Scientists have created an "ultra-thin, super-strong" membrane that an efficiently filter liquids and gases, potentially leading to a way to cut down energy consumption in industry.
The research suggests filtration processes using these membranes would reduce energy consumption, but many industries still use evaporation and distillation techniques that are much less energy efficient, Imperial College London reported.
Now, researchers have developed a prototype of a "crumpled" membrane that could be more appealing to these industries. The prototype is incredibly thin, making it extremely permeable; it is also strong and able to filter organic liquids at pressures of around 50 bar. The innovation was demonstrated to effectively increase the surface for substances without buckling.
"Membranes are currently used for a range of important tasks such as making water drinkable and life-saving kidney filtering. The drawback has been that industry hasn't been able to use membranes in organic liquid systems more widely because they've had cost and design limitations. Our research suggests that we can overcome these challenges, which could make these membranes useful for industries ranging from pharmaceutical companies to oil refining. The energy and environmental benefits could be massive," said professor Andrew Livingston, co-author of the study from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London.
To test the effectiveness of the newly-developed membrane, the researchers created a solution in which a solvent, alcohol, and dyed molecules of different colors and sizes were mixed. They then moved the solution through the membrane at high pressure to see if it could filter out everything other than the dissolved alcohol using an absorption spectroscopy device. They determined the membrane only allowed alcohol to pass through, suggesting it could act as an effective filter. The "crumpled" membrane was then compared to a conventional one, and the team determined the new innovation could separate the substances 400 times faster.
In the future, the researchers hope to further develop this technology in hopes that it can be scaled up to be used in industries such as pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and oil refining.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Science.
