Abstract

The energy consumption for chemical separations in the US is about 17,000 quadrillion Joule/year, which represents 50% of the energy consumed by the American industry and 15% of the energy consumed by the Country in one year. More in general, 10% of world energy consumption, that is, about 7.5 GJ per person every year, is devoted to chemical separations. Although membrane-based separations would improve the energy efficiency of existing technologies by 90%, membrane processes currently cover only 20% of the total separation market. The permeability-selectivity trade-off, long-term polymers instability, and difficulty to simultaneously control solubility-selectivity and diffusivity-selectivity are critical issues that hamper the membrane market to further expand.

In this talk, rational techniques to engineer and tailor the properties of polymer membranes for gas and liquid separations based on rational synthesis, modification, post-modification and blending will be presented and discussed. A few case studies will be presented, highlighting recent progress and unanswered questions.

Biography

Michele Galizia joined the OU Chemical Engineering Faculty in 2017, after completing his post-doctoral training at the University of Texas at Austin under the guidance of Profs. Benny Freeman and Don Paul. The Galizia Research Group exploits fundamental principles of physical chemistry and thermodynamics to design, characterize and model polymer membranes for organic solvent reverse osmosis/nanofiltration and gas separation exhibiting pre-assigned selectivity and stability.

Prof. Galizia has received a number of awards, including the NSF CAREER Award (2021), the 2021 Class of Influential Researchers by I&EC Research, the ACS-PRF New Doctoral Investigator, and the OU Chemical Engineering Outstanding Professor Award in 2021 and 2022, among the others. In 2018, the journal Frontiers in Polymer Chemistry (Nature Publishing Group) highlighted him as a rising star in membrane science. He is Associate Editor of the Journal of Polymer Engineering and member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Membrane Science.

CBEGSO reception with light refreshments will be held in the Hesburgh Library Scholars Lounge prior to the seminars.

Seminar sponsored by the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering