Chen has nearly 30 years of working experience in research and development on energy and environment-related projects. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed journal papers. His research papers have been widely cited by peers, and he has a Google Scholar Citation of more than 32,000 and an H-index of 93. He also has three US patents and ten Chinese patents.

Chen obtained his BEng from Dalian University of Technology in 1984 and his MEng and PhD from McGill University, respectively, in 1989 and 1994. He joined Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as a Visiting Scholar in 1994, becoming an Assistant Professor in 1997, before being promoted to Associate Professor in 2002 and then Full Professor in 2008. He worked as the Head of Department, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, between 2012 and 2016. He moved to the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University as Chair Professor of Energy Conversion and Storage in 2017 and served concurrently as an Associate Vice President (Research Support) during 2017–2021.

He has been the recipient of the inaugural Research Excellence Award, School of Engineering, HKUST, and the winner of the Merit Award for Individual Research, Faculty of Engineering, HKPolyU. He is a Fellow of HKIE, AIChE, Global Academy of Chinese Chemical Engineers. He was also elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. He served as the President, Asian-Pacific Confederation of Chemical Engineering. He is now the Chairman, World Chemical Engineering Council. He is Editor-in-Chief, Process Safety and Environmental Protection; Editor, Separation and Purification Technology; Associate Editor, Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering; and Associate Editor, Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering.