(16d) Next Generation Membrane Materials for Energy-Efficient Separations

Research Interests: Advanced membrane technology for energy-efficient gas and liquid separations, CO2 capture, and renewable energy.

Teaching Interests: Chemical Engineering Core Courses, Membrane Science and Technology, Separation Technology, Material science

Next Generation Membrane Materials for Energy-Efficient Separations

Shouliang Yi and William J. Koros

School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332

My research work focuses on the creation of novel high performance membranes with advanced functional structures using tunable polymers and nanostructured materials for membrane-based gas separation, water purification, and renewable energy production. I completed my PhD on biofuels purification by pervaporation-based membrane process at Chinese Academy of Sciences and accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the same institute on hybrid fermentation/pervaporation integrated processes. In 2012 I joined Koros Research Group as a Laboratory Manager and Research Engineer at Georgia Institute of Technology. During my work with Professor Koros, I broadened my interests in Energy Efficiency and Environmental Sustainability but maintained a focus on advanced membrane materials for low energy intensive large scale separation processes.

Currently, I am a Research Engineer & Senior Project Manager at Koros Research Group at Georgia Tech, where I am further expanding my expertise in membrane-based gas separation by engineering tunable membrane materials. As a Laboratory Manager (Senior Project Manager after October 2014), I also provide mentorship and instruction to undergraduates, PhD students and post-doctoral fellows in a group of over 20 researchers since 2012. This position expanded my expertise from dense films and asymmetric flat-sheet membranes to high performance hollow fiber membranes, and also from membrane-based separations to combined hollow fiber sorbents adsorption and membrane-based coupled separations. Using advanced crosslinkable polymers, functionalized polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIMs), and commercially available polymers, I have created advanced membranes for energy intensive industrial separations including natural gas purification, hydrocarbon separations, CO₂ capture, and renewable energy production.

My future research will address both fundamental issues and applied research related to membrane-based gas separations, CO₂ capture, and organophilic pervaporation membrane technology for renewable energy production. My knowledge of material properties enables me to engineer advanced polymer structures to produce economical high performance membranes to enable global CO₂ reduction, energy conversion, and clean technology in diverse industrial applications.

Selected Publications and Patents (23 total, 11 first author, 215 total citations, h-index: 6):

1. Shouliang Yi, Xiaohua Ma, Ingo Pinnau, William J. Koros, A high-performance hydroxyl-functionalized polymer of intrinsic microporosity for an environmentally attractive membrane-based approach to decontamination of sour natural gas. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2015, 3(45), 22794-22806
2. Shouliang Yi and William J. Koros. Silane Grafted Polymeric Membranes for Natural Gas Separation and CO2 Capture. U.S. Patent 62/268,824, December 17, 2015
3. Shouliang Yi, Benkun Qi, Yi Su, Yinhua Wan. Effects of Fermentation By-products and Inhibitors on Pervaporative Recovery of Biofuels from Fermentation Broths with Novel Silane Modified Silicalite-1/PDMS/PAN Thin Film Composite Membrane, Chemical Engineering Journal, 2015, 279, 547-554
4. Yinhua Wan, Shouliang Yi, Benkun Qi, et al. An approach for removing inhibitors in prehydrolysis liquid of lignocellulose. Patent Grant No. CN102191340B. Grant Date: Mar 27, 2013
5. Yi Su, Shouliang Yi, Haoli Zhou, Yinhua Wan. Method for preparing organic-inorganic hybrid evaporation alcohol permselective membrane. Patent Grant No. CN101518719B. Grant Date: Feb 1, 2012
6. Yuan Zhang, Rong Wang, Shouliang Yi, et al. Novel chemical surface modification to enhance hydrophobicity of polyamide-imide (PAI) hollow fiber membranes, Journal of Membrane Science 2011, 380(1-2), 241-250
7. Shouliang Yi, Yi Su, Yinhua Wan. Preparation and characterization of vinyltriethoxysilane (VTES) modified silicalite/PDMS hybrid pervaporation membrane and its application in ethanol separation from dilute aqueous solution, Journal of Membrane Science, 2010, 360(1-2): 341-351
8. Shouliang Yi, Yi Su, Benkun Qi, et al. Application of response surface methodology and central composite rotatable design in optimizing the preparation conditions of vinyltriethoxysilane modified silicalite/polydimethyl- siloxane hybrid pervaporation membranes, Separation and Purification Technology, 2010, 71(2): 252-262