Lawrence, KS- Icorium Engineering Company, a climate-tech startup and University of Kansas spinout, announces the expansion of its R&D operations in Lawrence with the addition of two recent KU Chemical Engineering graduates. The additions bring Icorium’s headcount to seven employees, with its offices at the KU Innovation Park on KU’s West Campus.
Joining the company as its Head of R&D, Dr. Abby Harders will support the development of Icorium’s extractive distillation technologies for refrigerant reclamation and will work to expand the company’s portfolio of advanced separation technologies. A 2024 PhD graduate of KU’s School of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Harders is a native of Moundridge, Kansas, and earned her bachelor’s degrees in Chemistry and Mathematics from Bethel College. Harders worked for Icorium during her PhD program as an R&D Engineer and is an expert in amorphous polymer membrane separations. Focusing on the development of hollow-fiber membrane modules for refrigerant separations during her PhD, Harders has six first-author and four co-author manuscripts on the subject and is a co-inventor on KU’s pending patent related to perfluoropolymer membrane separations, developed through a collaboration between KU and Chromis Technologies.
Icorium also welcomes back former R&D Engineering Intern, Luke Wallisch. A recent graduate of KU’s Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering program, Wallisch joins the company full-time as an R&D engineer. During his time as an undergraduate researcher at KU’s Wonderful Institute for Sustainable Engineering and a member of the Shiflett Research Group, Luke worked alongside Dr. Harders on the NSF funded “Project EARTH” initiative, with a focus on sustainable refrigerant gas separation using perfluoropolymer membranes. A native of Minnesota, Wallisch worked previously as an intern at 3M Company and as an undergraduate research assistant at KU.
About Icorium Engineering
Icorium is a climate tech company developing and commercializing technologies to enable and incentivize true circular economies for refrigerants, propellants, and other complex chemical mixtures. To learn more about Icorium and its technology, or to inquire about partnerships, visit icorium.us.