Projects

Electro-membrane processes using ion-exchange membranes have been widely used in numerous applications, such as electrodialytic demineralization of saline water, treatment of industrial effluents. However, the presence of multivalent ions, such as CO32-, SO42- or Ca2+, Mg2+ may result in a detrimental risk of membrane scaling, which in turn hinder the membrane performance, for instance, decreasing the current efficiency and increasing the ...

Electro-membrane processes are critical for implementing an effective water circular economy. Among these, electrodialysis (ED) is considered a convenient choice for blackish water desalination, wastewater treatment (in view of resource recovery), trace contaminants removal and fractionation of specific metals (Li+, Mg+, …). Currently, the development of ED processes is hindered by the high cost of the system, which largely comes from ion ...

Developing membranes that facilitate to ion transport and ionic selectivity has gained tremendous attention in recent years and they might become a potential solution for the world’s most challenging problems facing water pollution and shortage. A stereo hierarchical porous composite structure was developed by cover charged materialsinto the pores of an ultrafiltration membrane. The obtained charged membrane with precise control of porous is ...

In the near future, there will be an increase of interest in the production of chemicals from plant biomass. This production process however, is not optimized yet. After pre-treating the plant mass, some compounds have to be removed before it can be further processed. In the end of the production process, the different valuable compounds have to be separated. Electrodialysis, a membrane separation process in which charged compounds are ...

With average global temperatures rising, increasingly harsh weather conditions, and more frequent occurrences of severe storms, it is apparent that climate change due to global warming remains a main concern across the world. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the most important greenhouse gases contributing to global warming, and current atmospheric CO2 concentrations keep increasing due to the growing energy demand and the continuous burning of ...

The objective is the development of a sustainable method for preparing new and recyclable phosphorus based flame-retardant additives, in view of the need to replace brominated compounds. To this aim, Lewis acidic catalysts for exchange reactions of phosphate esters with N-nucleophiles (like anilines) will be studied. In particular, solid catalysts are envisioned to facilitate product workup. Besides, the fate of different flame retardants ...

Many industrial reactors are operated at liquid phase conditions. Some particular challanges exist in the measurement of the corresponding kinetics at the laboratory scale, e.g., with respect to gas and liquid hold-up and mass transfer between the two phases. The dominant factors in the behaviour of a Robinson Mahoney reactor will be investigated in a stystematic manner.

Membrane technology has grown significantly over the last decades and is used in a broad range of applications nowadays. Nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) are applied for the separation of low molecular weight components (< 1000 Da) and salts from the feed stream. The main part of the commercial NF and RO membranes are either integrally skinned asymmetric (ISA) or interfacially polymerized thin film composite (TFC) membranes. ...

One of the largest challenges in the worldwide energy transformation to renewable energy is the fluctuating energy output that has to be balanced by large-scale energy storage. Redox flow batteries (RFBs) are one of the more promising approaches for such large-scale energy grids. Currently, vanadium based aqueous RFBs are the best performing, although the electrolysis of water intrinsically limits the cell potential. Also the temperature ...

In this study, two high performance commercial polyimide polymers, Extem and U-Varnish, and an ultra-performance polyamide-imide polymer, Rhodeftal, were selected to be employed as new materials for the preparation of membranes for CO2 separation. The phase separation behaviour of Extem/water/solvent systems for various solvents and Extem/NMP/non-solvent systems for different types of coagulants was investigated. Ternary phase diagrams were ...