Separation Technology
The main goal in this research area is to develop and evaluate research activities dealing with separation and purification by bringing together experts in specific unit operations from DTU Chemical Engineering and internal/external, academic/industrial parties with specific needs in terms of separation within the frame of a given process, particularly within the biorefinery field.
The activities include both experimental and simulation/modelling tasks:
Experimental activities
The experimental activities cover relevant tasks dealing with unit operations of interest in downstream processing, particularly membrane filtration and others like extraction, chromatography or crystallization. The Department has an extensive number of unit operations at both lab and pilot plant scale that enables to design efficient sequences of downstream processing operations for each particular fermentation process, also including hybrid operations like membrane bioreactors and enzyme immobilization on membranes for simultaneous reaction and separation.
Simulation/modelling tasks
The simulation/modelling tasks cover the development of new models for new unit operations (e.g. intensified operations such as DWCs, periodic processes such as cyclic separation and SMBs and so forth). Also, development of computer-aided tools for separation process analysis in general will be targeted., and cyclic stripping for validation of theoretical models.
Activities:
- To design, develop and evaluate separation solutions for specific processes
- To coordinate and participate in proposals to obtain external funding for separation related activities
- To have an overview of the needs of software and equipment to develop separation activities in close collaboration with internal and external partners
- To stimulate close collaboration between researchers in academia and industry
- Regular meetings are held to identify activities, collaborations and calls for proposals
Keywords: Downstream processing, membrane unit operations i.e. micro-, ultra-, nanofiltration, biorefinery separations, bioseparations, enzyme immobilization, membrane fermenters, membrane reactors, periodic separations (e.g. SMBs), cyclic separations, integrated separations, computer-aided design and analysis tools.