Concentrating of sugar in biorefineries
Work area : Testing and process evaluation of membranes
Student : not known yet
Education : BSc/MSc study chemistry or chemical engineering
Period : to be determined (duration minimum 20 weeks)
Limitations : Because of time and cost consuming immigration procedures and permits needed, non-EU nationality students can not apply for this internship
Company : Energy research Centre of the Netherlands, Unit Biomass & Energy Efficiency, group Bio refinery & Processing
ECN supervisors : Ing. H.M. van Veen
Introduction and problem description
In the biorefining work at ECN sugars play a dominant role and they are produced from different feedstocks (like lignocellulose and seaweed) by aqueous extraction processes. For industrial use of these sugars the concentrations of the sugars are important and often the sugar concentration has to be increased for further use. One of the sources of sugar is from seaweeds, e.g. xylose from red seaweeds and mannitol from brown seaweeds. After the extraction process the sugars have to be concentrated to at least 25% of sugar. This can be done by the removal of other components (like water) e.g. by using membranes or by the selective separation of the sugars e.g. by selective sorbents.
In this project the potential of using membranes for concentrating sugar streams will be further evaluated focussing on seaweed as feedstock. The general objective is to extend the knowledge in this area and to identify technology development and verification needs. An overview is to be made of available membrane technologies and of technologies under development. This will be supported by membrane testing and evaluation. For the membrane testing first in-house prepared membranes will be used but also membranes from other parties could be incorporated in the experimental evaluation.
Objectives
The objective of the project is to judge the feasibility of using membranes in concentrating sugar streams coming from seaweed and to get a first dataset of test results.
Main results
1. Literature review on membranes and concentrating sugar solutions.
2. All measured data, for pure, binary and simulated process mixtures.
3. A report describing the work performed, results of the literature study, experimental setup, measurements, discussion and general conclusions.
internship
Literature study on membrane technology, sugar stream handling, analysis and concentration processes.
Selection of the sugar mixtures to be studied in detail (this will be done together with the ECN supervisors).
Set-up of membrane test experiments including a simple analysis method for the sugar mixtures.
Membrane testing: flux and retention measurements.
Comparison of the results of the different membranes and sugars and setting up a simple model that predicts the membrane transport.
Oral and written reporting: at the end of the project an oral presentation will be given to colleagues in the Bio Refinery & Processing group of ECN and a report has to be made.
General
Preferably reporting is in English.
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