Project description
Developing better nuclear waste treatment
With climate change posing an ever-increasing danger to people worldwide, solutions for cleaner and easier implementation and maintenance of nuclear energy plants are important for the path to carbon neutrality. Currently, water from nuclear waste contains large quantities of radioactive isotope pollution, which can be dangerous to people’s health and remain difficult to clean. Unfortunately, membrane separation, a promising technology for water treatment, is not designed for water treatment. The EU-funded M4WASTE project aims to introduce a novel smart membrane technology that utilises HCF to efficiently filter liquids. This project aims to revolutionise nuclear waste treatment solutions and assist in reaching climate change goals.
Objective
The release of radioactive isotopes, with caesium (e.g. 137Cs+) being the most abundant species, are polluting a large quantity of water, substantially threatening human health, while the remediation remains challenging. Membrane separation is a good technology for water treatment thanks to its flexibility and easy up-scalability. However, the use of conventional membranes in nuclear industry is greatly limited due to their low adsorption capacity/selectivity to Cs+ and the fixed pore size that allows only retention of solid wastes but with the contaminated water remained untreated. Hexacyanoferrates (HCFs) nanoparticles(NPs) are among the most superior adsorbents of Cs+, but haven’t been combined with filtration membranes for nuclear water waste remediation due to the difficulty of NPs immobilization onto membrane and their relatively slower adsorption kinetics compared to water permeation rate. This proposed action aims to develop a new generation of smart membrane technology that can recover Cs+ straightforwardly and efficiently from aqueous nuclear wastes, by effectively integrating HCF into filtration membranes to enhance its Cs+ adsorption capacity/selectivity and by introducing a smart water gating function modulated by Cs+ adsorption to automatically control membrane water permeation. Microgel, being assembled in membrane pores, enables achieving the objectives with HCF NPs in situ grown in the microgel and with a Cs+ responsiveness designed for its size deformation. The action involves an experienced researcher, Dr Huagui Zhang, from Newcastle University in UK visiting the Institute of Physical Chemistry at RWTH Aachen University in Germany, under the supervision of Prof. Walter Richtering for 24 months to work on the project “Microgel-based high-performance smart filtration membranes for liquid nuclear waste treatment” (M4WASTE). The action will provide a leap forward in the area of water treatment with membrane technology in nuclear industry and beyond.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology other engineering and technologies nuclear engineering nuclear waste management
- engineering and technology chemical engineering separation technologies
- engineering and technology nanotechnology nano-materials
- engineering and technology environmental engineering waste management waste treatment processes
- natural sciences chemical sciences physical chemistry
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme -
H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2018
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
52062 Aachen
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.