Dr Chi Wai (Philip) Kwong

Biography/ Background

Dr Kwong is an early career researcher establishing himself in the development of more sustainable environmental and energy technologies. He obtained his PhD degree in Environmental Engineering Program at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in 2009. His works focused on the low temperature combustion of hydrocarbons over different nano-structured materials. He also obtained his MPhil degree from the Mechanical Engineering Department at the same institution in 2005. His study was to investigate the co-combustion performance of coal with biomass for power generations.

He took up his current teaching and research academic position in the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Adelaide in 2009. He has been establishing a research program in clean energy that draws from his experience in environmental sciences and energy engineering. In particular, his research interests include catalytic combustion, biomass energy, air pollution control and sustainable energy technology.

Teaching Interests

Undergraduate teaching
1. CHEM ENG 2013: Process Modelling and Computations
2. CHEM ENG 4048: Biomass, Biofuels & Wastes
3. CHEM ENG 2017: Transport Processes in the Environment

Postgraduate teaching
4. CHEM ENG 7036: Air Pollution Engineering
5. CHEM ENG 7048: Biomass, Biofuels & Wastes

Research Interests

Current Research Projects
1. Material Characteristics of Fly Ash Products for Air Pollution Control.
2. Development of Low Cost Coal Fly Ash Based Adsorbent for Highly Efficient CO2 Capture.
3. Development of a Highly Effective Nano-porous Oxygen Carrier for Chemical Looping Combustion.
4. Improved Models of Nanoporous Carbons for Greater Fundamental Insight and Better Sustainable Technology.

PhD scholarships are available to apply for both international and local students. The following outlines the potential areas currently on offer. Please contact Dr. Kwong (philip.kwong@adelaide.edu.au) for further information.

Recycling of fly ash products from coal/biomass combustion for greenhouse gas mitigation

Power generation from coal-fired power plants is the single largest CO2 emission source in Australia. It accounts for about 70% of the equivalent CO2 emissions for stationary energy combustion. It also produces large amount of fly-ash products during the combustion process; most of them are taken to landfills or stored in ash lagoons. These disposal strategies not only increase the burden on landfills, but they also have secondary impacts on the surrounding habitats and ecosystems. Efficient resource recovery from coal fly ash is the major topics of current international research under the sustainability considerations. Micro-, meso-porous materials, such as zeolite and molecular sieves, have been found capable of CO2 adsorption. Currently, both the economic and environmental costs of large-scale production of those porous materials are considerably high due to the cost of preferred silica source, and hence there is an advantage in converting coal fly ash into high quality, versatile and valuable porous materials for CO2 capture. The study aims to investigate the different approaches in converting coal fly-ash into micro-, meso-porous materials for low cost greenhouse mitigations in traditional thermal power stations.

Chemical looping combustion of solid fuels

Chemical-looping combustion (CLC) is an innovative process with the potential to deliver efficient, clean and low-cost electricity using coal. CLC involves the use of a solid oxygen carrier (e.g. metal oxides), which has a high amount of lattice oxygen that provides the oxidant for the coal oxidation reactions rather than via the direct combustion of coal in either air or oxygen. The solid oxygen carrier is circulated between two reactors. In the fuel reactor, the fuel is oxidized by the oxygen carrier to produce a flue gas of H2O and CO2. The CO2 is recovered by condensing the water vapour and removing minor impurities, thus eliminating the need for independent pre- or post-combustion CO2 capture. The chemically-reduced oxygen carrier is then circulated to an air reactor, which converts it to an oxidized form for recirculation to the fuel reactor. 

Publications

Refereed Journal Articles

1. Kwong, C.W. and Chao, C.Y.H. Fly Ash Products from Biomass Co-Combustion for VOC Control, Bioresource Technology, v101, pp. 1075-1081, 2010.

2. Hui, K.S., Kwong, C.W. and Chao, C.Y.H., Methane Emissions Abatement by Pd-ion-exchanged Zeolite 13X with Ozone, Energy & Environmental Science, v3, pp. 1092-1098, 2010.

3. Wan, M.P., Hui, K.S., Chao, C.Y.H. and Kwong, C.W., Catalytic Combustion of Methane with Ozone using Pd-Exchanged Zeolite X: Experimental Investigation and Kinetics Model, Combustion Science and Technology, v182, pp. 1429-1445, 2010.

4. Kwong, C.W., Chao, C.Y.H., Hui, K.S. and Wan, M.P., Catalytic Ozonation of Toluene using Zeolite and MCM-41 Materials, Environmental Science and Technology, v42, pp. 8504-8509, 2008.

5. Kwong, C.W., Chao, C.Y.H., Hui, K.S. and Wan, M.P., Removal of VOCs from Indoor Environment by Ozonation over Different Porous Materials, Atmospheric Environment, v42, pp. 2300-2311, 2008.

6. Chao, C.Y.H. , Kwong, C.W. , Wang, J.H. , Cheung, C.W.  and Kendall, G., Co-firing Coal with Rice Husk and Bamboo and the Impact on Particulate Matters and Associated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Emissions, Bioresource Technology, v99, pp. 83-93, 2008.

