Dr Ewan McAdam has won first prize in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Emerging Technologies Competition. The technology, an ammonia separation and crystallisation reactor, was entered in the Energy and Environment category.
Dr McAdam, Reader in Process Engineering, said; “I was genuinely delighted in winning this prestigious award from such a strong field of scientists and entrepreneurs. My research focuses on developing innovative membrane separation technologies that solve environmental problems, including: gas separation, water and wastewater treatment, energy production and resource recovery.”
The competition, judged by industry leaders and experts, aims to accelerate the commercialisation of innovative technologies in the fields of health, energy and environment, food and drink, and materials and enabling technologies. An award of £10,000 goes to Cranfield University.
The RSC said this of the project: “Cranfield University have developed an innovative process for the selective separation of ammonia from contaminated fluids. This enables process intensification over the state-of-the-art, and further provides simultaneous transformation into a high purity crystalline fertiliser product. These combined facets enable reduced processing, lower costs and new value streams to be realised.”
Dr McAdam is also a key member of the Nano Membrane Toilet research team, and last year secured a major European Research Council (ERC) Frontier Research award focused on the advancement of membrane science.