Objective
The general objective of the project is to study and evaluate the feasibility of inorganic membranes and inorganic membrane technology in pervaporation processes for application in the process industry in order to reduce drastically the energy consumption in these industries by substitution of conventional separation processes like distillation by pervaporation with inorganic membranes.
The implementation of reliable pervaporation processes, based on stable inorganic membranes could lead to energy savings of more than 50 % as compared to conventional separation technologies, in particular distillation. For EU-I 6 full implementation of pervaporation could result in energy savings of approximately 400 PJ/year (= 840 MECU/year).
Other advantages claimed are:
- purer products, thus higher product quality,
- increased throughput, thus cheaper production,
- simplified (downstream) and/or novel processes,
- less organic wastes and organic emissions through recycling of solvents, - avoidance of the use of entrainers in azeotrope breaking,
- less emissions of CO2, SO2 and NOX.
The approach is based on a combination of:
- availability of applicable inorganic membranes;
- inorganic membrane manufacturing and optimization expertise; - detailed knowledge of separation and pervaporation processes and, - process know-how on the relevant chemical production processes.
The project will focus on four carefully selected cases in the following application fields:
i) ether production
ii) extraction of aromatics from hydrocarbon mixtures
iii) ester production and
iv) dewatering of solvents.
These fields are representative for a large group of processes.
The work comprises detailed technical and economic evaluations ofthe feasibility ofthe applications of pervaporation with several types of inorganic membranes by a combination of experimental laboratory and bench-scale studies i.e. membrane, reactor/separator and process testing, process modellung, system integration and design studies. With respect to the membranes, the first focus will be on tubular silica membranes, which are available on a sufficient scale, in a high quality and in proper modules. Performance data for pervaporation application for a number of component mixtures are already at hand. Other types (zeolite, carbon) are explored as well. Process specific inorganic membrane development and optimisation is foreseen. Attention will be paid to vapour permeation as alternative technique for the (limited) cases in which the available inorganic membranes prove to suffer from fouling or have insufficient durability Aspects such as membrane performance (flux, selectivity) in the specific applications, durability, producibility and full-scale chemical process pre-designs will be covered. Finally energy savings and costs reductions as compared to conventional options will be adressed. A database on general inorganic membrane pervaporation characteristics is obtained and an overview of the possibilities in other processes will be given.
The consortium is bringing together on inorganic membrane manufacturing and development, detailed knowledge of existing separation processes, and process know-how for the relevant sectors.
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 environmental engineering waste management waste treatment processes recycling
- natural sciences computer and information sciences databases
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry inorganic compounds
- natural sciences chemical sciences organic chemistry hydrocarbons
- engineering and technology chemical engineering separation technologies distillation
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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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.
Coordinator
1755 ZG PETTEN
Netherlands
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.