7.  Hui, K.S., Chao, C.Y.H., Kwong, C.W., and Wan, M.P., Use of Multi-transition Metal-ion-exchanged Zeolite 13X Catalysts in Methane Emissions Abatement, Combustion and Flame, v153, pp. 119-129, 2008.

8. Kwong, C.W., Chao, C.Y.H. , Wang, J.H. , Cheung, C.W.  and Kendall, G., Co-combustion Performance of Coal with Rice Husks and Bamboo, Atmospheric Environment,  v41, pp. 7462-7472, 2007.

9. Kwong, C.W., Chao, C.Y.H. and Hui, K.S., Potential Use of a Combined Ozone and Zeolite System for Gaseous Toluene Elimination, Journal of Hazardous Materials, v143, pp. 118-127, 2007.

 

Scholarly Book Chapters

10.  Kwong, C.W. and Chao, C.Y.H., Utilization of Fly-Ash Products from Biomass Co-Combustion and Zeolite 13X for Building Energy Conservations, Editors: R.J. Howlett and S.H. Lee, Sustainability in Energy and Buildings, pp. 127-135, Springer Verlag, 2009, ISBN:978-3-642-03453-4. 

Refereed Conference Papers 

11. Hui, K.S., Kwong C.W. and Chao, C.Y.H., Abatement of Dilute Methane using Combined Ozone and Pd-Ion-Exchanged Zeolite, Chemeca 2010: The 40th Australasian Chemical Engineering Conference, Sept. 26-29, 2010, Adelaide, Australia.

12. Kwong, C.W., Wu, C.L. and Chao, C.Y.H., Coal and Biomass Fly-ash Products for Hybrid Desiccant Ventilation System, The 6^th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (ISHVAC’09), Nov. 6-9, 2009, Nanjing, China.

13. Kwong, C.W., Chao, C.Y.H., Hui, K.S. and Wan, M.P., Ozonation of VOCs over various Porous Materials for Indoor Air Purification. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate (Indoor Air’08), Aug. 17-22, 2008, Copenhagen, Denmark.

14. Hu, J.S., Kwong, C.W., and Chao, C.Y.H., Energy Saving Study in a Hotel HVAC System, Proceedings of The 6th International Conference On Indoor Air Quality, Ventilation and Energy Conservation in Buildings (IAQVEC 2007), Oct. 28-31, 2007, Sendai, Japan.

15. Chao, C.Y.H. and Kwong, C.W., Energy in Buildings in Hong Kong - A Lesson for the Mainland, Proceedings of The 6th International Conference On Indoor Air Quality, Ventilation and Energy Conservation in Buildings (IAQVEC 2007), Oct. 28-31, 2007, Sendai, Japan.

16. Hui, K.S., Chao, C.Y.H., Kwong, C.W. and Wan, M.P., Performance of Transition Metal Ions Exchanged Zeolite 13X in Greenhouse Gas Reduction. Proceedings of ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2007), Nov. 11-15, 2007, Seattle, Washington, USA.

17. Kwong, C.W. and Chao, C.Y.H., Effect of Biomass Blending Ratio and Excess Air Ratio on Co-firing of Coal with Rice Husk and Bamboo. Proceedings of A&WMA 100th Annual Conference and Exhibition, Jun. 26-19, 2007, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

18. Kwong, C.W., Chao, C.Y.H., Hui, K.S. and Wan, M.P., Catalytic Oxidation of Toluene by Ozone over NaX, NaY and MCM-41 Adsorbents. Proceedings of A&WMA 100th Annual Conference and Exhibition, Jun. 26-19, 2007, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

19. Kwong, C.W., Chao, C.Y.H. and Wang, J.H., Co-Combustion of Coal with Rice Husk and Bamboo in Power Generation, Proceedings of Energy Sustainability 2007 (ES2007), Jun 27-30, 2007, Long Beach, California.

20. Chao, C.Y.H., Kwong, C.W. and Hui, K.S., Effect of Ozone on Zeolite based Filtration System in Gaseous Pollutant Removal, Proceedings of Healthy Buildings 2006 (HB2006), 4-8 Jun, 2006, Lisboa, Portugal.

Professional Associations

Conference Organising Committee
1. Advisory and Organizing Committee Members of the 8th Asia Pacific Conference on
Sustainable Energy & Environmental Technologies (APCSEET 2011)
The University of Adelaide, Australia
2. Technical Programme Committee, Chemeca 2010, Adelaide, Australia
3. Technical Programme Committee, Chemeca 2011, New South Wales, Australia

Refereed for the following organisations
Journals:
Bioresource Technology, Energy and Fuels, Chemical Engineering and Processing and Journal of the Energy Institute.

Conferences:
Chemeca 2011, New South Wales, Australia; Chemeca, 2010, Adelaide, Australia; The 6th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (ISHVAC), 2009, Southeast University, Nanjing, China; International Conference on Sustainability in Energy and Buildings (SEB), 2009, University of Brighton, United Kingdom.

 

Entry last updated: Monday, 4 Apr 2011