For many industrial processes, the typical way to separate gases, liquids, or ions is with heat, using slight differences in boiling points to purify mixtures. These thermal processes account for roughly 10 percent of the energy use in the United States.
MIT chemical engineer Zachary Smith wants to reduce costs and carbon footprints by replacing these energy-intensive processes with highly efficient filters that can separate gases, liquids, and ions at room temperature.
In his lab at MIT, Smith is designing membranes with tiny pores that can filter tiny molecules based on their size. These membranes could be useful for purifying biogas, capturing carbon dioxide from power plant emissions, or generating hydrogen fuel.
“I would love to see a world where we could eliminate thermal separations, and where heat is no longer a problem in creating the things that we need and producing the energy that we need,” Zachary Smith says. (Photo Credit: Jodi Hilton)
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