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The separation of oil from stable oil in water emulsions is a challenge, especially if low limits for oil in water are required as in the case of produced water (< 30 ppm dispersed oil). Many technologies have been studied, but proved to be technically or economic challenging (energy demand, need for additional materials,etc.) Ceramic membrane filtration proved to be an interesting option. Boundary condition is that the membranes can be operated and cleaned at rather extreme pH and temperature conditions. The existing zirconia or alumina membranes have a limited pH resistance and exhibit extensive fouling tendency under certain conditions. Silicon Carbide (SiC) does not have these limitations. In previous projects (e.g. CombiClear) it is shown that the SiC membranes show a good performance for the treatment of oil in water emulsions. Still missing is the behavior of these membranes at duration tests and in particular cleaning possibilities of these membranes. This will be studied in this project during a pilot trial, where fouling, cleaning options, cleaning frequency and the consequences for the long term performance and economics will be determined (TRL 7).

Because SiC membranes are very robust, it is interesting to extend their applicability to other domains, e.g. food, dairy, pharmaceuticals, chemistry. In this project the potential of the SiC membranes for several of these applications will be studied on small scale (TRL 3-5) and will provide the performance of these membranes for these applications (flux, separation factor, etc.). Because these other applications require partly different types of separation characteristics of the SiC membranes, the existing UF/MF range of SiC membranes will be extended to the nanofiltration (NF) range by the development of more dense coatings (TRL 3-4). The project as a whole will deliver a good assessment of the feasibility of the SiC membranes, it will extend their feasibility to new applications and sectors, and derisk the technology with duration tests for challenging separation of stable oil in water emulsions, such that SiC membrane technology will be ready for large-scale deployment.

Many chemical companies are nowadays confronted with very challenging liquid separations, aiming at separating molecules with very similar physical properties. The current trend towards more bio-based and/or highly-tailored chemicals, will only increase the number of these demanding separations. These challenges would benefit from efficient Affinity Separations (AS).

The most traditional AS technology is liquid-liquid extraction, where the extracting solvent acts as the separation agent (ASA). The most selective AS is liquid chromatography, driven by the affinity between molecules and a functionalised stationary phase, the separation material (ASM). Although successful in different situations, both AS processes have important drawbacks.

EasiChem aims at tackling these limitations, by developing more efficient, and/or more sustainable AS processes, focusing on two promising, energy-poor liquid separation technologies:

1.Membrane-based AS processes : bringing the selectivity of chromatography to membrane separations, using functionalised ceramic membranes tailored to match the separation problem;
2.Continuous chromatography : tackling the main disadvantage of selective chromatography, making use of a membrane-contactor-like design at microreactor scale.

Given the fact that there is a major peak in solar energy around noon, the current injection into the grid must be limited when there is a lot of sun to prevent overloading of the electricity grid. In a short internal study by EnergyVille it was already established that, with an injection limit on solar panels, 50% of the electricity production can be generated via wind and sun without overloading the grid or without the need for batteries. With the installation of an optimal extra battery capacity, up to 70% renewable electricity can be used without putting extra strain on the grid.

The BREGILAB project will examine in detail how this can be practically realized at minimal cost for network expansion and batteries. The following topics are being studied:

• Design of the electricity grid for maximizing the direct consumption of renewable energy with a grid injection limit
• Optimal geographical distribution of the capacity of wind turbines
• Optimal geographical distribution and orientation of solar panels
• Optimal dimensioning and spreading of storage, for instance with batteries
• Use of surplus renewable energy for thermal industrial processes
• Impact of the growth of electric cars and heat pumps on the electricity grid

In this way, the BREGILAB project forms an essential element to prepare Belgium for the further rollout of solar and wind energy in the coming decades.

The main aim of SPICY is to provide chemical industry with new or optimized processes to convert sugars into added value compounds, i.e. both drop-ins and novel biobased chemicals. Two complementary lines are hereto developed in parallel, one focusing on biotechnology based on improved yeast strains and one based on chemocatalytic routes. Both will aspire to meet industrial standards of productivity, titer, yield and selectivity, to safeguard potential economic benefit and future industrial valorisation. Most of the targeted platform chemicals are (potential) monomers for biobased plastics, hence, a second aim of SPICY is to deliver proof-of-concept of their usefulness by targeting novel and functional polymeric materials, typically not found in the current oil-based value chain.

Many industrial process streams contain both water and solvents, in addition to other organic components. Such streams need to be purified from these components or be treated before further processing, discharge or incineration. Polymeric nanofiltration membranes nowadays widely used in (waste)water treatment typically exhibit high permeability and stable rejection. They offer a more sustainable and energy efficient alternative to currently used conventional separation technologies. However, if a solvent is present in the aqueous feed stream, these performances are often lost due to phenomena like swelling and membrane degradation. This behavior proves to be a major obstacle, hindering widespread implementation of membrane technology in water/solvent streams.

This project aims to tackle this challenge by development of new, robust nanofiltration membranes with competitive performance in a wide range of solvent/water mixtures and able to separate and substantially concentrate small organic compounds from such streams. The membranes will be tested on various relevant industrial process and waste streams, and benchmarked against commercial nanofiltration membranes. The most promising candidates will be tested at pilot scale to demonstrate long term robustness and performance. A data driven model will be created to identify critical process parameters and predict membrane behavior under industrial conditions. A techno-economic evaluation of the test cases will be made, as well as a roadmap for implementation of promising membranes after the project.

