A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR TRANSFORMING
SEPARATION
SCIENCE
Committee on a Research Agenda for a New Era in Separation Science
Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology
Division on Earth and Life Studies
A Consensus Study Report of
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, DC
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This activity was supported by contracts between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Energy (DE-SC0018052), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (60NANB18D019), and the National Science Foundation (NARM NSF EFMA-1823190). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-49170-9
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-49170-3
Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.17226/25421
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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. A Research Agenda for Transforming Separation Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25421.
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COMMITTEE ON A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR A NEW ERA IN SEPARATION SCIENCE
Members
JOAN F. BRENNECKE (Chair), University of Texas at Austin
JARED L. ANDERSON, Iowa State University
GEORGES BELFORT, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
AURORA CLARK, Washington State University
BRIAN KOLTHAMMER, Dow Chemical Company (retired)
BRUCE MOYER, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
SUSAN OLESIK, Ohio State University
KEVIN M. ROSSO, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
MARK B. SHIFLETT, University of Kansas
DAVID SHOLL, Georgia Institute of Technology
ZACHARY P. SMITH, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
LYNDA SODERHOLM, Argonne National Laboratory
MICHAEL TSAPATSIS, Johns Hopkins University
MARY J. WIRTH, Purdue University
Staff
CAMLY TRAN, Study Director (through April 2019)
ELLEN K. MANTUS, Scholar
JESSICA WOLFMAN, Senior Program Assistant
Sponsors
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
BOARD ON CHEMICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
Co-Chairs
DAVID BEM, PPG Industries
JOAN F. BRENNECKE, NAE, University of Texas at Austin
Members
GERARD BAILLELY, Procter and Gamble
MARK BARTEAU, NAE, Texas A&M University
DAVID B. BERKOWITZ, University of Nebraska
MICHELLE V. BUCHANAN, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
JENNIFER SINCLAIR CURTIS, University of California, Davis
SAMUEL H. GELLMAN, NAS, University of Wisconsin–Madison
SHARON C. GLOTZER, NAS, NAE, University of Michigan
KAREN I. GOLDBERG, NAS, University of Pennsylvania
MIRIAM E. JOHN, Sandia National Laboratories (retired)
ALAN D. PALKOWITZ, Eli Lilly and Company
JOSEPH B. POWELL, Shell
PETER J. ROSSKY, NAS, Rice University
RICHMOND SARPONG, University of California, Berkeley
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Staff
JEREMY MATHIS, Board Director
TERESA FRYBERGER, Board Director (through August 2018)
ELLEN K. MANTUS, Scholar
MARILEE SHELTON-DAVENPORT, Senior Program Officer
CAMLY TRAN, Senior Program Officer (through April 2019)
JESSICA WOLFMAN, Research Assistant
NICHOLAS ROGERS, Financial Associate
Preface
Chemical separations are critical to almost every aspect of our daily lives, from the energy we use to the medications we take. Moreover, efficient separations are needed to ensure U.S. manufacturing competitiveness, primarily because of the high energy use of current commercial separation processes; some estimates attribute 10–15% of the total energy used in the United States to chemical separations. Nonetheless, separations are often overlooked and underappreciated. Separations make the goods and services that improve our standard of living and quality of life possible. A dramatic example of how separation science contributes to the greater good is the development and commercialization of reverse-osmosis membranes for water desalination. Hundreds of millions of people now have ready access to potable water because of step-change advances in separation technology.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Committee on a Research Agenda for a New Era in Separation Science assessed the state of separation science, focusing on advances since the publication of the 1987 National Academies report Separation and Purification: Critical Needs and Opportunities, by a committee chaired by C. Judson King. Although much progress has been made, some of the critical needs from a generation ago remain. In addition, new challenges have presented themselves as a result of improved detection limits, advances in medicine, and new emphasis on sustainability and environmental stewardship. Fortunately, a wealth of new experimental techniques, along with molecular modeling and simulation, and the ability to harness data-science techniques, provide separation scientists with the opportunity to make great advances in the design and development of revolutionary new materials for separation systems, as detailed in the research agenda described herein.
It is interesting that the present committee—made up of chemists, chemical engineers, and representatives of academe, national laboratories, and industry—discovered that the vision presented by King (Separation Processes, 2nd ed., 1980, McGraw-Hill) of unification of the general principles of separation science has not yet been achieved. Chemists and chemical engineers engaging in separation science and technology do not even speak a common language. The committee emphasizes that collaboration and communication among separation scientists and development of excitement among young researchers are key to transforming separation science.
I thank the committee members and the National Academies staff for their hard work and dedication in all the committee activities and in the preparation of this report. They made this a tremendously stimulating, educational, and enjoyable experience. Finally, I thank the reviewers for their extremely thoughtful and helpful comments, which have improved the content and presentation of this report.
Joan F. Brennecke, Chair
Committee on a Research Agenda
for a New Era in Separation Science
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Acknowledgments
The completion of this study would not have been successful without the assistance of many individuals and organizations. The committee thanks especially the following for their contributions.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) sponsored the study and provided valuable information on their programs involving separation science. The committee thanks especially Bruce Garrett, director of the Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division in the Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES), as well as Philip Wilk and Raul Miranda (BES) who served as the DOE liaison to the committee and was effective in responding to its requests for information. The committee also thanks Michelle Bushey (NSF Chemical Measurement and Imaging), Christy Payne (NSF Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems Division), and Vince Shen (NIST) for their active engagement and input throughout the study process.
