04 November 2009
Recycling technology group RockTron won the top prize at last night’s 2009 IChemE innovation and excellence awards ceremony in York, UK.
RockTron, based in Widnes, UK was awarded the Nicklin medal (sponsored by BP) after being recognised as the outstanding entry across all eleven award categories.
Almost 350 VIP guests and chemical engineers attended the event at York Racecourse, hosted by UK racing presenter, Derek ‘Tommo’ Thompson.
RockTron, shortlisted for the sustainable technology award (sponsored by ABB), based its winning entry around an eco-mineral processing plant that aims to process power station waste (fly ash or pulverised fuel ash) to produce economically viable products with no waste or effluent. The plant can store both fresh and stockpiled fly ash and the process uses pneumatic flotation cells, specifically designed for fine particle separation.
The Nicklin medal is a new prize awarded for the first time this year and initiated in memory of the late Don Nicklin. Nicklin, who died in 2007, was Chair of IChemE in Australia and head of chemical engineering at Queensland University, Australia.
Elsewhere, the Dow Chemical Company and BASF won the core engineering award (sponsored by Sellafield Ltd), Spirax Sarco lifted the energy award (sponsored by the National Nuclear Laboratory), Ove Arup & Partners won the water management and supply award (sponsored by the IChemE Water Subject Group) and Anglo American won the health and safety award (sponsored by Stopford).
It was also a good night for UK academics with Loughborough University, Imperial College London, Nottingham University and Cardiff University & Solvay winning the Bioprocessing (sponsored by Yorkshire Forward), education and training (sponsored by NSAPI), food and drink processing (sponsored by the school of chemical engineering at Birmingham University) and sustainable technology awards, respectively.
The winners of the two individual prizes were Dominic Foo and Graeme Towers. Foo, based at the University of Nottingham, Malaysia campus, won the innovator of the year award (sponsored by NES). Towers, from EngineerAid, UK clinched the young engineer of the year award (sponsored by GSK).
And researchers at Queens University Belfast won a $10,000 prize as winners of the Dhirubhai Ambani award for outstanding chemical engineering innovation for the resource – poor people (sponsored by Reliance Industries), for its novel process for removing arsenic from drinking water, a technology that will support people in Eastern India and South East Asia.
IChemE Chief Executive, David Brown says the event was a night to remember: “The wide breadth of technologies and sectors shortlisted tells you all you need to know about the diverse nature of our community.”
The awards – now in their sixteenth year – attracted a record number of entries this year, from more than 20 countries.
The full list of award winners and highly commended entries can be view here >>
A selection of photos from the IChemE awards dinner 2009 are now available to view online >>