Energy

Reverse Electro Dialysis stack

Blue Energy

(David Vermaas, Enver Güler)

Blue Energy or Reverse Electro Dialysis (RED) is a non-polluting, sustainable method to generate electricity from the mixing of sea and river water. Key aspects and current research projects on Blue Energy are 1) Membrane development and 2) Hydrodynamics and fouling.

CO₂ and water vapor removal from flue gasses

(Dr. ir. Kitty Nijmeijer)

The removal of both water vapor and CO₂ from gas streams are important, energy consuming separations in many industrial applications. This work aims to develop a membrane based CO₂ and water vapor separation technology combined with a fundamental understanding of the mass transfer processes occurring in the membranes.

Ultra-thin polymer membranes

(Wojciech Ogiegło)

Reduction of thickness of the selective skin in composite membranes has a large benefit – an increase of the fluid flux, and therefore higher efficiency of the process. However, in many cases the behavior of an ultra-thin polymer layer (below 100 nm) might be different than the bulk behavior. That involves the changes of polymer properties such as glass transition temperature or Young’s modulus. The project is aimed at the investigation of such effects for membrane relevant polymers using state of the art variable pressure and temperature in-situ techniques (i.e. spectroscopic ellipsometry).

Biorefinery

(Olga Kattan)

The depletion in fossil feedstocks, increasing oil prices and ecological problems associated with CO₂ emissions urges the chemical industry to develop novel routes to produce building blocks for functionalized specialty and bulk chemicals. As such, amino acids are very promising. In this work we explore the potential of electrodialysis (ED) for the separation of amino acids (aa’s) that can be obtained from cheap feedstocks, e.g. proteins from cereals and oilseeds. The work is a collaboration with Wageningen University, which investigates the specific modification of the aa’s towards chemical building blocks.

Membrane based olefin/paraffin separation

(Jeroen Ploegmakers)

The separation of olefins and paraffins is one of the most energy demanding separation processes. By replacing the current distillation with membranes, significant energy reductions can be obtained. This project aims at developing membranes for the separation of olefins and paraffins and understanding structure/property relationships.

Alkaline fuel cells

Fuel cells

(Dr. ir. Kitty Nijmeijer)

The rising cost of oil, a more environmentally-conscious public, and fears that oil supplies will dry up within 50 years are forcing change. Fuel cell technology, particularly alkaline fuel cell (AFC), is seen as a viable alternative. AFCs were the first practical working fuel cells. The present work focuses on the development of efficient anion conducting membranes for application in alkaline fuel cells.

Catalytic membrane reactors

(Harro Mengers)

CO₂ is a cheap feedstock. However, it is also a very stable molecule and therefore it is difficult to convert it into useful products. In several applications where CO₂ could be used as feedstock, water is produced as side product.

This project investigates the concept of catalytic membrane reactors as a way to selectively remove water from the reaction mixture in order to shift the equilibrium to the product side and produce more valuable product.

Nanofiltration for extreme conditions

(Dr. ir. Kitty Nijmeijer)

At present practically all nanofiltration membranes are suitable for treatment of aqueous streams at pH levels between 2 and 10. However, most potential applications in the chemical industry require separation processes at more extreme conditions (lower or higher pH, and operation in environments with more aggressive organic chemicals). The objective of the project is to develop robust (chemically stable) NF membranes for bulk liquid separation in the chemical industry. The NF membranes should be stable at high and low pH, stable in hydrocarbon containing environments, stable in oxidative environments and not prone to abrasion.