Chemicals Industry Separations 2000 Roadmap Summary
An electronic copy of the roadmap can be downloaded (PDF 3.5 MB) Download Adobe Reader.
Background
Four workshops to develop a technology roadmap for separations brought together over two hundred and thirty experts from chemical and related industries, universities, and government research laboratories. The first two separations workshops were sponsored by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, B F Goodrich, Center for Waste Reduction Technologies (CWRT), Council for Chemical Research, Department of Energy Office of Industrial Technologies (DOE OIT), Dow Chemical Company, DuPont, Electric Power Research Institute, Koch Glitch, Monsanto Company, National Center for Clean Industrial & Treatment Technologies, Nofsinger, Inc., Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Rohm & Haas, Texas Tech Process Control and Optimization, and Union Carbide. These two workshops focused on adsorption, crystallization, distillation, extraction, membranes, and separative reactors. Two additional workshops focused on bio-separations, dilute solutions, and ion exchange. The first workshops focused on research needs for specific technologies while the latter workshops considered the full range of separations technologies, both individually and when combined with one another, for a variety of feed streams. The results from all four workshops are published in Vision 2020: 2000 Separations Roadmap, which is available in hard copy from CWRT and OIT, and available electronically through the CWRT and Web sites. Dr. Earl Beaver of BRIDGES for Sustainability says "As roadmapping for the most energy- and material- intensive industries continues, the role of separations technology in achieving the Technology Vision 2020 becomes ever more prominent. Over the next twenty or so years, the materials produced by industry will likely be dramatically different from those we are familiar with today, and they will require new and innovative processes. Separations is one of the technology areas that cross-cuts virtually every one of the industries involved in the visioning process." Over two hundred and thirty individuals from industry, academia and government, all with appreciable expertise in separations participated in the four workshops. In each of the separations workshops, participants were asked to define the present technical challenges faced by industries producing and using chemicals and to identify the barriers and research needed. The goal is to achieve a 30% reduction of relative indicators for energy usage, material usage, water consumption, toxic dispersion, and pollutant dispersion by 2020. These relative indicators are those piloted by the National Roundtable for the Environment and the Economy and refined by sponsors of the CWRT. Each indicator is indexed to value added, i.e. the selling price of the product minus the cost of raw materials.
Vision Linkage
Separations is a common theme that recurs in discussions of barriers and challenges in many of Industry of the Future visions and roadmaps. Because of the significance of separations, the series of workshops were held in 1998 and 1999 to identify the research and development needs of separations in the chemical and related industries (particularly agricultural, pharmaceutical, and petroleum). The resulting Separations Roadmap is primarily thought of as supporting the Process Science and Engineering Technology technical area of Technology Vision 2020: The U.S. Chemical Industry. Separations is also identified as a major technical area in the Bioprocesses and Biotechnology, Materials Technology, and Chemical Measurements sections of the vision.
Priority R&D Needs
- Adsorbents - New materials with improved selectivity and stability and more favorable geometries, tools to predict adsorbent performance and aid in process design, and demonstration of commercial feasibility
- Crystallization - Physical property data, molecular modeling capability for solid/liquid equilibrium and crystal growth mechanisms, and instruments to measure degree of super-saturation
- Distillation - Improved understanding of physical phenomena, better in situ sampling, analytical and flow-visualization methods, and better predictive modeling tools
- Extraction - New solvents, a better understanding of the fundamental physical processes, and an enhanced physical property database
- Membranes - Economic evaluations to direct research efforts, membrane system development to enhance operability and robustness, new membrane materials, increasing surface area at lower cost, and predictive models
- Separative Reactors - New materials, economic evaluations to prioritize applications for separative reactors, and improved design capabilities
- Ion Exchange - New ion exchange materials, greater selectivity in ion exchange materials, improved regeneration methods, lower cost ion exchange materials, and innovative ion exchange equipment
- Bio-separations - Development of robust bio-catalysts; development of better separations technologies with emphasis on membranes, extractants, adsorbents, and hybrid systems; collection of physical property data; extension of predictive models; pursuit of in vitro synthesis; and development of closed-loop fermentation processes
- Dilute Solutions - Improved understanding of physical phenomena and intermolecular chemistry, enhanced physical property databases, better predictive modeling tools, and improved separations technologies including hybrid systems
- Cross-Cutting Research Needs - Major research needs that cut across several or all of the areas of separations technologies include: new materials, more physical property data, new predictive models, and demonstrations of technical feasibility in real world systems using dedicated pilot-plants. The development of new hybrid separations technologies is also a cross-cutting need. The importance of process economic studies to guide research programs was cited for all but the most established technologies.
Separations roadmapping is a part of an industry-wide effort to create a blueprint of the research and technology milestones that are necessary to achieve long-term industry goals. The results will also be used to guide the future direction of the DOE ITP partnerships program with the materials- and energy-intensive industries. Part of the Department's incentive in supporting the vision and road map process for the chemical industry is the annual use of 7.4 quadrillion British Thermal Units (BTUs) of energy, which is 19% of the energy use by all of industry in the United States.
More information on the publication can be obtained via e-mail from Jo Rogers.