NAMS 2012 Wednesday Keynote - Andrew Livingston

Andrew Livingston - Biographical Sketch

Andrew Livingston (AGL) was born and bred in Taranaki, New Zealand and studied Chemical Engineering in NZ. Following graduation, he worked for 3 years at an NZ food processing company doing general chemical engineering. In 1986, started PhD at Trinity College, University of Cambridge. Upon finishing PhD, joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College. Research into membrane separations, biotransformations, chemical and separations technology. Full Professor from 1999, published over 190 papers and granted 15 patents in chemical technology. Awards include Junior Moulton Medal, Cremer and Warner Medal of IChemE, and Silver Medal of Royal Academy of Engineering. AGL leads a research group of 20 PhD students and Post-Docs, with current research interests in formation of membranes for organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN). These membranes are able to separate at the molecular level, remain stable in even very aggressive solvents, and are used for separations in chemical & pharmaceutical industries. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2006, became Head of Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College in 2008.

In 1993, AGL graduated with an MSc in Economics from London School of Economics (LSE) following part-time study. In 1996, founded Membrane Extraction Technology, a spin-out company which evolved to manufacture solvent stable nanofiltration membranes, and carry out process development and commercialisation of OSN based membrane separation processes. On 1 March 2010 MET was acquired by Evonik Industries of Essen, Germany, and continues in business as Evonik MET Ltd., a part of the Evonik Fibres and Membranes Business

ORGANIC LIQUIDS - A NEW FRONTIER FOR NANOFILTRATION

 Organic liquids are ubiquitous in chemical science based industries, which range in scale from refining to pharmaceutical production. It is generally accepted that 40-70% of capital and operating costs in these industries are dedicated to separations; and a substantial fraction of this cost is related to processing of organic liquids, both as product streams and solvents. Membrane technology has the potential to provide game changing alternatives to conventional concentration and purification technologies such as distillation, liquid extraction, adsorption and chromatography. In order to achieve this potential, membrane modules must meet several challenges. They must be stable in organic solvents, offer attractive fluxes and rejections for systems of interest, and give reliable and predictable service lifetime and performance. The obvious benefits of membrane processing have been apparent for many years, and have attracted research, development and commercialisation efforts from academic groups, end users, and membrane suppliers. In the last few years these efforts have resulted in a growing range of commercially available membranes, and an increasing number of industrial applications. Organic Solvent Nanofiltration (OSN) is finally emerging as a new frontier for membrane technology.

This presentation will describe research and development on membranes for OSN. Several polymers (polyimides, polyaniline, polybenzimidazole) have been used to create membranes stable in organic solvents. A key step is the post-formation chemical crosslinking of the polymers, which imparts stability even in harsh polar solvents such as DMF, THF and DMSO. Recently developed membranes include thin film composites based on interfacial polymerisation (TFC-IP). By using inert supports, TFC-IP membranes having good flux and rejection in polar aprotic solvents have been developed. A further innovation is the development of OSN membranes that can withstand highly basic and acidic environments, which further widens the scope of the technology.

There are a growing number of applications of OSN to industrial separation problems, and some will be outlined, together with the advantages OSN brings to commercial systems. Osmotic pressure, concentration polarisation, and prediction of process performance for organic liquid systems will be discussed. Finally, the attributes of “ideal“ membranes, and likely limitations on system performance will be outlined.

*AGL also serves as Chief Innovation Officer

Evonik Membrane Extraction Technology Ltd

Unit 8, Wharfside, Rosemont Rd, London HA0 4PE

andrew.livingston@evonik.com