramco scoops two awards
- IChemE Malaysia Awards winner secures trophy in the global competition
- View the full winners list below
A wastewater treatment technology using bacteria encapsulated in plastic lenses to remove nitrogen compounds and make safer drinking water has won the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Global Awards 2021.
Australian water treatment solutions provider, Clean TeQ Water, was commended for chemical engineering excellence for their project Innovative Biological Technology for Nitrogen Removal. It won the Biochemical Engineering Award and was runner up in the Innovative Project category before receiving the top prize, the Outstanding Achievement in Chemical and Process Engineering Award.
Its patent pending BIONEX and BIOCLENS technologies provide a fundamental shift in how bacteria are applied in water treatment. Together, these consistently remove nitrate to very low concentrations, which both reduces the negative impact of nitrate for human health and wildlife and is a key enabler for recycled water use.
Compared to conventional methods to address excess levels of nitrogen, these technologies are more effective and cost efficient, meaning the future implications for global wastewater treatment and for the environment really is significant. Following many pilot plant tests, this combined technology is now being commercialised in a plant in China.
This year’s awards showcased incredible achievements across 15 categories, with the winners announced in a series of webinars from 5–15 October 2021 where finalists presented their projects and took questions from the online audience.
Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia scooped awards in both the Oil & Gas and Sustainability categories for its project Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) and CO2-Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Demonstration Project.
The project is the first of its kind in the Middle East in scale and operation, and one of the largest in the world. It captures approximately 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, which is compressed, piped and injected into a depleted oil reservoir, stopping it from being emitted into the atmosphere.
It included several novel, world-first technologies being developed and implemented to help monitor the process, such as carbon dioxide leaks, seismic activity and a suite of advanced logging techniques (including resistivity and pulsed neutron tools) implemented in a time-lapse manner. The judging panel commended them for their risk in the investment of taking a demonstration project to commercial scale.
Imperial College London, University College London and University of Oxford, UK took the Team Award for their project UK Future Vaccine Manufacturing Research Hubs. During a pandemic, and in record time, the organisations supported two COVID-19 vaccine candidates, including the licensed AstraZeneca vaccine being designed, trialled, and approved for emergency use in less than 12 months, potentially saving millions of lives.
Researchers from the organisations continue this work to develop vaccines for variants and support vaccine manufacturers in developing countries, including for Hepatitis E, SARS-CoV-2 and Zika virus.
Wood plc won the Diversity & Inclusion Award for its impressive range of initiatives increasing employee engagement and knowledge-sharing worldwide, supporting STEM-skill development and diversifying the way talent is identified and recruited. These include its new global mentoring app, partnering with American universities to offer scholarships to underrepresented communities, and teaming with a Scottish charity to offer arctic expeditions with secondary school age students to support skills development and find climate change solutions.
How Bing Shen of the University of Swinburne, Malaysia, won the Young Researcher Award after securing the same category at the IChemE Malaysia Awards on 1 October.
The Chartered engineer and sustainability enthusiast was commended for developing many novel innovations, including his statistical optimisation tool improving the performance of a waste-oil re-refinery plant in Malaysia. He has also collaborated in various national projects including evaluating the feasibility of a hydrogen production plant project, strategically determining optimal fertilizer formulation for a palm oil plantation, and contributing to Sarawak’s state-wide green economy roadmap.
The other individual award went to Michael Turley of Shell, The Netherlands in the Young Industrialist category for his co-invention of the ground-breaking Shell Blue Hydrogen Process launched during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This could be a key enabler in the decarbonisation of the global economy.
He led the interdisciplinary team taking the technology from concept to market in just six months. It has been provisionally selected for decarbonisation of a major chemicals producer, with proven capability to produce more than 500 tonnes of hydrogen per day and a target to capture 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
Passionate about using his chemical engineering skills to help move the world towards cleaner energy usage, he has safely designed and operated multi-billion-dollar chemical plants, mentors STEM students, is an active committee member of IChemE’s Clean Energy Special Interest Group and is assisting the International Energy Agency with their Global Hydrogen Review 2021.
IChemE President Jane Cutler said:
“The IChemE Global Awards bring together chemical and process engineers from around the world to recognise their peers’ significant achievements in tackling global challenges and developing solutions that will have a real impact on all our futures.
“The wide spectrum of technologies winning this year’s awards demonstrates the importance of chemical engineering to so many aspects of the health and wellbeing of the global population and how the discipline is adapting to provide solutions to the evolving issues in health and the environment. Congratulations to all of our winners. We hope their achievements inspire organisations to make further advances and for talented young people choosing a career in chemical engineering to help continue the vital, positive contributions for the next generation.
“Thank you to everyone who entered and to our panel of volunteer judges who, using their vast experience and expertise, spent a lot of time reviewing each finalist’s submission.”
