Techno-feasibility & sustainability assessment methodology for membrane process development

Persons involved: Pablo Almendras Flores (PhD Candidate), Rob Lammertink (promotor), Joris de Grooth (co-promotor), Anurag Arun (daily supervisor)
Duration: 2024-2028
Funding: EU Project Bio-GENTLE (https://www.bio-gentle.eu/)

Introduction

In concordance with several EU/global initiatives (SDGs, EU Green Deal) it is necessary to move towards more sustainable practices to reach sustainable development, and within the membrane technology field it has also become a major concern in recent years. This project focuses on assessing the sustainability of membrane-based processes, tackling the analysis from the 3 main pillars of sustainability: environmental, economic and social. By integrating process economy and Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and using scenario analysis based on real data, literature and experimental inputs from the others DCs, a comprehensive assessment framework will be developed that can be used to help membrane-based emerging technologies to reach industrial viability while being sustainable at the same time.

Key words

Membrane technology, sustainability assessment, process feasibility, life cycle analysis, techno-economic analysis, scenario analysis

Technological challenges

Achieving a balance between membrane performance, cost-effectiveness and sustainability may represent a challenge due to high reliance on fossil based raw materials and this issue can compromise the processes scalability and reliability in industrial applications.

Research goal

To develop a methodology for evaluating the sustainability of membrane-based processes through scenario analysis, integrating economic, environmental and technical aspects to enhance the development of novel separation technologies.