Clean TeQ Water wins top accolade at IChemE Awards
A WASTEWATER treatment process that uses bacteria immobilised in plastic lenses has been awarded the top prize at IChemE’s Global Awards.
Australian water treatment developer, Clean TeQ Water, was commended for its Innovative Biological Technology for Nitrogen Removal project. It won the Biochemical Engineering Award and took the overall winner’s 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. The process starts with continuous ionic filtration to remove nitrate from water and concentrates it into a small brine volume. The brine is then treated using living bacteria that are immobilised in porous PVA lenses. As these lenses are stirred in a reactor, water and dissolved impurities diffuse through them and the bacteria stored inside can perform nitrification or denitrification reactions. Following pilot tests, the process is now being commercialised in China, and promises to help industry reduce the size of its plants, reduce costs and increase water recovery.
Awards were given across 15 categories during a series of webinars held earlier this month where finalists presented their projects and took questions from the online audience.
Saudi Aramco won the Oil & Gas and Sustainability awards for projects involving CCS and enhanced oil recovery. Its CCS project is one of the largest in the world, capturing around 800,000 t/y of CO2. Aramco’s work involved the development and implementation of several novel technologies including resistivity and pulsed neutron tools. 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 the 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.
How Bing Shen of the University of Swinburne, Malaysia, won the Young Researcher Award after securing the same category at IChemE Malaysia Awards on 1 October. He was commended for developing many novel innovations, including his statistical optimisation tool improving the performance of a waste-oil re-refinery plant in Malaysia.
The other individual award went to Michael Turley of Shell, the Netherlands in the Young Industrialist category for his co-invention of the groundbreaking Shell Blue Hydrogen Process launched during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. He led the interdisciplinary team taking the technology from concept to market in just six months.
IChemE President Jane Cutler said: “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.”
Watch the webinars to find out about all the finalists’ and winners’ projects at https://bit.ly/3jfVbSv
Winners of the IChemE Global Awards 2021
Outstanding Achievement in Chemical and Process Engineering Award
Winner: Clean TeQ Water, Australia – Innovative Biological Technology for Nitrogen Removal
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, US – Community Building Through Personal Inclusion
F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Switzerland – Culture Coalition: Humans of Roche
Energy Award
Winner: Pannonia Bio, Hungary, Energy Integration, US 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, US – Arylex Active Direct Coupling Process
Highly commended:
Dow Polyurethanes and Cell Foam Solutions, US – 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, US – 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, US – 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, US – 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
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