RAPID Funded Projects

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Microfibrous Entrapped Sorbents for High Throughput Modular Process Intensified Gas Separation and Ion Exchange

This project will utilize microfibrous entrapment of small particulate sorbents or ion exchange (IX) resins to overcome physical barriers and identified technology gaps that currently prevent energy efficient and cost-effective wellhead CO2/CH4 separations through pressure swing adsorption (PSA) and Cs+ removal from nuclear fuel processing streams. Both commercial cyclic adsorption processes are currently limited by heat and mass transport restrictions occurring in large particle (1-4 mm diameter) packed beds.

Investigators

Paul Dimick
General Manager

Partner Organizations

IntraMicron Savannah River National Laboratory University of South Carolina Auburn University Oregon State University BASF Corporation

Focus Areas

Date approved

November 01, 2017
Current TRL
3

Intensified Microwave Reactor Technology

This project looks to develop both foundational hardware and modeling tools for microwaves as a non-conventional energy input source - a key theme in process intensification - for reactions across chemical conversions and materials synthesis. The project develops scalable microwave technology (MWT) across industries and RAPID focus areas (FAs) and demonstrates its diverse applications with different spatial, temporal, and phase characteristics, often combined with additional process intensification (PI) technologies.

Investigators

Dion Vlachos
Allan and Myra Ferguson Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Partner Organizations

University of Delaware Rutgers University Raytheon Technologies

Focus Areas

Date approved

November 01, 2017
Current TRL
4

Use of Power Ultrasound for Nonthermal, Nonequilibrium Separation of Ethanol/Water Solutions

Separation of liquid mixtures, frequently by distillation, consumes large amounts of energy in the chemical and process industries. This project proposes to develop, test, and demonstrate a continuous-flow, scalable, nonthermal, nonequilibrium liquid separation for the test case of ethanol + water that uses ultrasound, and avoids the heat transfer losses and azeotropic bottleneck of distillation. The basis of the separation is straightforward. When ultrasound passes through a nominally quiescent liquid with a free surface above, droplets are produced and form a mist.

Investigators

Hao Feng
Professor of Food and Bioprocess Engineering

Partner Organizations

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Carnegie Mellon University

Focus Areas

Date approved

July 01, 2018
Current TRL
6

High Purity Ethanol without Distillation: Carbon Nanotube Enabled Ethanol Dewatering

Biofuels produced from fermentation processes have long been processed using decades-old distillation technology. Distilling a minor component of this broth to a high purity requires substantial amounts of energy that can lessen the net-energy and profitability of the fuel produced. This work will demonstrate a new technology concept developed by Mattershift, LLC that uses a carbon nanotube (CNT) membrane to selectively extract the biofuel, in this case ethanol, from a fermentation broth.

Investigators

Jeffery McCutcheon
Associate Professor and Executive Director, Frauhofer USA Center for Energy Innovation

Partner Organizations

University of Connecticut

Focus Areas

Date approved

July 01, 2018
Current TRL
4

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