(401o) Advanced Membrane Separation to Improve Efficiency of Thermochemical Conversion of Biomass

Thermochemical conversion pathways include fast pyrolysis, catalytic fast pyrolysis, and hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass. The objective of the work is to develop and employ robust advanced membranes to improve the efficiency of bio-oil processing. These porous membranes take advantage of surface tunability (from superhydrophilicity to superhydrophobicity) to achieve high permeability while maintaining high selectivity. This effort is relevant to bioenergy technology barrier areas (1) Aqueous Phase Utilization and Wastewater Treatment and (2) Liquefaction of Biomass and Bio-Oil Stabilization. Key challenges are enabling higher flux (at desirable separation factor), improving chemical/thermal stability and fouling resistance, and developing a path forward to a small unit volume but high-productivity membrane module. Our team is working toward demonstration of a separation technology to meet performance targets (>1 liter/m²/h liquid dewatering flux at separation factor >20) and achieve a >8% reduction in MFSP ($/gge). The speaker will present recent advancements in vapor-phase dewatering and liquid-phase separation technologies. For example, a >5x improvement in the permeation flux for dewatering membranes was demonstrated which will lead to a more efficient process for recovering carbon from aqueous waste streams. Our work has led to an industry-funded commercialization effort that is seeking to integrate advanced emulsion separation technologies with biofuel conversion reactors to increase overall production yield.