(472c) Keynote Talk-Advanced Membrane Manufacturing for Water and Energy Applications

Membrane-based processes could offer significant energy savings for large-scale separations as has been demonstrated in case of desalination where reverse osmosis has largely replaced thermal processes. For applications beyond desalination, appropriate manufacturing strategies must be pursued in addition to advanced material development to broaden the application scope of membranes. In this talk, I will describe two membrane manufacturing techniques – hollow fiber spinning and direct ink-writing and highlight their advantages and challenges. The 1^st part of my talk will describe the formation of polyimide-derived carbon molecular sieve (CMS) hollow fiber membranes and elaborate on the fundamental challenges in creating high performance CMS membranes for gas separation. The 2nd half of my talk will focus on utilizing direct ink-writing to develop porous microfiltration/ultrafiltration membranes. This new technology provides opportunities to reduce the solvent usage associated with conventional fabrication methods, while enabling precise control on the membrane morphology.