• Active or completed projects: 16
• Estimated ATP funding: $ 31.3 M
• Industry cost-share funding: $ 39.8 M

Potential for U.S. Economic Benefit. Separation technologies play a hidden but vital role in manufacturing. Many common products are processed using materials or chemicals that are purified with separation technologies, such as heat distillation to burn off gases, and, in recent years, membranes that function like sieves or filters. Examples of products that rely on separations include the purified solvents and feedstocks used to make semiconductor wafers and pharmaceuticals made from reactions involving purified specialty chemicals. The quality of the separation influences product purity as well as the environ-mental impact of the manufacturing process. Users of specialty-separation and high-volume separation methods together represent approximately $1.2 trillion in product shipments.

Driven by global competition and pollution prevention targets, U.S. manu-facturers are seeking new process technologies, including separations, as a means of enhancing product performance, reducing costs, and eliminating pollution at the source. Traditional separation methods have been optimized to the limit, yet cannot achieve the purity or efficiency levels needed to make many emerging products. The chemical process industry typically relies on distillation, which entails high energy costs and is not suitable for many specialty chemicals applications. Similarly, the biochemical process industry needs new separation methods for making ultrapure chemical intermediates, alternative fuels from renewable resources, biodegradable packaging, and other products.

Breakthrough separations platforms are needed that can rapidly, reliably, and cost effectively make fine distinctions among similar molecules, thereby enabling either the separation of materials with similar physical properties or the concentration and removal of impurities from dilute industrial process streams. To achieve industry acceptance, the new technologies also need to offer significant cost savings through the elimination of waste or byproducts, reductions in energy consumption, or other mechanisms. Separations currently constitute up to 90 percent of the processing costs in the biotechnology industry and up to 70 percent of capital and operating costs in high-volume chemical applications.

Membranes, which can be customized in many ways, offer the potential for both selectivity and cost effectiveness. However, despite considerable academic research on membrane materials, few of these innovations have been applied by industry because of concerns about reliability. The challenge now is to design and demonstrate reliable membrane platforms—including advanced materials integrated into complete separation modules or devices—that have broad applicability to various types of commercial separations, including those that are difficult to perform or impart high value to a product. Both specialty- separation and high-volume separation systems are needed.

Technologies of interest include catalytic membranes for hybrid high-temperature systems in which separation occurs simultaneously with chemical reactions, affinity membranes incorporating agents that recognize tunable membranes offering controllable pore size or transport properties, and new membrane process modifications such as advanced flow concepts and hybrid processes. Examples of such systems exist at the concept, prototype, or small-scale application stage, but few have been deployed commercially.

The ATP program could have billion-dollar ripple effects throughout the U.S. economy by accelerating the development of new membrane technologies to address large-scale commercial applications, reducing processing costs, creating new markets based on high-performance materials, and, indirectly, improving environmental quality. For example, the program could accelerate by five years the transition of the $120 billion pharmaceutical market to chiral drugs (drugs made up of molecules that are mirror images of each other—separating out the beneficial half of the mirror twins yields "enantiopure" drugs with fewer side effects). If the new membrane technologies enabled a one-year reduction in the time frame for developing enantiopure drugs and a 50 percent reduction in drug development costs, then the increase in revenues for that one drug alone could reach $750 million.

Approximately 50 U.S. companies are involved in the $2.5 billion worldwide market for membrane materials and modules. By incorporating affinity agents into membrane platforms, these companies stand to establish a leadership position in the rapidly growing specialty chemical market. In addition, new industries could be created around novel or improved products, such as food additives, specialty plastics, non-toxic antifreeze, and low-cost composites. The membrane technologies also could be exported for use in both industrial and consumer applications and the $150 billion worldwide market for water-and air-pollution control technologies.

Technology Challenge and Industry Commitment. Broad industry interest in new membrane platforms has been demonstrated in more than 50 white papers submitted to the ATP, close to 200 participants at two ATP-sponsored work-shops on separations, and concerns expressed at industry-sponsored meetings. During the past few years, the ATP has funded 10 projects dealing with mass- separation agents, including selective membranes and sorbents. In addition, despite concerns about membrane reliability, industry has demonstrated a willingness to use promising membrane-based separation systems for gas purification and solids recovery.

Equally important, there is an ample supply of new membrane concepts. The level of innovation within the membrane research community is very high. Between 1990 and 1997, more than 2,500 patents were issued for membranes. The number of research papers published in the Journal of Membrane Science has been doubling every two years. In addition, many technical meetings are now devoted fully or in part to membrane science and technology. What is needed now is a technical bridge from basic research to commercial viability.

A variety of technical challenges must be overcome. For example, the development of catalytic membranes will depend on materials advances and increases in module reliability under extreme-temperature cycling. The development of affinity membranes will require research on electron-beam grafting and other approaches to modify membrane chemistry. The development of tunable membranes will require extensive research on materials (e.g., conducting polymers) and assembly processes (e.g., chemical vapor deposition). In general, advanced membrane and module materials need to be matched with appropriate, economical manufacturing processes.

Significance of ATP Funds. ATP involvement is critical because the developers and users of industrial membranes currently focus on short-term improvements to existing technologies and have limited experience with extended vertical alliances involving both technology developers and product manufacturers. The technology developers, which are often small businesses, tend to focus on niche markets and cannot address efficiently the full market opportunity that would justify the commercialization of new membrane platforms.

The ATP can bring developers and end users together to transform promising ideas into prototype systems with demonstrated industrial reliability and commercial potential. The ATP can convene the long-term, multidisciplinary ventures needed to verify the systems integration of new materials, such as zeolite nano-structures (catalysts offering unique properties associated with ultrasmall structures), and new hybrid processing paradigms, such as membrane reactors.

The ATP focused program in selective-membrane platforms seeks to achieve cost-effective technologies with

• increased selectivity for the concentration, purification, or isolation of chemical species that exhibit only a small difference in size, functional group, or structure;
• increased productivity available over a wide range of production scales and stream concentrations;
• robustness at extremes of pH, temperature, or pressure; and/or
• resistance to hydrolysis, organic solvents, impurity poisoning, or reactive mixtures.

Additional Information. For information about eligibility, how to apply, and cost-sharing requirements, contact the Advanced Technology Program:

(800)-ATP-FUND (800-287-3863)
http://www.atp.nist.gov
email: atp@nist.gov
fax: (301) 926-9524
A430 Administration Building
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-0001

For technical information, contact:
Robert Beyerlein, Program Manager
(301) 975-4341
email: robert.beyerlein@nist.gov
fax: (301) 926-9524

Date created: January 1999
Last updated: April 12, 2005