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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: 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.