(300a) Manufacturing Considerations for New Membrane Materials

An explosion of new material options for membranes used in separations has driven innovation in the membrane science community for most of the past couple of decades. These new materials have extended the horizon of potential selectivity and permeability of membranes for gas, liquid, and ion separations. Interestingly, few of these materials have made it into commercial membranes. In this talk, we dive into the reasoning behind the limited number of material options for commercial membranes and explore options proposed for circumventing these challenges. In particular, we look at the use of printing as a manufacturing platform for membranes and discuss its benefits and value proposition from a commercial standpoint. Highlighted will be our recent work in electrospray additive manufacturing and the opportunities that if offers to expand the options for using new materials in commercial membrane processes.