Since 1 November 2017, the research project SuMems, initiated by the pharmaceutical companies Janssen and Ajinomoto Bio-pharma services (former Omnichem) and the OEM company InOpsys, is running in the framework of the Catalisti program “valorization of side streams”. The project works on the development of innovative membrane-based solutions for the sustainable and economic treatment of the typical solvent-rich, and often very alkaline waste waters, that are currently incinerated externally. Optimal (hybrid) processing will allow to recuperate valuable components as precious metals or metal catalysts, and to send the purified waste streams to the existing on-site wastewater treatment plants.

Research partners VITO and KULeuven identified suitable membranes and membrane processes for the dehydration of salty Non-Recyclable Solvent streams (NRS), and for the Pd removal from a strongly alkaline water-based waste stream and from a methanol-based mother liquor. Pervaporation with hydrophilic ceramic membranes proved to be very efficient for the treatment of NRS streams. The alkaline wastewater streams can be efficiently purified by nanofiltration with an alkaline resistant polymeric membrane (HydraCore or MPF-34), while a functionalized ceramic nanofiltration membrane of VITO (FunMem®) turned out a very good membrane for the metal removal of the methanol mother liquor. 

All efforts are dedicated to the preparation of three piloting campaigns at the industrial partners, using the existing pilots at Janssen and VITO. Based on these larger-scale experiments, the robustness of the processes and the value of the retentate streams can be properly assessed, while the business cases can be properly evaluated.

Further research in the project is focused on generating generic data, allowing to define a workable decision tree for the membrane-based (hybrid) treatment of similar challenging waste streams.

Organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) is an emerging technology that is recognized for its facilitation perspectives of recycling organic solvents in industrial processes. In the former project EEMBAR, it was found through on site pilot trials at IOI Loders Croklaan that OSN has the potential to reduce the energy requirements of the distillation based acetone recovery process by about 50%. Although a proof-of-principle was shown using spiral-wound elements of SolSep, the difference between small scale experiments in the lab and piloting was found to be larger than anticipated. Scale-up challenges are assumed to arise from the specific nature of the vegetable oil as well as the relatively high oil concentrations the membrane should handle, and their impact on mass transfer. As there is a clear outlook that this concept can be optimized to a satisfactory solution in the industrial environment (TRL 7), specific developments in module design will be addressed.

To further demonstrate the viability of OSN for solvent recovery from edible oils and leverage the advancements in membrane/module design, a second industrial process will be studied, i.e. the reuse of high boiler solvent from a cleaning solution in a plastics recycling process at TUSTI. In addition to polymeric OSN modules, tailored functionalized ceramic membranes will be developed by VITO and tested on both cases.

The result of the project is the proof-of-principle of OSN-based solvent recovery for both application cases, which will be studied through on site piloting on real industrial oil/solvent mixtures. A successful integration of OSN with the current distillation process will make recovery of acetone at IOI Loders Croklaan significantly less energy intensive, while also offering the opportunity to flexibly enhance capacity at a lower cost and smaller footprint. For TUSTI, recovery of spent high boiler solvent by OSN would allow direct reuse in the cleaning process, bring significant savings in transportation costs while also making the biodiesel process more efficient.

The 2030 framework for climate and energy policies contains a binding target to cut greenhouse gas emissions in EU territory by at least 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, and has the ambition to further reduce them by 80-95% by 2050. As theoretical limits of efficiency are being reached and process-related emissions are unavoidable in some sectors, there is an urgent need to develop efficient carbon capture and utilisation systems.

The main objective of the project is the development of technologies for the conversion of CO₂ to value-added chemicals using catalysis and renewable energy. To benchmark, compare and develop the various technologies, the formation of formic acid was selected as the initial target. In the project, the development of 4 catalytic routes (homogenous & heterogeneous catalysis, photochemical plasma-catalysis, electrochemical catalysis and bio-catalysis) is planned, enabling the sustainable synthesis of formic acid and more complex value-added chemicals (Single Cell Proteins, etc.). Sustainability is the common denominator of the different routes investigated in the project. A decision support framework will be developed to support the selection of the best technology given a specific situation(CO₂ source, purity and intended product, availability of excess electricity). Via a techno-economic analysis, the different catalytic routes towards formic acid will be benchmarked against each other and against the classical process via base-catalyzed carbonylation of methanol.

This project has the ambition to strengthen the position of Flanders in terms of research into CO₂-based processes and materials. The relevance of this cluster SBO project is further emphasized by an industrial advisory board, who are eager to implement the results and create economic valorisation. Current members of the advisory board include: 3M, Alco Biofuel, Arcelor Mittal, Avecom, Borealis, Cargill, Eastman, ENGIE Laborelec, Hydrogenics, INEOS, Messer, Monsanto, Nutrition Sciences and Smart Bioprocess.

BAC-TO-FUEL will respond to the global challenge of finding new sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels by developing, integrating and validating a disruptive prototype system at TRL5 which is able to transform CO₂/H₂ into added-value products in a sustainable and cost-effective way which:

1) mimics the photosynthetic process of plants using novel inorganic photocatalysts which are capable of producing hydrogen in a renewable way from photocatalytic splitting of water in the presence of sunlight

2) uses enhanced bacterial media to convert CO₂ and the renewable hydrogen into biofuels (i.e. ethanol and butanol both important fuels for transport) using a novel electro-biocatalytic cell which can handle fluctuations in hydrogen and power supply lending itself to coupling to renewable energy technologies

BAC-TO-FUEL is a multidisciplinary project which brings together leaders in the fields of materials chemistry, computational chemistry, chemical engineering, microbiology and bacterial engineering. BAC-TO-FUEL will validate a prototype system at TRL5 which is able to transform CO₂/H₂ into added-value products in a sustainable and cost effective way specifically for the European transport sector.