Luca Kim, a postdoctoral researcher in associate professor of chemical engineering Geoffrey Geise's research group, has earned a $1,500 Hanwha Travel Award to attend the 2022 AIChE Annual Meeting.
Kim will make several research presentations at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers conference, which will be held the week of Nov. 13 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Kim will make two oral presentations, “Novel Crosslinked Ion Exchange Membranes with Phenyl Acrylate for Direct Urea Fuel Cell and Nonaqueous Flow Battery Applications,” and “Co-Transport of Lithium, Sodium and Potassium Ions in Pegylated Sulfonated Polysulfones.”
The latter discusses a series of novel positive ion exchange membranes Kim developed in the Geise lab. This investigation aims to understand selective cation transport, which can benefit lithium extraction from geothermal brines an area of importance in developing domestic lithium sources for battery production to meet U.S. energy storage demands.
The Geise lab develops polymers materials composed of large molecules made of repeating subunits to design advanced membranes for clean energy and clean water technologies. The polymer membranes are engineered to control small-molecule transport for ion separation and desalination.It was Kim's work at the intersection of water and energy technologies that drew him to Geise's lab, and where he plans to focus his research as a future faculty member in a chemical engineering department.
“I want to contribute to the Water-Energy Nexus challenge with my polymer chemistry and membrane science expertise,” Kim said.
At the AIChE meeting, he will present a poster on “Rational Design of Ion Exchange Membranes for Sustainable Water and Energy” during a session for hiring committees to meet faculty candidates.
“The water-energy nexus is people using fresh water for energy and energy for fresh water, which leaves several environmental concerns,” Kim said. “Two are rapid climate changes and disruption of aquatic environments with heavy metals. I wish to suppress these concerns by promoting eco-friendly membrane applications by introducing target-specific polymeric membranes for various energy devices and less energy-intensive separation.”
Kim will also give a three-minute flash talk on his research as a Hanhwa Travel Award recipient when he is recognized for the travel award.
The prize is given by Hanwha Solutions Corporation and Hanwha TotalEnergies Petrochemical. Hanwha selects excellent Korean students or postdocs doing research closely related to the companies' research and development areas.