Join our “New developments in membranes” online workshop

Join our “New developments in membranes” online workshop

In the last days, our project member, Prof. Frank Lipnizki from the Department of Chemical Engineering of Lund University (Sweden) has had the opportunity to organise a workshop on “New Membrane Developments” with some great international speakers.

The online workshop is free-of-charge and took place on Thursday 7th of December from 9:00 – 11:00am.

The aim of the workshop is to provide an overview on recent developments of membrane with focus on water and wastewater. For this, the LUND team has invited some of the leading researchers in the field from Japan, Egypt, India and Sweden.

Membranes are the centre of all the stages of the desalination process, nanofiltration (NF) pre-treatment, Forward Osmosis (FO) and Membrane Distillation (MD) processes. In DESOLINATION, modelling and small-scale testing activities will target the optimization of all steps of hybrid membrane separations. First, NF membranes will be used to reduce fouling and scaling effect in FO. Then, the FO separation membrane will be fine-tuned to ensure control over high water flux in combination with low reverse flux from the draw to the feed solution and thus maximize the efficiency and use of the osmotic pressure difference between the seawater and the draw solution. Lastly, the MD separation membrane needs to optimize the removal of pure water from the draw solution and must therefore be adapted to the chemical and physical properties of the draw solution designed for thermal heat recovery, as well as to the temperature and pressure conditions required for the VMD recovery process.

AGENDA

09:00 – Welcome (Prof. Frank Lipnizki, Lund University, Sweden)

09:05  – Prof. Takeo Yamaguchi (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan): Modification of antifouling membrane surfaces

09:30 – Prof. Marwa Shalaby (National Research Centre Cairo, Egypt):  Water shortage and membrane applications

09:55 – Prof. Sabu Thomas (Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India): Polysaccharide based membranes for water purification: Recent advances

10:20 – Prof. (assoc.) Naser Tavajohi (Umeå University, Sweden): A greener approach to PVDF membrane production

10:45 – Final Discussion (ALL)

11:00 – End

Meeting ID: 335 628 157 200
Passcode: y3oLXa

Modified ceramic membranes for the treatment of highly saline mixtures utilized in vacuum membrane distillation

Modified ceramic membranes for the treatment of highly saline mixtures utilized in vacuum membrane distillation

Membrane Distillation processes could enable the treatment of highly saline solutions and facilitate minimal (MLD) or zero liquid discharge (ZLD) applications. Ceramic membranes can be a robust alternative to polymeric membranes if they are chemically modified to exhibit hydrophobic qualities to prevent wetting, particularly for vacuum membrane distillation (VMD). This study found that the thin top layer of asymmetrically structured ceramic membranes is robust enough for highly saline and abrasive suspensions and that TiO2 membranes outperform Al2O3 membranes in respect to the mass transport due to their larger support pore size and lower thermal conductivity. A maximum permeate flux of 35 kg/(m2 h) with exceptionally high rejections were measured in VMD using a saline brine with a concentration of 350 g NaCl per kg H2O. Furthermore, a VMD mass transfer model was successfully adopted (based on the Dusty Gas Model) to facilitate the calculation of the mass transfer through asymmetrically structured TiO2 membranes. Model deficiencies such as the underestimation of polarization effects were discussed, and correction factors integrated accordingly. This was done to establish a mass transfer modelling fundament for asymmetrical ceramic membranes used in MD that can be extended in future works and possibly serve as a tool for membrane optimization.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2023.116943

Authors:

  • J. Schnittger, T. Hoyer, M. Weyd, I. Voigt | Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems (IKTS), Germany
  • Jeffrey R. McCutcheon | University of Connecticut, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, United States of America
  • A. Lerch | TUD Dresden University of Technology, Germany
ENLIT Europe 2023 – the DESOLINATION project was exhibiting at the energy forum!

ENLIT Europe 2023 – the DESOLINATION project was exhibiting at the energy forum!

From November 28 to 30, the DESOLINATION project had the opportunity to exhibit at #EnlitEurope 2023, an end-to-end, inclusive and ever-growing forum addressing all aspects of the energy agenda in Paris Expo Porte de Versailles.

