Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2024
  • B.S., Chemical Engineering, Ohio State University, 2018
Professional Honors
  • German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Research Grant Recipient, 2021-2022
Professional Affiliations
  • American Institute of Chemical Engineers

Chunyi Li is a chemical engineer specializing in sustainable energy production and gas separation processes. Li has expertise in carbon capture from pre-combustion and post-combustion processes in fossil fuel power plants, biogas and natural gas upgrading, and hydrocarbon gas separation for petrochemical production. Li combines the fundamental understanding of thermodynamics and mass transfer of small molecule adsorption and diffusion in microporous solids with engineering experience in designing adsorption and membrane processes.   

Li's doctorate study at Georgia Institute of Technology was centered around reducing atmospheric Greenhouse Gas emissions through biomethane production from biogas. Specifically, Li's work focused on developing adsorption materials using microporous solids such as metal-organic framework (MOF) materials, designing structured contactors for low-pressure drop adsorption processes using fiber sorbents, and fabricating mixed-matrix membranes combining polymer and MOF for natural gas separation. 

Li is proficient in designing and constructing testing setups involving flammable and toxic gas flows at the lab scale, including troubleshooting and leak testing to mitigate the risk of fire or toxic gas exposure. She has experience with characterization techniques including Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry (MS), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Pore Size Distribution Analysis, BET Surface Area Analysis, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (DRIFTS), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (1H-NMR).