Download EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable

MRes Project Proposal Form 2016
EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Chemical Technologies
Project Title: BIOMOFMEM: Composite Metal Organic Framework membranes for
enhanced separation of biorenewables
Lead Supervisor, Dr Darrell Patterson (Membranes),
Department and contact Department of Chemical Engineering
details: [email protected]; ext. 6088
Co-supervisor(s), Prof. Andrew Burrows (MOFs),
Department(s), and contact Department of Chemistry, [email protected]
details:
Prof. Tina Düren (Simulations),
Department of Chemical Engineering, [email protected]
Prof. David Leak (Fermentations),
Department of Biology and Biochemistry, [email protected]
Core Areas ☐ Systems
(Select 2 as appropriate): ☒ Processes
☒ Materials
☐ Molecules
Main theme: ☐ Energy & Water
☒ Renewable Feedstocks & Biotechnology
☐ Processes & Manufacturing
☐ Healthcare Technologies
Secondary theme(s): ☐ Energy and Water
Optional ☐ Renewable Feedstocks & Biotechnology
☒ Processes & Manufacturing
☐ Healthcare Technologies
Semester preference: ☒ No preference
☐ Project 1: Semester 1/2
☐ Project 2: Semester 3 (Summer 2016)
Research Area & Project Outline (max. 500 words):
Membranes provide low energy separations for many industrial processes. Gas fermentation of
carbon monoxide and hydrogen has the potential for producing various chemical feedstocks for
fuels and chemicals from waste or sustainably managed sources. However for these renewable
biofuels and chemicals to be competitive within the market they need to be cost comparable with
current crude oil based products. One of the most energy intensive parts of the process is
recovery of the dilute biologically produced chemicals (< 8 g L-1) from the fermentation broth and
can attribute to over half the cost of their microbial production.
opportunity for energy and monetary savings.
Therefore there is a huge
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a type of novel microporous material that can achieve
separation of compounds. The unique ability to systematically change the chemical environment
of a MOF potentially allows tailoring for specific separations. MOFs however cannot easily be
made into a membrane, since they are both expensive and brittle, so a compromise (in order to
utilize their unique properties) is to use them as the additional phase in polymer-MOF mixed
matrix membranes, enhancing the selectivity and transport in more flexible and processable
membrane materials. This is a relatively new area and so a number of significant issues can be
addressed by this project:
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The full tailorability of MOFs on separation selectivity has not yet been explored – a wide
range of water stable MOF materials still need to be evaluated (with a wide range of new
frameworks still waiting to be synthesized).
The mechanism of separation within MOFs is relatively unknown and poorly understood for
alcohol / water separations. It is therefore intended to study this separation mechanism
within MOFs for the recovery of bio-alcohols from a fermentation broth. If the interactions
causing a certain rejection can be identified, then MOF membranes could be tailored to
either permeate or reject a specific molecule. This will be done experimentally and
computationally.
The possible separations and enhanced transport properties of these types of membranes
for the separations of biorenewable molecules for sustainable feedstocks (such as butanol,
isobutanol, 2,3-butanediol and bioethanol) have not yet been fully explored, exploited or
optimised.
Continuing work by CSCT PhD student Chris Davey and CSCT MRes student Maria Weber, we
aim to synthesize, characterize and apply at least two MOF-polymer membrane systems for
biorenewable molecule separation from a fermentation broth.
Further information:
Davey et al. 2016. Journal of Membrane Science, 518, pp. 150-158.
Davey et al. 2016. Membranes, 6(1), 1-17.
Sustainability Issues Addressed (max. 100 words):
This project will primarily help make the separation and recovery of dilute biorenewable
products from fermentations more sustainable by introducing a lower energy separation
process. An application for this is Lanzatech’s already environmentally sustainable process
(which produces renewable alcohols such as bioethanol and butanediol from CO in waste gas
streams: http://www.lanzatech.com/), where the main energy wastes now are in product
separations. Moreover, if successful, it will make all processes with separations of dilute bioproducts more environmentally sustainable.
Multi-disciplinarity Issues Addressed (max. 100 words):
This is an intrinsically multi-disciplinary project, looking at MOF chemistry, computational
chemical science and engineering, and polymer and polymer thin film (membrane) science and
engineering. The project can look at the level of molecular science (e.g. the polymer chemistry,
MOF chemistry, molecular dynamics, molecular mass transport and structural mechanisms) up
to the applied engineering level (e.g. controlling bulk fabrication variables and trouble-shooting
the novel films in process equipment that can be easily scaled-up). As such, the development
of this project into a CSCT DTC PhD project in the future will strongly align with and benefit
from the multidisciplinary CSCT project environment and ethos.
Expected periods of absence (of >2 weeks):
None currently.
Potential external collaborator(s) details:
Lanzatech
University of Monash, Australia
Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Synergies with other CDT MRes projects
There will be synergies will all other membrane separation related projects, including
“Immortal 3D printed polymer membranes for water treatment” and with other projects related
to the synthesis and modeling of MOFs.
Potential for development into CDT PhD project
This project can be developed into a full CDT PhD project in any aspect of the work.