Disruptive green membrane for sustainable chemical and energy industries

Informazioni relative al progetto

GREENMEM

ID dell’accordo di sovvenzione: 101010563

DOI

10.3030/101010563

Progetto chiuso

Data della firma CE 11 Novembre 2020

Data di avvio 1 Dicembre 2020

Data di completamento 30 Novembre 2022

Finanziato da

• PRIORITY 'Societal challenges

Costo totale

€ 3 422 312,50

Contributo UE

€ 2 395 618,75

Coordinato da

UNISIEVE AG
Switzerland

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

Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-12-01 al 2022-11-30

Sintesi del contesto e degli obiettivi generali del progetto

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.

Lavoro eseguito dall’inizio del progetto fino alla fine del periodo coperto dalla relazione e principali risultati finora ottenuti

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.

Progressi oltre lo stato dell’arte e potenziale impatto previsto (incluso l’impatto socioeconomico e le implicazioni sociali più ampie del progetto fino ad ora)

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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