Abstract
Membranes have had a huge impact on molecular separations in aqueous systems, especially for desalination where they can be used to separate water and salt. This can be achieved with far lower energy consumption than multiple effect evaporation, and so the Reverse Osmosis (RO) process using membranes has become well established.
It is generally accepted that 40-70% of capital and operating costs in industries from refining to pharmaceuticals are dedicated to separations; and a substantial fraction of this cost is related to processing of organic liquids. Membrane technology has the potential to also provide game changing alternatives for the processing of organic liquids, in the same way that it has done for aqueous systems.
This webinar will describe why membranes have been so successful in RO, how polymer membranes are made, and what the current challenges for aqueous RO membranes are. It will then outline some of the research being undertaken at Imperial College London to develop new membranes, for RO and for molecular separations in organic systems.
About Professor Andrew Livingston
Professor Andrew Livingston was born and bred in Taranaki, New Zealand and studied Chemical Engineering in NZ. Following graduation, he worked for 3 years at an NZ food processing company and then in 1986, started a PhD at Trinity College, University of Cambridge.
Upon finishing his PhD in 1990, he joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College. At Imperial, he has carried out research into membrane separations, biotransformations, chemical and separations technology.
Professor Livingston leads a research group of 20 PhD students and Post-Docs, with current research interests in membranes for molecular separations, including membrane formation, imaging of membranes and characterisation of their structural and functional performance, engineering and design of separation processes, and applications of membrane separation to manufacturing.
He was made full Professor in 1999, has published over 250 refereed papers and been granted 15 patents in chemical technology. Awards include Junior Moulton Medal, Cremer and Warner Medal of IChemE, and Silver Medal of Royal Academy of Engineering. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2006, he served as Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College from 2008 to 2016.
In 1996, Professor Livingston founded Membrane Extraction Technology, a spin-out company which evolved to manufacture solvent stable Organic Solvent Nanofiltration (OSN) membranes. On 1 March 2010 MET was acquired by Evonik Industries of Essen, Germany, and continues in business as Evonik MET Ltd., a part of the Evonik Fibres and Membranes Business. He continues working with Evonik MET as the Chief Innovation Officer.
Information
This seminar will be broadcast live. To sign up to the broadcast please register here.