Disruptive green membrane for sustainable chemical and energy industries

Project Information

GREENMEM

Grant agreement ID: 101010563

DOI

10.3030/101010563

Project closed

EC signature date 11 November 2020

Start date 1 December 2020

End date 30 November 2022

Funded under

• PRIORITY 'Societal challenges

Total cost

€ 3 422 312,50

EU contribution

€ 2 395 618,75

Coordinated by

UNISIEVE AG
Switzerland

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - GREENMEM (Disruptive green membrane for sustainable chemical and energy industries)

Reporting period: 2021-12-01 to 2022-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The UniSieve technology promises to save up to 90% of the separation and purification energy that are needed to produce base chemicals. The chemical industry does change the composition of molecules to increase their functionality and value. This means that natural feedstocks such as oil, gas or bio-based materials must be broken down into a mixture of small molecules. These small molecules, also called chemical feedstocks (e.g. ethylene, propylene) are then purified and assembled to the desired product, such as pharmaceuticals or polymers. All the separation processes on this plant together account for over 10% of the global energy consumption as most of them are heat driven (distillation). In contrast to distillation, UniSieve’s molecular sieving technology can separate molecules based on their size, enabling significant energy savings. This significant energy savings are enabled by the molecular sieving properties of the UniSieve membranes that allow smaller molecules to quickly permeate, while larger ones are retained.

Customer benefits:
- Save up to 90% of the separation process energy and the associated CO2 emissions
- Recover or recycle valuable products (chemicals or energy carriers) from various processing steps.
- Reduce the operational costs

Until 2026, it is expected that 56 UniSieve separation units are installed, and that the technology will have reduced CO2 emissions by a million ton. Also, by decreasing separation energy, renewable chemicals and energy carriers will become more sustainable.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The aim of the GREENMEM Project is to scale up technology fabrication to pilot scale and to test the resulting membrane with a pilot unit at a chemical site.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The scope of the GREENMEM Project is to demonstrate the feasibility of the UniSieve platform technology in a chemical unit by conducting a pilot test. The pilot test is expected to confirm the considerable savings of energy and cost, and the increase in chemical recovery. Until 2026, it is expected that 56 UniSieve separation units are installed and that the technology will have reduced CO2 emissions by a million tons. Also, by decreasing separation energy, renewable chemicals, and energy carriers will become more sustainable.

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