An excellent opportunity for our EU-funded projects (participating in programmes such as Horizon Europe, Life and CEF), to showcase our achievements and results to energy investors and other stakeholders, enabling a basis for discussion for the implementation of sustainable measures in the field of energy transition.

Our team, represented by Damien Serret from TEMISTh, Lola Mosseri-Lefebvre and Solène Fovelle from Euroquality, was delighted to meet partner organisations from various EU-funded projects at Enlit Europe 2023 and tell them more about how additive manufacturing can help improve energy efficiency to save CO2 and produce fresh water at 📍𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝟳. 𝟮.𝗛𝟴𝟬-𝟮𝟬 (Pavilion 7 – Entrance A2).

On the third floor, in the Decarbonation section, our project partner Aalborg CSP A/S, represented by Miguel Herrador Moreno, also took the opportunity to promote the project and explain its role as responsible for overseeing the development of the plant’s concentrated solar power (CSP) desalination system.

Having developed the first desalination system powered by concentrated solar power, Aalborg CSP A/S is responsible for overseeing and supporting the development of the plant to ensure its industrial potential for post-project use.

During the Hub Sessions, the projects participating in the EU Projects Zone will share our best practices, findings and technologies.

29 Nov 2023

EU Projects Zone Hub – Theatre 2 (Hall 7.2)

EU Projects – ETIPs Forum

On Wednesday, DESOLINATION, represented by Damien Serret from project partner TEMISth, took part in a hub session promoted by the ETIPs FORUM focusing on the role of Research & Innovation (R&I) in the deployment of renewable energies (RES) and enhanced energy storage capacities.

An interactive discussion will brainstorm and debate possible ways to promote the market uptake of key energy technologies pivotal for increasing RES share at the European and national levels and to ensure that Member States align with the latest EU policy requirements.

The debate will see the participation of ETIP Hydropower, ETIP Bioenergy and Batteries Europe, the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA), and the European project Energetic.

About ENLIT

Launched in 2017, The EU Projects Zone has welcomed a growing number of EU funded projects showcasing their findings at our annual Conference and Exhibition, involving hundreds of partners and contributing to an engaging programme.

Membrane Desalination 2023 (MEMDES2023)

Membrane Desalination 2023 (MEMDES2023)

Join the DESOLINATION project partners at the 6th International Conference on Desalination using Membrane Technology in Sitges (Spain) from 19th to 22nd November 2023 to discuss the latest developments in desalination using membrane technology!

Three of our project partners Nadin Al-Jariry, Jonas Hedlund from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Luleå University of Technology, Muhammad Suleman from Lund University, and Irena Petrinić, Ross D. Jansen-van Vuuren, Thomas Luxbacher, and Hermina Bukšek from the University of Maribor, had the opportunity to present our project to leading academic researchers, scientists and engineers from the membrane desalination sector and associated industries, as well as to representatives of governmental organizations, international agencies and aid organizations.

The Univeristy of Maribor presented ‘Thermo-responsive Polyalkylene Glycol-based draw solutions for forward osmosis in seawater desalination‘ as a poster contribution. 

Together with Lund University, they also gave an oral presentation focusing on ‘Modeling forward osmosis-membrane distillation hybrid process for seawater desalination: flux prediction and process optimization‘ co-prepared by Suleman Muhammad, Al-Rudainy Basel, Petrinić Irena, and Frank Lipnizki.

Presentation extracted from the event website

Growing population, changing climate and increasing urbanisation require increasing freshwater supply and the sustainable water usage for industries and agriculture is of top priority. One of the most viable solutions is to tap from the seawater and wastewater. Membrane technologies have been established as the golden standard for desalination to address the global deficit for clean water. However, it is still expensive, which is one of the main obstacles for prevalent adoption of membranes.

Innovation is key to reduce the energy consumption and the total cost. This can be advanced by developing high performance reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes, robust module and process design, as well as other novel desalination technologies. We have seen promise in breaking the permselectivity trade-off using state-of-the-art nanomaterials. Biomimetic single ion channel and artificial water channel have shown exciting results in bench tests. The Sixth International Conference on Membrane Desalination 2023 (MEMDES 2023) is the dedicated forum to disseminate the cutting-edge research and development in this regard.