Liang Feng Wins Early Career Award for Carbon-Capture Research

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) recently announced its first cohort to join its Inspiring Generations of New Innovators to Impact Technologies in Energy 2024 (IGNIITE 2024) program.

ARPA-E funds transformational research and high-risk, high-reward projects. Existing energy technologies typically evolve along established “learning curves.” In contrast, ARPA-E backs transformative research aimed at establishing entirely new learning curves, accelerating energy technologies for the future. 

The IGNIITE program was created to support a new cohort of early-career innovators to develop the most disruptive and unconventional ideas into transformative new technologies across the full spectrum of energy applications.

Liang Feng, assistant professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS) at Duke, will receive $500,000 in federal funding to advance research focused on eliminating plastic waste and developing new carbon-capture solutions. 

Earlier this month, Feng and other IGNIITE awardees were recognized at a special ceremony at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., along with Duke’s Vice Chair of Board of Trustees Carmichael Roberts, Duke MEMS Department Chair Cate Brinson, and Yoh Family Professor of MEMS Christine Payne. 

There they engaged in conversations about the impact of their energy research. Feng is developing a process to convert plastic waste, such as plastic bottles and bags, into adsorbents to capture carbon dioxide.

The approach seeks to take advantage of the tough and long-lasting nature of plastics to create carbon-dioxide sponges with high porosity and durability. “I am proud to be one of the innovators selected for this groundbreaking program,” Feng said of the recognition. “Imagine we lived in a world where our extensive carbon emissions can be significantly reduced by the discarded plastic waste.”

“And I am deeply grateful to have this support from ARPA-E to IGNIITE the vision for my independent career and to develop transformative technologies for a better future.”