Speakers and invited participants at the committee’s data-gathering meetings were Heather C. Allen, Ohio State University; Mark R. Antonio, Argonne National Laboratory; Jim Bielenberg, RAPID Manufacturing Institute; Craig Brown, NIST; Jeff Chalmers, Ohio State University; Jaehun Chun, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; David Constable, American Chemical Society; Radu Custelcean, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Amar Flood, Indiana University; Benny Freeman, The University of Texas at Austin; Robert Giraud, Chemours; T. Alan Hatton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Matthew Hill, Monash University; Philip Jessop, Queens University; William Koros, Georgia Institute of Technology; Heather J. Kulik, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Christy Landes, Rice University; Jeffrey Long, University of California, Berkeley; Jeffrey Morris, City College of New York; Zoltan Nagy, Purdue University; Andrew Peterson, Brown University; Marek Pruski, Iowa State University; Jeffrey Reimer, University of California, Berkeley; Roger Rousseau, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; J. Ilja Siepmann, University of Minnesota; Susan Sinnott, Pennsylvania State University; G. Brian Stephenson, Argonne National Laboratory; Greg Swift, Los Alamos National Laboratory; Gregory Voth, University of Chicago; Kim Williams, Colorado School of Mines; and Kelly Zhang, Genentech.
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Acknowledgment of Reviewers
This Consensus Study Report was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in making each published report as sound as possible and to ensure that it meets institutional standards of quality, objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process.
We thank the following for their review of this report:
Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations of this report nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Michael Ladisch, Purdue University, and Marin Sherwin (retired), W.R. Grace & Co. They were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with the standards of the National Academies and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the National Academies.
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Contents
Current Landscape of Separation Science
Committee’s Interpretation of Its Task
Generating Improved Selectivity among Solutes in Separations
Recovering Substances from Dilute Solutions
Understanding and Controlling Interfacial Phenomena
Increasing Rate and Capacity in Separations
Developing Improved Process Configurations for Separation Equipment
Advances Not Anticipated by the 1987 Report
Educational, Workforce, and Industry Needs
3 RELEVANT ADVANCES IN INTERSECTING DISCIPLINES
Advances in Materials Science for Materials Synthesis
Advances in Systems-Engineering Approaches
Advances to Using External Stimuli
Advances in Instrumentation and Characterization
Advances in Data Science and Analytics
Scientific Challenges in Selectivity, Capacity, and Throughput
Scientific Challenges in Understanding Temporal That Occur in Separation Systems
Scientific Challenges in Defining Standard Systems, Samples, and Methods
Scientific Challenges in Accelerating Chemical Separations with Data Science
5 A RESEARCH AGENDA: A VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF SEPARATION SCIENCE
Scientific Value of Improved Separations
6 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RESEARCH AGENDA
Graduate and Undergraduate Education in Separation Science
Access to Tools at the National Level
How Fulfilling the Research Agenda Will Affect Industrial Practice
A COMMITTEE AND STAFF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
C EXAMPLES OF CHARACTERIZATION
BOXES, FIGURES, AND TABLES
BOXES
1-1 Ethylene Production via Steam Cracking
1-2 Generic Research Themes Proposed in the 1987 Report
4-1 Tradeoffs Between Permeability and Selectivity in Membrane-Based Gas Separations
4-2 Measuring Dilute Target Compounds
5-1 Crystal Engineering Approaches to Chemical Separations
5-2 Using Both Enthalpy and Entropy of Reaction for CO2 Capture
5-3 Postcombustion Removal of Carbon Dioxide
5-4 Determining Whether an Interface Is Controlling a System’s Behavior
5-5 Description of Confinement
5-6 Glassy Polymers: A Nonequilibrium State That Benefits Separations
5-7 Effect of Trace Mercury and Palladium on 137Cs Separation
5-8 Chemical Degradation of Nanoporous Metal-Organic Frameworks
FIGURES
S-1 The four recommended research directions of Theme 1
S-2 The four recommended research directions of Theme 2
1-1 Steps for ethylene production that uses steam cracking
2-1 Illustration of how the committee uses the terms interface and interfacial region
2-2 Membranes used in biopharmaceutical processing
3-2 Photoregulated binding and release of a chloride ion
3-3 Liquid-cell TEM of freely rotating graphene particles
3-5 Components of data science
4-1 “Upper bound” plot for the separation of oxygen from an oxygen–nitrogen mixture
5-2 An image of the free-energy landscape of a self-assembly ensemble
5-4 Plot of CO2 capacity as a function of pressure for the same ΔH0rxn but different ΔS0rxn values
5-5 An example of the use of light to trigger the adsorption and release of CO2
5-8 Description of physical aging in polymers below their glass-transition temperature, Tg
5-9 Degradation of Zn–N bonds in ZIF-8 materials when exposed to humidified streams of SO2
TABLES
2-1 Major Synchrotron and Neutron DOE Scientific User Facilities in Operation in the United States