Chunshan Song

Chunshan Song is a chemical engineer, chemist, energy researcher, and academic. He is the Dean of Science and Wei Lun Professor of Chemistry at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and a Distinguished Professor emeritus of Fuel Science and Chemical Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University at University Park.

Song's research specializes in energy chemistry and heterogeneous catalysis, wherein he has focused on CO₂ capture and utilization (CCU) for the development of sustainable supply chains of chemicals and fuels. He is a recipient of the 2019 George A. Olah Award in Hydrocarbon or Petroleum Chemistry and the 2010 Henry H. Storch Award in Fuel Chemistry from the American Chemical Society. He is a fellow of the American Chemical Society and a distinguished fellow of the International Association for Carbon Capture. He was elected as a fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering in 2025, and was also named as a 2025 Pioneer in Energy Research in the field of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) by the American Chemical Society's journal Energy and Fuels.

Education Song was born in the Qiaodong district of Shijiazhuang, Hebei. He completed his Bachelor's in Chemical Engineering at the Dalian University of Technology in 1982. Afterwards, he studied at Osaka University where he received a Master's and a Ph.D. in Applied Chemistry in 1986 and 1989, respectively.

Career Song was a research associate, then as an assistant professor, and associate professor of Fuel Science at the Pennsylvania State University from 1998 to 2003. He became professor of Fuel Science with his tenure beginning in 2003 and was also appointed professor of Chemical Engineering in 2008. In 2010, he was named Distinguished Professor of Fuel Science, He moved to Hong Kong in 2020, where he has been the Dean of Science and Wei Lun Professor of Chemistry in the Faculty of Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Song is the founding director of the Joint Institute of Advanced Materials and Green Energy Research (JIAMGER), established in November 2024 between CUHK and the Great Bay University.

Song and his colleagues pioneered a tri-reforming process that combines CO₂ reforming, steam reforming, and partial oxidation of methane to produce industrially useful syngas with desired H₂/CO ratios and without carbon deposition. He has also investigated nickel-based systems and demonstrated that supported nickel catalysts can promote dry reforming, steam reforming, and partial oxidation of methane within a single reactor. His work has shown that methane-CO₂ reactions could directly help convert CO₂ present in flue gas streams.

In the field of CO₂ capture and utilization, Song developed a class of supported amine sorbents in 2002 by physically loading monomeric or polymeric amines onto porous supports, and subsequently developed "molecular basket" sorbents in which the amine polymer polyethyleneimine (PEI) was immobilized onto porous materials for CO₂ capture. He contributed to early work on solid amine-sorbents by demonstrating the effectiveness of molecular basket sorbents such as those based on polyethylenimine. His studies on flue-gas systems found that optimal CO₂ uptake could occur at relatively higher temperatures.

Song developed successive generations of modified zeolites for producing alkylated naphthalene monomers from petroleum-derived feedstocks, including light cycle oil. His research on the ring-shift isomerization of phenanthrene derivatives into anthracene derivatives provided an understanding of the catalytic processing of complex polyaromatic hydrocarbons. His work in shape-selective catalysis also includes his book, Shape-Selective Catalysis: Chemical Synthesis and Hydrocarbon Processing, published by the American Chemical Society in 2000.

Song's research on energy and fuels has addressed challenges in producing cleaner fuels, particularly the need for novel and improved desulfurization technologies. He received the George Olah Award of the American Chemical Society in 2019 for his contributions to hydrocarbon and petroleum chemistry. He has evaluated and applied crystalline mesoporous materials such as MCM-41 for petroleum processing. studied how solvent ratios affect particle morphology, explored hydrofluoric acid as a modulator for zirconium-based MOFs, and engineered silicate-1 nanotubes up to 600 nm in length.

Awards and honors 2004 – Fulbright Distinguished Scholar, US-UK State Department 2007 – Herman Pines Award, Catalysis Club of Chicago 2010 – Fellow, American Chemical Society 2010 – Henry H. Storch Award, American Chemical Society 2011 – Excellence in Catalysis Award, Catalysis Club of Philadelphia 2011 – Distinguished Researcher Award, American Chemical Society 2017 – Global Alumni Fellow, Osaka University 2019 – George A. Olah Award in Hydrocarbon or Petroleum Chemistry, American Chemical Society 2024 – Distinguished Fellow, International Association for Carbon Capture 2024 - Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry 2025 – Pioneer in Energy Research, Energy and Fuels