1

Note from the Program Head

In This Issue:

SRP Update 1

In the News 3

Meeting Format 5

Publications 6

Spring Meeting 7

Happy New Year - Spring will be

here soon and I wanted to share our

plans for the spring PSTC meeting.

My perception, based in part on com-

munication from our sponsors, is that

we are losing contact points within

our supporters through retirements

and transfers. This is bad in several

different directions, not the least of

which is the impact it has on our abil-

ity to place our students. To combat

this trend, we will have a significantly

different meeting format in the spring.

The first day will be devoted to over-

view presentations covering the activ-

ities of the various research groups

participating in the program with a

second full day devoted to parallel

short-courses covering liquid-liquid

extraction and distillation. The course

outlines are included in this newslet-

ter.

Our goal is to get our sponsors up to

speed on what our researchers are do-

ing and to offer a training component

that will hopefully attract younger en-

gineers to the meeting. We will also

ask the graduate students to prepare

poster presentations which will give

attendees the oppor-

tunity to view our

ongoing efforts in

more detail. We are

hopeful that travel

schedules and budg-

ets will allow a good

attendance. There is a lot of interest-

ing work being conducted by our re-

searchers both inside and outside the

boundaries of the PSTC and it is im-

portant to everyone that the communi-

cation of these efforts be successful.

Speaking of communication, the

Cockrell School of Engineering news-

letter featured a nice piece on the

Pickle campus that included the SRP

pilot plant. The full newsletter, which

has several other interesting articles,

is available at the following link:

https://magazine.engr.utexas.edu/

Best wishes,

Bruce

https://sites.utexas.edu/pstc/

SRP Update: Frank Seibert

Happy New Year! The

SRP pilot facilities con-

tinues to undergo modi-

fications for enhanced

capabilities.

The large-scale distillation piping

has been modified to allow for hy-

drocarbon distillation pressure

drop/flooding measurements simi-

lar to those obtained with the Air/

Water column. A new pump has

been added. cont. →

2

SRP Update cont.

A new Fractal liquid dis-

tributor with a flow range

of 5 to 40 gpm/ft2 has

been obtained through a

donation of Amalgamat-

ed Research Incorpo-

rated. In addition, the

new and existing bottoms

piping will be re-

insulated. The distillation

column has also been re-

insulated.

In collaboration with JP3 Measurement, two optical

read points will be installed on the large SRP distil-

lation column. The Verax NIR analyzer allows ac-

curate, real-time measurement of the stream compo-

sitions. Additional technical information may be

found here: https://www.jp3measurement.com/

technology/ . The compositional values will be cap-

tured by our DeltaV data historian and logged.

While the JP3 Verax technology is currently used

commercially, this will be the first application to

distillation. The technology will be tested at the SRP

in February 2019. The JP3 compositional measure-

ments will be compared with the SRP gas chromato-

graph values during the next SRP standard packing

distillation test.

A new high pressure 70 hp blower was recently add-

ed to the pilot facilities. The blower was obtained

by Professor Gary Rochelle with funds provided by

the US Department of Energy in support of a recent

carbon dioxide capture project involving a mem-

brane separator.

Oldershaw distillation activity continues to be

strong with multiple projects extending into the sec-

ond quarter of 2019. The oil/water membrane sepa-

rations continues to increase with many projects

planned in 2019. New funding from the Kuwait Sci-

ence Foundation and others will support research

addressing the effects of temperature, interfacial ten-

sion, surfactants, and actual process oil on the

unique membrane oil/water separation process.

Future 2019 SRP pilot plant and lab scale operations

will likely include:

Pilot Plant Carbon Dioxide Absorption/Stripping

Demonstration

Oldershaw Distillation Studies

Distillation Packing Characterization

Effect of Temperature, Interfacial Tension, Sur-

factants, and Varying Oils on the Oil/Water Sep-

aration using a Novel Membrane Process

Effect of Plastic Random and Structured Pack-

ing as Coalescers in Liquid Extraction

New Fractal Liquid Distributor

JP3 Verax System

High Pressure Blower

3

In the News

Announcing a New Research Center at UT The newly launched Center for Materials for Water

and Energy SysTems (M-WET) is one of 42 Energy

Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) supported by

the U.S. Department of Energy. Headed by PSTC’s

Dr. Benny Freeman, M-WET brings together re-

searchers from the University of Texas at Austin,

the University of California, Santa Barbara, and

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.

Backed by a $10.75 million dollar grant from the

DOE, Freeman’s center will focus on improving wa-

ter purification methods. The multi-institution will

explore innovate ways to use and reuse existing wa-

ter. Freeman seeks to address basic science

knowledge gaps in development of next-generation,

polymer membrane-based water purification tech-

nologies.

