Bridging Gap Between Academic Attention, Industrial Application

Dr. Wai Siong Chai, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), was named in Stanford University's prestigious World's Top 2% Scientists list for three consecutive years from 2023. But when asked what this means to him, he does not talk about prestige.

"This recognition reflects consistent research output, but citations mainly indicate academic attention, not practical deployment," he says. "For example, one of our ammonia fuel reviews received over 1,000 citations in five years, which shows strong research interest, but most of that impact remains within academia rather than industry." That distinction between academic attention and industrial application defines his entire approach to research.

Currently, his research at UNNC focuses on sustainable fuel production through thermochemical conversion of biomass and carbon resources, catalyst and reactor development, process scale-up, and techno-economic and life-cycle assessment of low-carbon fuel system, including sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), methanol and ammonia-based energy systems.

Real challenge

What makes SAF commercially viable? In Chai's field, this is the central question. His answer: "The key challenge is no longer producing fuel molecules, but ensuring the entire system works reliably, at scale, and at a cost industry can accept, both economically and environmentally."

He points out that while individual steps are well understood, failure typically occurs when efficiency, stability and economics must operate together under real conditions.

This is not a theoretical concern. In his team's CO_2 hydrogenation work, structured catalysts show less than one percent performance loss compared to around 10 percent for conventional catalysts under similar conditions. "That difference directly affects operational feasibility," he says.

He has repeatedly seen solutions validated in the laboratory fail under industrial conditions. As he puts it, this reinforces the need to design research with scale in mind from the outset.

With over 50 publications, 5,000+ citations and an H-index of 30, his academic impact is clear. But he is frank about the gap that remains.

Policy alignment and regional context

Having earned both his bachelor's degree and PhD from the University of Nottingham Malaysia and subsequently worked at the University's Malaysia and China campuses, Chai has experienced how research is translated across different regional and industrial contexts. From this experience, he has learned that strong fundamentals alone are insufficient. "Implementation depends on how well research aligns with industrial and regional contexts," he argues.

In Ningbo, he finds that alignment works. "The strong alignment between policy, industry and research in Ningbo enables faster transition from concept to application," he says, "particularly when supported by regional talent programs and industrial partnerships."

As a chemical engineer watching China's energy landscape, Chai has seen that "transformation" is not a slogan. He has watched it take shape — from the south to the east. Energy transformation and industrial transformation run in parallel. Industries climb higher up the value chain, yet traditional sectors are not cast aside; they evolve alongside.

What enables this, he observes, is not just market force but deliberate, long-term government planning and policy continuity. "The speed catches me by surprise sometimes. The scale, too. But the direction has been clear and consistent."

Looking ahead to a future carbon-neutral energy landscape, Chai sees clear complementary roles for his two main research areas. "SAF addresses aviation, where few alternatives exist," he explains, "while ammonia and methanol can serve as hydrogen carriers, particularly for marine transport, energy storage and future hydrogen infrastructure."

Learning from failure

Chai's career path was far from a straight line. With only one paper upon graduation, he could not find a lecturing job. He later did his postdoc at Zhejiang University, learning to dig into problems while continuing to publish papers.

He acknowledges that both academic and industrial worlds have become very competitive. Yet his advice to young researchers is not to simply chase more publications. "Young researchers should focus on understanding the real-world problems deeply," he says. "Focus less on chasing quick publication, and more on high-quality, impactful work that can benefit the real world or industry. That requires strong fundamentals, patience and the ability to handle failure."

He admits that sometimes results contradict what you first thought, and that is discouraging. "But when you analyze why a certain technique is not so good, it's the real research part."

This philosophy carries into his teaching. At UNNC, he integrates green engineering and sustainable design principles by treating sustainability as a constraint rather than a topic. "Students are required to evaluate performance, environmental impact, safety and cost simultaneously," he says, "often through open-ended problems where trade-offs must be justified rather than avoided."

Source: Science and Technology Daily