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2017 summer Membrane News Twente News magazine of the Membrane Science and Technology Cluster MNT, p/a University of Twente - TNW/MTO PO Box 217 , NL-7500 AE Enschede, Netherlands [email protected] - www.utwente.nl/tnw/mtg Telephone: +31 (0) 53 489 2950 Welcome A warm welcome to the newsletter of the Membrane Science his inaugural lecture, Prof. Meulenberg painted a picture of and Technology Cluster. In this newsletter, we pay tribute to the future of dense ceramic membranes, highlighting the Prof. Ton Burggraaf, who passed away in February of this strength and the potential of the cooperation between Jülich year. Ton was a pioneer in the field of inorganic membrane and Twente. On the 8th of June, Prof. Dimitrios Stamatialis, science, with long and distinguished academic career. As appointed as Professor of (Bio)artificial organs, held his a professor in Inorganic Material Science (1969-1994), he inaugural lecture. While Prof. Stamatialis is not an official part performed ground breaking work in the field of inorganic of the MST Cluster, his work on kidney dialysis membranes membranes, and even after his retirement he remained is a real inspiration to our cluster and we congratulate him active and interested in the field. On the 3rd of February of wholeheartedly. this year he even still participated in the Membrane Science And finally, on the 15th of June, Prof. Walter van der Meer and Technology open day, being very interested in the recent held his inaugural lecture, highlighting the big role that formation of the MST cluster. Many more details about Ton membranes can play in the delivery of pristine drinking water. and his career can be found on the next page, but it can be In this newsletter, you will further find an overview of clear that Ton will be sorely missed, both as a scientist and promotion ceremonies and a more in depth scientific insight as a person. into the expertise of the Soft Matter, Fluidics and Interfaces Naturally, there is also much more positive news from group (SFI) of Prof. Rob Lammertink. the MST cluster. In a period of just two weeks’ time (2-15 We invite you to read this newsletter and hope you will enjoy June) there were as many as three inaugural lectures at the it. In case you have additional questions or you would like to University of Twente where research on membranes played receive further information or publications, please feel free a major role. This included on the 2nd of June, Prof. Willi to contact us at [email protected] or +31 53 489 2950. Meulenberg, head of Gas Separation Membranes at the IEK- On behalf of all members of Membrane Science and 1 of Forschungszentrum Jülich, who was recently appointed Technology at the University of Twente, we would like to as professor in the field of ion conducting membranes wish you pleasant holidays! within the Membrane Science and Technology Cluster. In Members of the MST cluster during the safety day (Dated: 3rd July 2017). 1 1 In Memory of Ton Burggraaf (1931 - 2017) The membrane community lost a pioneer in inorganic ceramic membranes for membrane science, Professor Anthonie Jan (Ton) Burggraaf, oxygen separation and who passed away on Saturday, February 11, 2017 in Enschede, syngas production. Prior to the Netherlands. his work, ionic conducting or mixed ionic-electronic Ton Burggraaf was a member of the World Academy of conducting ceramics Ceramics and an honorary member of the Dutch Ceramic were studied mainly as Society. He obtained the Leo Stuijts award in 1991 at electrolytes or electrodes the second conference of the European Ceramic Society for fuel cells or oxygen (Augsburg). sensors. It was shown by his group that inorganic Ton had a long and distinguished career in academia. After membranes, made of receiving his MSc at the Delft University of Technology in 1958, a one-phase mixed- he worked on glass and glass ceramics at Philips Research conducting ceramic, or Laboratory for several years. In 1965 he defended his PhD ionic-conducting ceramic/metal dual-phases, can offer 100% dissertation at the Eindhoven University of Technology: perm-selectivity for oxygen with high oxygen permeance. ‘The mechanical strength of alkali-aluminosilicate glasses This original work led to exponential growth of research in after ion exchange’. In 1969 he was appointed as professor mixed-conducting membranes for oxygen and hydrogen in Inorganic Materials Science at the University of Twente. separations in academia as well as in several large industrial Ton published more than 300 scientific papers, several book efforts on commercializing ionic transport membrane chapters, and many patents in the areas of ferroelectrics, technologies for air separation and syngas production. oxygen-ion and mixed conductors, ceramics