Watch the webinars to find out about all the finalists’ and winners’ projects at www.youtube.com/icheme.
For more information on the IChemE Global Awards visit www.icheme.org/globalawards.
Official winners of the IChemE Global Awards 2021
Outstanding Achievement in Chemical and Process Engineering Award
Winner: Clean TeQ Water, Australia
Biochemical Engineering Award
Winner: Clean TeQ Water, Australia – Innovative Biological Technology for Nitrogen Removal
Highly commended:
Micropore Technologies, UK – Versatile Lipid Nanoparticle Manufacturing
NIIMBL and BioPhorum Operations Group, US and UK – NIIMBL-BioPhorum Buffer Stock Blending System
Business Start-up Award
Winner: Chemical Processing Services, UK – Searching for More Sustainable Resin Materials
Highly commended:
Metcelerate, UK – Metcelerate: Professional Formation for Minerals Engineers
Diversity and Inclusion Award
Winner: Wood plc – Education, Empathy, Engagement – I&D at Wood
Highly commended:
Dow Consumer Solutions, USA – Community Building Through Personal Inclusion
F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Switzerland – Culture Coalition: Humans of Roche
Energy Award
Winner: Pannonia Bio, Hungary, Energy Integration, USA and Piller Blowers & Compressors, Germany – Decarbonizing Biorefineries to Produce Greener Bioethanol
Highly commended:
FutureBay and Otto Simon, UK – Novel Thermal Cycle Delivering Energy Storage
Progressive Energy, Essar, Kent, and Johnson Matthey, UK – HyNet Low Carbon Hydrogen Production Plant
Industry Project Award
Winner: Corteva Agriscience, USA – Arylex™ Active Direct Coupling Process
Highly commended:
Dow Polyurethanes and Cell Foam Solutions, USA – Breakthrough Polyurethane for Comfort Applications
Johnson Matthey, UK – Johnson Matthey Hexanediol Process
Innovative Product Award
Winner: Zhejiang Hymater New Materials; Ningbo University, China and University College London, UK – Mass Production of Membrane by Microwave
Highly commended:
Clean TeQ Water, Australia – Innovative Biological Technology for Nitrogen Removal
Johnson Matthey, UK – Implementing a Highly Stable Methanol Catalyst
Oil and Gas Award
Winner: Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia – CCUS and CO2-EOR Demonstration Project
Highly commended:
PETRONAS Penapisan Terengganu – WGSP Eliminates Liquid in Sampling Bombs
University College London, UK – Low Carbon Fuel (LOCAL)
Pharma Award
Winner: Micropore Technologies, UK – Versatile Lipid Nanoparticle Manufacturing
Highly commended:
GlaxoSmithKline Research and Development, UK – Safer Early Phase Medicine Manufacture
North Carolina State University and Photocide Protection, USA – Universal Photodynamic Coatings for Infection Control
Process Automation and Digitalisation Award
Winner: PETRONAS Digital and Malaysia LNG, Malaysia – STELLAR (STart-up ExceLlence Live AdvisoRy)
Highly commended:
Johnson Matthey, UK – JM-LEVO™: A Digital Plant Analytics Platform
Tianjin University, China and Loughborough University, UK – Virtual Fuel Cell Simulator
Process Safety Award
Winner: GlaxoSmithKline Research and Development, UK – Safer Early Phase Medicine Manufacture
Highly commended:
GSK, USA – Safe Deactivation of Raney Metals
Safer Together, Arrow Energy, Enermech, Santos and Worley, Australia – Growing Process Safety Awareness Through Animation
Research Project Award
Winner: Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and MicroSilicon, UAE – Real-time Monitoring of Asphaltene Deposition
Highly commended:
Johnson Matthey, UK – Implementing a Highly Stable Methanol Catalyst
North Carolina State University and Photocide Protection, USA – Universal Photodynamic Coatings for Infection Control
Sustainability Award
Winner: Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia – CCUS and CO2-EOR Demonstration Project
Highly commended:
FutureBay and Otto Simon, UK – Novel Thermal Cycle Delivering Energy Storage
Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia – Gas-oil Separation Plants Energy Optimisation
Team Award
Winner: Imperial College London, UCL and University of Oxford, UK – UK Future Vaccine Manufacturing Research Hubs
Highly commended:
Imperial College London, UK – Imperial College CREATE Labs
Engro Polymers & Chemicals, Pakistan – Safety
Young Industrialist Award
Winner: Michael Turley – Shell, The Netherlands
Highly commended:
Bashayer Aldakkan – Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia
Eyad Ali Alali – Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia
Young Researcher Award
Winner: How Bing Shen – University of Swinburne, Malaysia
Highly commended:
Zhihao Chen – National University of Singapore
Neil Robinson – The University of Western Australia
