Global Goals of Clean Energy Encourage Research to Improve Fuel Cell Membrane Separation Technologies

LONDON, January 4 -- Among the numerous applications for membrane separation technologies, scientists have been challenged mostly by fuel cells. They have been working on membrane electrode assemblies to meet the automotive industry's requirements for robust, cost-effective and durable fuel cells to reduce the industry's dependence on fossil fuels.

Development of advanced membrane separation technologies in the energy and environmental markets are gaining an impetus from growing concerns over supply chain issues as well as political and security factors. These apprehensions stem from the substantial and continuous use of fossil fuels for transportation and as primary energy sources.

Such indiscriminate use of fossil fuels causes considerable harm to the environment. To reverse this damage, scientists have been actively working on upgrading membranes for fuel cells, which are expected to compete with petroleum-based energy sources - particularly in the transportation markets.

These enhanced membranes will not only improve hydrogen production for use as a fuel in vehicles, but will also sequester carbon dioxide to reduce the greenhouse effect and global warming due to burning of fossil fuels.

In Europe, it will be mandatory for all fuels to have less than 1 per cent benzene after 2005. Inventive companies in the region have already developed a novel pervaporation membrane technology to remove benzene from aliphatics.

European companies are working on building fuel cell power plants for 50 MW nominal power, 200 MW rated fuel cell peak power, 60 per cent electric efficiency, zero emissions and 40,000 hours of fuel cell operating time without maintenance.

"Major car companies, government energy agencies and universities are all improving their research capabilities," says Frost & Sullivan ( http://ti.frost.com) Research Analyst Miriam C. Nagel. "There will be tremendous benefits for developing sufficiently rugged and efficient membranes to make fuel cell technology really competitive with gasoline and diesel engines."

For instance, European companies have been collaborating to develop fuel cells with a measured electric efficiency operating in 'real-life' conditions. The results of some of these ventures are hydrogen-powered polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells.

Apart from promoting these advancements, developers of membrane separation technologies will also have to ensure their solutions are commercially viable. Currently, adoption has been restrained because the cost of meeting validation requirements for water/wastewater systems adds to the cost of membrane systems, making their installation prohibitive.

"However, the exceptional quality of membrane filtration is overcoming these cost restraints in some markets, particularly where increasingly stringent regulations are being enforced for clean water," notes Ms. Nagel.

Even though individual European countries have established standards for water and wastewater treatment technologies, there is also a blanket law for regulating the use of water among member countries of the European Union (EU). The EU has set up the European Water Framework Directive to develop regulations for the protection and enhancement of all water sources including inland surface, coastal, ground and even 'transitional' waters.

"The directive focuses on funding requirements and asset management plans as well as policy issues their potential impact on the business of the Water Framework Directive," remarks Ms. Nagel. "The objective is to promote better water governance among the participating countries."

To meet the demand for clean water convincingly, technology developers need to find a solution to fouling in many fluid separation applications. In desalination and wastewater treatment, the variability of water sources requires fouling issues to be addressed for each specific application to extend the lifetime of membranes.

Leading companies have been working on solutions to improve membrane flux in membrane bioreactors. For instance, the PermaCare MPE50 has demonstrated fouling reduction and flux improvement of 30 to 100 per cent in industrial and municipal wastewater treatment applications, respectively.

"Scientists in Europe have invented a membrane separation technology - organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) - that is flexible, cost-effective and offers an environmentally friendly process to minimise waste and recover catalysts in the fine chemical and pharmaceutical industries," observes Ms. Nagel.

Such advances will tremendously aid the uptake of the technology, especially since desalination and wastewater recovery have become major and expanding markets. This market growth can be mainly attributed to the limited availability of fresh water and the uneven distribution of freshwater sources.

Such water-stressed conditions, the significant improvements made in membrane technology and reduction in energy consumption by 20 to 30 per cent over the last 10 years have gone a long way in promoting the use of membrane separation technologies.

Advances in Membrane Separation is part of the Chemicals, Materials and Foods vertical subscription service. The study covers markets including water and wastewater treatment, medical and related applications, industrial processing, chemical and petrochemical applications and energy and environmental applications. This research service enables companies to align their positioning strategies to benefit from these technologies. Executive summaries and analyst interviews are available to the press.

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Title: Advances in Membrane Separation

Code: D377

Keywords in this release: membrane separation, desalination, membrane bioreactor, membrane electrode assemblies, PermaCare MPE50, polymer electrolyte membrane, PEM, organic solvent nanofiltration, OSN, Water Framework Directive