with special mechanical properties, and inorganic membranes. He was The scientific “drive” of Ton Burggraaf can best be summarized one of the founding fathers of inorganic membrane science, by what he said during his Stuijts lecture: “My colleague and because of this pioneering work, inorganic membranes and friend Leo Stuijts convinced me of the importance are now regarded as one of the major classes of membranes of microstructures and consequently of the importance for separation and chemical reaction processes. of technological factors. It has influenced my career in a profound way” (Journal of the European Ceramic Society, vol. In the field of membranes, Ton performed groundbreaking 10, 1992, 245-250). work on inorganic membranes back in the 1980-1990’s. He was the first to illustrate the formation mechanism as well Ton was a true scholar with a strong interest in science. After as the structural and transport properties of sol-gel derived his retirement in 1994, he remained interested in membrane mesoporous alumina membranes, which are nowadays the science and continued to publish 50 more journal papers. workhorse for inorganic membrane ultrafiltration processes Just recently, on February 3rd, he attended the Membrane in industry. He was one of the pioneers in sol-gel synthesis Science and Technology open day in Twente, where he of microporous silica membranes and hydrothermal showed interest in the recent developments of our cluster. synthesis of polycrystalline zeolite membranes for industrial gas separations. In the same period of time, Ton and his Ton Burggraaf was not only a passionate scientist and collaborators in Twente also studied gas and vapor transport educator, but also a mentor, advisor, friend, and a man of high through mesoporous and microporous inorganic membranes character. He was a social person with an open, international and elucidated both surface flow and capillary condensation mind. Ton will always stay in our memory with the highest mechanisms for gas permeation and separation by inorganic regard. membranes. His work in this area provided the theoretical (Parts of this text are also published as a Letter to the Editor basis for characterization and applications of mesoporous of the Journal of Membrane Science, 2017). and microporous membranes for gas separation. Additionally, Ton was a major pioneer in developing mixed-conducting 2 Soft matter, Fluidics and Interfaces Within the MST cluster, the group Soft matter, Fluidics and Interfaces (SFI) investigates transport phenomena near interfaces. Membrane processes are to a great extent influenced and often limited by these phenomena. We are approaching this by using experimental techniques that allow to quantify concentration and velocity fields, numerical modeling and theory to fundamentally understand the transport, and design transport intensification strategies. Figure 1. Typical microPIV result providing velocity profiles in a microfluidic channel with gas bubbles controlled on its channel walls. Fundamental interfacial transport phenomena Ion transport near ion selective interfaces Mass transport near interfaces, including membranes and In polar media, the presence of ions crucially impact solid catalysts, is of crucial interest concerning the overall the transport phenomena, as seen in electrodialysis, performance of a process. We aim to study these transport Donnan dialysis, and reverse osmosis. The interplay of phenomena on the length scale of the boundary layer itself ion concentration and potential distribution gives rise to (typically submillimeter). The use of microfluidic devices has many interesting phenomena. Electroconvection is studied proven to be extremely adequate in gaining knowledge on in great detail during electrodialysis processes, under interfacial transport that is normally not acquired via overall conditions where severe concentration polarization occurs. performance parameters (pressure, flux, selectivity). The During so called over-limiting currents, unsteady advective well-defined flow conditions allow one to extract true and flows are generated by an inhomogeneous electric field local permeation values, by matching experiments with mass and space charge region (Physical Review E, 92(3), 031003 transport models. (2015)). Furthermore, the strong concentration polarization phenomena can induce density driven flows as well, resulting A membrane interface is typically not homogeneous, in an intriguing interplay of fluid body forces (Physical Review although transport descriptions are often based on this Fluids, 2(3), 033701 (2017)). assumption. During gas-liquid membrane contacting like in membrane distillation and oxygenation, the interface We aim to obtain quantitative information regarding the consists of gas bubbles and solid