Creation of an organic solvent hyperfiltration method with remarkable energy efficiency for chemical process innovation

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K21111
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 27:Chemical engineering and related fields
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: Matsuyama Hideto 神戸大学, 先端膜工学研究センター, 教授 (50181798)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 佐々木 雄史 神戸大学, 先端膜工学研究センター, 助教 (60821618)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-07-30 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 膜分離 / 有機溶剤超ろ過（OHF） / 耐溶剤性OHF膜 / 有機溶媒液-液分離 / 複合膜 / 逆浸透（RO）

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, novel organic solvent hyperfiltration (OHF) membranes for direct solvent-solvent separation in organic solvent mixtures were created to enable significant energy reduction in organic solvent separation. Several OHF membranes with different properties were developed using organic solvent-resistant polymers, and their organic solvent separation performances were evaluated. The OHF membranes created in this study demonstrated the potential of the membrane-based organic solvent separation processes as an alternative to distillation.

Free Research Field

膜工学、化学工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究で開発されたOHF膜は、これまで膜での分離が難しかった有機溶剤混合液からの溶剤間分離を可能とし、蒸留法の1/100以下の超省エネルギーで溶剤分離を行うことができる。このような溶剤－溶剤膜分離を可能にするOHF膜はこれまで世の中に無く、従来の蒸留技術による化学プロセスを未来型の革新的化学プロセスに変革し得るという点で、挑戦的研究にふさわしい成果と言える。