KAUST Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center

Introduction

Center Director

Vision

The KAUST Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center will focus on world-leading development of novel, cutting-edge technologies to provide efficient and sustainable separation processes. These technologies will lead to paradigm shifts in the areas of gas separation in the petrochemical and natural gas industry and production of drinking water for the benefit of the people of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the region, and the world.

Mission

The Center will develop innovative graduate-level research programs in various multidisciplinary areas including nanotechnology, materials science, and chemical, biological and environmental engineering. The Center will play a leading role in the search for advanced polymeric and inorganic membrane structures and devices for economic and environmentally benign processing of natural gas and oil resources in the Kingdom, as well as more efficient desalination of seawater and wastewater treatment. These challenging goals will be carried out in collaboration with KAUST academic and industrial partners. The Center will strive for fundamental academic excellence with the mission of providing ideas for development of commercial membrane products for domestic and international use.

 

Center Objectives and Approaches

The KAUST Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center will offer an interactive multidisciplinary scientific environment for experts and students in the fields of chemical, biological, and environmental engineering, materials science, nanotechnology, and computer science. Center faculty, students, and staff will work toward the establishment of membrane science as the premier separation technology for advanced water treatment and gas purification.

Center research will focus on:

  • Computational process design and optimization.
  • Molecular design of advanced organic and inorganic separation media.
  • Development of high-performance membranes.
  • Efficient, high-surface area modules. Researchers in the Center will have access to membrane-specialized equipped laboratories as well as KAUST core analytical facilities.

Center activities will include:

  • World-class graduate teaching and research.
  • Academic collaborations with domestic and global research partners.
  • Development of IP in high-technology areas of membrane science.
  • Industry partnerships including contract research and technology transfer.
  • Formation of startup companies at KAUST.

The establishment of domestic and international research collaborations will play a vital role in the activities of the Center, and it will strive to commercialize the most promising membrane technologies through incubation companies within the Kingdom.

The primary focus of Center’s research is the development of cutting-edge membrane technology, spanning applications over a wide range of commercially important liquid and gas separations. In addition, the Center will focus on education of future academic and industrial leaders who can effectively contribute to the field of membrane science.

 

Multidisciplinary Areas of R&D Focus

KAUST Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center Diagram

Research activities within the KAUST Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center will be grouped into four main areas of thrusts:

  • Modeling
    This thrust includes research related to modeling of optimized membrane separation processes and advanced computer-simulated materials design. The data will be used to provide guidance of engineering solutions for membrane materials development. Based on selection of optimized process design parameters, novel, high-performance membranes and modules will be developed. Membranes with these tailor-made properties will establish membrane science as the most advanced separation technology for water treatment and gas separation.
  • Advanced Materials
    Membrane material goals determined in the modeling group will be researched and optimized in the Center materials group. Activities include syntheses and characterization of polymer, inorganic, hybrid and nano-structured blend materials, as well as liquid super-absorbents.
  • Nano-Engineered Membrane Structures
    Synthetic membranes can be made in many different structures, depending on the specific application. Porous membranes with pore sizes ranging from 0.001 to 1 µm can be applied to removal of solutes from aqueous feed solutions, including ultrafiltration and microfiltration. Molecularly dense, ultrathin (< 100 nm) membranes are in use for desalination of seawater by reverse osmosis, and for separation of gases in the petrochemical and natural gas industries. KMRC will focus on development of novel membranes with significantly improved productivity, selectivity, and long-term stability.
  • High-Performance Membrane Modules
    Current commercial membrane modules are fabricated in flat-sheet or hollow-fiber geometry. Optimum modules have large membrane-area-to-volume ratios combined with small pressure-drops on the feed- and permeate-side of the membrane device. The Center will use its computational capabilities to provide optimized module designs for any specific application.

Technical Expertise
The Center will offer a wide spectrum of technological expertise, ranging from fundamental materials and membrane science to design of complete membrane systems for water and gas separation applications. The Center will strive for academic excellence, inviting only highly experienced faculty and committed students to foster the advancement of membrane science. To advance newly developed membrane technologies to the commercial sector, the Center will work very closely with membrane users in the Kingdom and abroad.

 

Leveraged International Research by Partnership

KAUST Academic Excellence Alliance

Academic Partnership

KAUST Global Research Partnership

Regionally-Relevant Focus Areas

  • The Center will find promising opportunities within the Kingdom to collaborate with the oil and gas industry on more efficient separation and purification processes that will have significant economical domestic and global impact. Equally important, all newly-developed membrane processes will provide improved solutions to reduce the environmental impact of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, from gas processing.
  • The Center has the mission to develop more productive and reliable membranes for production of drinking water from seawater. This task is of utmost importance for the people of the Kingdom and the world due to the scarcity of safe drinking water.

 

Facilities and Equipment

The KAUST Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center will have all the essential equipment required for development and synthesis of advanced membrane materials, membrane morphologies, and module devices available for fundamental and applied research. Highly advanced and specialized membrane characterization techniques, such as multi-component gas- and liquid permeation, diffusion, and sorption equipment, will be used for materials and membrane characterization. The equipment includes small-scale, mobile tests units that can be used for evaluation of novel membrane and modules at KAUST. Furthermore, this equipment can also be utilized for field-site tests at interested companies in the Kingdom.