From membrane material synthesis to fabrication and function (SynFabFun)

Completed

Not Energy Related
Other Power and Storage Technologies(Energy storage)
Hydrogen and Fuel Cells(Fuel Cells)

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Chemistry)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Chemical Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Professor IS Metcalfe
School of Chemical Engineering & Advanced Materials
Newcastle University

Standard

EPSRC

01 April 2015

30 June 2021

75 months

£4,508,218

Process engineering

North East

NC : Engineering

Professor IS Metcalfe, School of Chemical Engineering & Advanced Materials, Newcastle University

Dr PM Budd, Chemistry, University of Manchester
Dr YMJ Chew, Chemical Engineering, University of Bath
Dr K Li, Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London
Professor A Livingston, Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London
Dr D Mattia, Chemical Engineering, University of Bath
Professor N McKeown, Chemistry, Cardiff University
Dr D Patterson, Chemical Engineering, University of Bath

Project Contact, Johnson Matthey Plc
Project Contact, Thames Water Utilities Plc
Project Contact, Anglian Water
Project Contact, Severn Trent Water
Project Contact, GlaxoSmithKline
Project Contact, BGT Materials Ltd
Project Contact, Scottish Water
Project Contact, Dr Reddy's Laboratories UK Ltd
Project Contact, BP PLC
Project Contact, Evonik Industries AG, Germany
Project Contact, Pervatech B.V., The Netherlands

Membranes offer exciting opportunities for more efficient, lower energy, more sustainable separations and even entirely new process options - and so are a valuable tool in an energy constrained world. However, high performance polymeric, inorganic and ceramic membranes all suffer from problems with decay in performance over time, through either membrane ageing (membrane material relaxation) and/or fouling (foreign material build-up in and/or on the membrane), and this seriously limits their impact.Our vision is to create membranes which do not suffer from ageing or fouling, and for which separation functionality is therefore maintained over time. We will achieve this through a combination of the synthesis of new membrane materials and fabrication of novel membrane composites (polymeric, ceramic and hybrids), supported by new characterisation techniques.Our ambition is to change the way the global membrane community perceives performance. Through the demonstration of membranes with immortal performance, we seek to shift attention away from a race to achieve ever higher initial permeability, to creation of membranes with long-term stable performance which are successful in industrial application.

15/07/15