Project
Trace element removal from chemical sidestream using external field technologies
The project, as part of a larger consortium of Dutch universities and industrial partners, aims to research and evaluate novel electrically powered technologies for the removal of trace elements. This involves trapping or binding the trace on or within larger particles, then separating these particles from the stream using external fields and lastly recovering the particles for re-use. Success is achieved if a technology is found that bypasses solvents and is more efficient than current electrically powered downstream processes.
Background
The Long Term Program (LTP) is a new program within ISPT that will house several projects, the first of which being TREPS. Leading experts from the 4TU and RUG are tasked to explore next generation technologies for separation of small, down to element sized, compounds in complex streams at a low technology readiness level.
The vision is to produce new and sustainable technology until 2050, where it is expected that industry needs to comply with ever more stringent and necessary demands for circularity. Besides being a concern for the environment and human health, the accumulation of trace elements within a circular loop can cause severe problems, resulting in process failure or inability to remain circular. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first project within the Netherlands that aims to research and apply these new technologies to solve the problem of trace element accumulation in future process technology industry.
Project description
The project is subdivided into different work packages (WP). Each university is assigned several WPs, with a focus on the WP where they display most expertise. There are five WPs, WP1 focuses on the synthesis of nano- and microparticles, WP2 focuses on the functionalization and reversible binding of traces to the particles, WP3 focuses on the electrically powered separation of the particle-bound traces, WP4 focuses on the regeneration of the particles after the separation and unbinding of the trace, and WP5 focuses on the modelling and set up of the process design.
WUR if focused on WP3, and hence aims to bring in expertise from prior work on acoustic fields used for separation of microalgae but also commits to explore additional external fields such as magnetic, electric and optical (laser). Furthermore, passive methods of separating particles such as inertia, hydrodynamic and viscoelastic focusing are options depending on the type of side stream inquired. While most of these technologies have mainly been demonstrated within microfluidic environments, the clearly implied industrial goal of this research may require demonstration of the technology within non-microfluidic systems.
Nevertheless, it will be inquired whether parallelization of microfluidic systems will achieve desirable throughput and are realistic to manufacture. The ultimate goal is to explore a variety of external fields and pass on the gained insights to the next cohort of researchers within the LTP program, which will cumulate in upgrading the downstream processing unit operations to prepare them for the switch to a fully circular economy.