THE SCALE UP LAB
About Us
Our journey towards technologies that enable circular chemical engineering.
We are a team of researchers based in The University of Edinburgh who are passionate about creating novel materials in a sustainable manner to innovate separation processes in chemical engineering.
Our Story
The Scale Up Lab was established in November 2016 where we started to explore how the synthesis of microporous adsorbents for carbon capture, desalination, water treatment and resource recovery could be scaled up using continuous flow chemistry. Over the years, this research activity has expanded into replacing fossil-derived feedstocks with plastic waste and using biorenewable solvents to synthesise these sorbents in flow reactors and other continuous manufacturing technologies.
The Team has also used this strategy to transform the sustainability of polymer membrane fabrication. We developed a sustainable additive manufacturing technology to fabricate thin-film composite polymer membranes using biorenewable solvents in a single process. This reduced the time required to make these polymer membranes, from 1-3 days to 20 minutes.
In 2019, the team started to look at developing photo-responsive sorbents for unlocking zero-carbon, low-cost carbon capture, resource recovery and water treatment. This is now the cornerstone of the research conducted in The Scale Up Lab.
Meet The Team
Cher Hon (Sam) Lau
Principal Investigator & Senior Lecturer
Research:
Advancing materials science with green chemistry principles to innovate chemical engineering processes for a circular economy.
Qi (Kiki) Huang
Post-doctoral research associate
Research:
Novel materials for light-induced metal recovery from wastewater, and carbon capture.
Ruixue Sun
Post-doctoral research associate
Research:
Nanomaterials for sunlight-driven extraction and conversion of atmospheric resources into high-value chemicals.
Nikita Rog
PhD student
Research:
Microporous adsorbents for zero-carbon, zero-waste solvent recovery from complex mixtures.
Yizhuo Xu
PhD Student
Research:
Sustainable additive manufacturing of microporous polymers and their membranes.
Luqiao Feng
PhD Student
Research:
Evaluating the sustainability of technologies that enable circular chemical engineering.
Wenyu Shen
PhD Student
Research: Photo-responsive isoporous membranes for gravity-driven desalination.
Shaoyang Gao
PhD student
Research:
Design and development of materials for zero-waste specific separations.
Xiaojun Sun
Visiting PhD student from Dalian University of Technology
Research:
Scale up manufacturing of microporous polymer membranes.
Dr. Aotian Liu (PhD student 2020 - 2023)
Dr. Nadhita Chanchaona (PhD student 2020 - 2023)
Dr. Liang Ding (PhD student 2020 - 2024)
Dr. Shiliang Lin (PhD student 2021 - 2024)
Previous group members
Our Research Collaborators
