Jan 12, 2017 | By Julia
Scientists at the University of Bath’s Centre for Advanced Separations Engineering (CASE) are predicting a bright future for 3D printing and advanced membrane engineering.
Membranes are a semi-permeable selective barrier that separates gas or liquid molecules into two streams. A common example is reverse osmosis membranes, which separate salt from water.
In a new paper published in the Journal of Membrane Science, CASE researchers note several restrictions currently seen in membrane engineering. Due to limitations in current manufacturing technology, membranes are mainly restricted to tubular/hollow fibre and flat surface figurations. Consequently, the membranes we are capable of making today are relatively imprecise, which in turn limits how successfully we can separate different properties.
The first study of its kind, the paper makes a compelling case for 3D printing technology as a new means of engineering innovative, more advanced membranes. The CASE team finds that 3D printing offers new techniques for producing membranes of different shapes, types, and designs which can be more precisely designed, fabricated, and controlled than ever before.
CASE researchers at the University of Bath's Department of Chemical Engineering
“This review is the first to explore the possibility and challenges of using 3D printing for producing separation membranes,” says Dr. Darrell Patterson, Director of CASE.
“Although 3D printing technology is not quite well enough developed to yet produce large scale membranes that will be cost competitive with existing products,” Patterson explains, “this work does signal what the future possibilities are with 3D printing: to produce membranes beyond that which are currently available, including controlled complex pore structures, integrated surface patterns and membranes based on nature.”
According to innovators at CASE, 3D printing could be ideal for engineering new membranes with designer pores and surface shapes that enhance microscopic mixing and shear flow across membrane surfaces. As a result, all the energy and time spent cleaning blockages could be vastly reduced, as well as less fouling of the membranes.
The use of additive manufacturing could in turn lead to more sustainable molecular separations and lower energy use in areas such as the water industry.
As industries around the world set sights on a hopefully greener future, the CASE study comes as a welcome investigation. Currently, up to 15 per cent of energy used globally is from the separation and purification of industrial products such as gases, fine chemicals, and fresh water. Separation processes also account for a whopping 40 to 70 per cent of industry capital and operating costs.
Membrane technology, on the other hand, potentially offers lower energy, more sustainable molecular separations that have a wide range of applications in separating liquids and gases. Coupled with these advances, 3D printing could prove key In the race to decrease our industrial carbon footprint.
Posted in 3D Printing Technology
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