Graduate Student Rahul Sujanani Earns Accolades

PSTC graduate student Rahul

Sujanani has made a big impact

this winter season. He has au-

thored a piece for the EFRC

website on “Stretching for Per-

fect Separations: Are Flexible

Frameworks the Solution?”

Sujanani, whose works focuses on ion and water

transport through novel polymer membranes for wa-

ter, energy, and resource recovery applications, ar-

gues for the development of more efficient and ef-

fective technologies for the processing of natural

gas. Read his full article on separations applications

for natural gas processing here: https://

www.energyfrontier.us/content/stretching-perfect-

separations.

Rahul Sujanani has also been awarded a scholarship

by the American Society of Indian Engineers and

Architects (ASIE). Sujanani is one of only twelve

recipients who received the accolade. ASIE reported

an over-

whelming

number of

applica-

tions this

year, mak-

ing the

competition

tough and

selection

difficult.

Sujanani’s

hard work and credentials set him apart and earned

him the scholarship.

ASIE strives to encourage young students of Indian

origin to pursue engineering and architectural stud-

ies. Rahul was invited to their Annual Holiday Din-

ner event on Saturday, November 17, 2018 at India

House to receive the scholarship check.

Read the full announcement here:

https://che.utexas.edu/2018/10/02/better-

water-purification-methods-are-aim-of-new-

research-center/

4

The Rochelle Group Presents in Australia

Four graduate students accompanied Dr. Gary Ro-

chelle and Dr. Eric Chen of the Texas Carbon Man-

agement Program to GHGT-14 in Melbourne in Oc-

tober 2018. Five papers were presented on the use

of the advanced flash stripper (AFS) in pilot plant

testing using 5 m piperazine as the solvent. We

have demonstrated up to 99% CO2 removal from

coal-fired flue gas with the AFS and our primary

research focus is now on reducing the energy drain

on power plants that carbon capture presents. The

energy penalty was an unacceptable high of 50% of

generated output in 1990 and we have shown that

the cost can be reduced to 25%. The AFS was de-

veloped at the SRP 0.2 MW pilot plant and is cur-

rently being tested at a 0.5 MW pilot plant at the

National Carbon Capture Center in Birmingham,

AL.

At the close of GHGT-14 a joint research review

meeting was held with TxCMP and researchers

from NTNU. The meeting was held on the campus

of the University of Melbourne, thanks to (Paul

Webley and Louise Baker. It provided a useful ex-

tended discussion of topics presented at GHGT

while giving us the opportunity to present work in

progress to a limited group of collaborators.

The papers presented were:

Pilot Plant Demonstration of Piperazine with the

Advanced Flash Stripper

Corrosion in Piperazine at Pilot Plants

Demonstration of 99% CO2 Removal from Coal

-fired Flue Gas by Amine Scrubbing

Analysis of Advanced Flash Stripper Perfor-

mance using 5 m Piperazine

5

New Format at Spring Annual Meeting

The Process Science & Technology Center’s Spring

2019 Annual Meeting will have a different format.

The first day, April 16th, will feature hour-long

presentations by the principal investigators. On the

second day, April 17th, Program Head Bruce Eldridge

and SRP Technical Manager Frank Seibert will be

offering concurrent day-long short courses in distilla-

tion and extraction. The schedule and course outlines

are as follows:

Day 1—Presentations

9:00-10:00 AM James A. Ritter

10:00-11:00 AM Michael Baldea

11:00AM-12:00 PM Benny Freeman

12:00-1:00 PM Lunch

1:00-2:00 PM Bruce Eldridge

2:00-3:00 PM Frank Seibert

3:00-4:00 PM Gary Rochelle

Day 2—Short Courses

9:00 AM-12:00 PM Morning Session

12:00-1:00 PM Lunch

1:00-5:00 PM Afternoon Session

Distillation Short Course

1. Vapor-liquid equilibrium calculation

a. Fugacity coefficient approach: SRK

b. Activity coefficient approaches:

NRTL, UNIQUAC, UniFAC

2. Process simulator design methods: As-

penPlus Demo

a. Shortcut approaches: Fenske (Winn)–

Underwood-Gilliland

b. Equilibrium stage approach

c. Rate-based approach

3. Trayed tower design

a. Mass transfer (tray efficiency) models

b. Hydraulic / capacity calculations

4. Packed tower design (random / structured

packing)

a. Mass transfer (HETP) models

b. Hydraulic / capacity calculations

5. Hands-on design case exercise (Process simu-

lator and SRP DISTILL 2.2 program)

NOTE: We will load handout material for the

course in the password protected BOX folder linked

to the PSTC website. The DISTILL 2.2 program is

Excel based. It would be very beneficial if you

could access your companies process simulation

tools remotely.

