On Nov. 19th, Prof. Gang, Byungha became a proud recipient of an Asian Academic Award, which is presented by both the Society Air-conditioning and Refrigerating Engineers of Korea and the Japanese Society Air-conditioning and Refrigerating Engineers. The most prestigious award, AAA is presented to people who have contributed the most to the development of the Air-conditioning and Refrigerating engineering field in Asia.

Prof. Gang has published a numerous number of papers on various CO2 and oil compounds for refrigerants in domestic and international journals over the years. Particularly, he examined how CO2 and oil compounds react under different temperature and pressure for their everyday use. He has also provided a useful body of information for selecting the most suitable oil for the CO2 refrigerating system by examining anti-absorbency and insulation property of oils as well as how suitable each oil is with other materials.

In addition to the aforementioned credit to his extensive body of achievement, he presented several of his outstanding papers at the Asian Air-conditioning and Refrigerating Engineers academic conferences hosted in Japan, China, and Taiwan. As the head of Korean chapter for the International institute of Refrigeration, he represents Korea and is recognized for his contributions to the academic field of Asian Air-conditioning and Refrigerating as well as its industrial field through working collaboratively with the Japanese and Chinese Society Air-conditioning and Refrigerating Engineers at many international academic conferences.

Prof. Gang's paper, "An Experimental study on Oil Separation Characteristics of CO2/PAG Oil Mixture in an Oil Separator" selected as the 2010 AAA award paper provides useful insights into architecting a refrigerating system that uses CO2 for its refrigerant. In this paper, Prof. Gang examines the characteristics of how CO2 and PAG oil get separated when they are mixed together when CO2 is used as a refrigerant.

Refrigerating oil is used as a lubricant to decrease the wear between the bearing or cylinder and piston of the compressor. It is also used as a coolant for the heat generated from friction, sealant for the axial seal or piston, and anti-corrosive agent to facilitate the smooth operation of the compressor. Since refrigerating oil circulates the entire cycle as a dissolved form in a refrigerant, its temperature is easily affected by the changes in the refrigerant, and it needs to withstand the changes and keep together. Especially, among many other specific characteristics required in refrigerating oil used in airproof compressors, keeping electricity from being transferred is an imperative requirement for refrigerating oil. Therefore, it is highly important to select suitable oil according to a refrigerant or mechanism used.