Liquid Extraction Short Course

1. Liquid Extraction Fundamentals

a. Definitions

b. Concepts

c. Equilibria

d. Hydraulics

e. Mass Transfer

f. Coalescence

2. Extraction Equipment

a. Spray

b. Packed

c. Sieve Tray

d. Baffle Tray

e. Mechanically Agitated

3. Example Calculations

a. Packed Extractor

b. Sieve Tray Extractor

4. LLE Computer Program Discussion

5. Trouble-shooting Discussion

Registration for the annual meeting, including

these short courses, is available on the PSTC web-

site here: https://sites.utexas.edu/pstc/conferences/.

6

Recent Publications

Freeman Group

Jang, E.-S.; Mickols, W.; Sujanani, R.; Helenic, A.; Dilenschneider, T. J.; Kamcev, J.; Paul, D. R.;

Freeman, B. D. “Influence of Concentration Polarization and Thermodynamic Non-ideality on Salt

Transport in Reverse Osmosis Membranes,” Journal of Membrane Science 2019, 572, 668-675.

Yan, N.; Paul, D. R.; Freeman, B. D. “Water and Ion Sorption in a Series of Cross-linked AMPS/

PEGDA Hydrogel Membranes,” Polymer 2018, 146, 196-208.

Narang, G. S.; Moon, J. D.; Zhang, W.; Miller, G. C.; Choudhury, S. R.; Shaver, A.; Vondrasek, B.;

Lesko, J. J.; Fallon, J. J.; Bortner, M.; D’Ambra, D.; Freeman, B. D.; Riffle, J. S. “Synthesis and Char-

acterization of a Phosphine Oxide Based Poly (arylene ether ketone) and Blends with Poly (2, 6-

dimethyl-1, 4-phenylene oxide) for Gas Separations,” Polymer 2018, 138, 156-168.

McGinnis, R. L.; Reimund, K.; Ren, J.; Xia, L.; Chowdhury, M. R; Sun, X.; Abril, M.; Moon, J. D.;

Merrick, M. M.; Park, J.; Stevens, K. A.; McCutcheon, J. R.; Freeman, B. D. “Large-scale Polymeric

Carbon Nanotube Membranes with Sub–1.27-nm Pores,” AAAS Science Advances 2018, 4(3),

e1700938.

Zhang, H.; Hou, J.; Hu, Y.; Wang, P.; Ou, R.; Jiang, L.; Liu, J. Z.; Freeman, B. D.; Hill, A. J.; Wang,

H. “Ultrafast Selective Transport of Alkali Metal Ions in Metal Organic Frameworks with Subnanome-

ter Pores,” AAAS Science Advances 2018, 4(2), eaaq0066.

Kamcev, J.; Sujanani, R.; Jang, E.-S.; Yan, N.; Moe, N.; Paul, D. R.; Freeman, B. D. “Salt Concentra-

tion Dependence of Ionic Conductivity in Ion Exchange Membranes,” Journal of Membrane Science

2018, 547, 123-133.

Seibert Group Frank, T. C.; Holden, B. S.; Seibert, A. F. “Section 15: Liquid-Liquid Extraction and Other Liquid-

Liquid Operations and Equipment,” Perry’s Chemical Engineers Handbook, 9th edition, ed. Don

Green, McGraw-Hill: in press (2018).

Recent Presentations

Freeman Group

National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships Program (GRFP) Workshop for

Students wishing to apply for NSF Fellowships, Benny D. Freeman – Austin, TX, USA – Speaker

(September 17, 2018).

Penn State Department of Chemical Engineering, “Ion Solubility, Diffusivity, and Transport in

Charged Polymer Membranes,” Jovan Kamcev, Ni Yan, Eui Soung Jang, Michele Galizia, Donald

Paul, Jerry Manning (Rutgers University), and Benny D. Freeman – Invited Talk (October 11, 2018).

Polycondensation 2018, “Improving Poly(benzimidazoles) for Gas Separations: Thermally Rearranged

PBI/Polyimide Blends,” Joshua Moon, Alexander Bridge, Colton D’Ambra, Donald Paul, and Benny

D. Freeman – Alexandria, Virginia, USA – Invited Talk (October 16, 2018).

7

Spring 2019 Meeting

Please join us for our annual PSTC Spring

Meeting April 16-17, 2019, here at the Uni-

versity of Texas at Austin. Once again, we

will be at the Commons Learning Center

located on the Pickle Research Campus.

Registration and accommodation infor-

mation are available on our website.

Handouts of the presentations will be avail-

able for attendees; pdf copies will be posted

on our website closer to meeting time.

Questions? Please feel free to contact us:

Process Science & Technology Center

University of Texas at Austin

Building 133, Suite 1.312

10100 Burnet Rd., Mail Code R7100

Austin, TX 78758

(p) (512) 471-7077

lauren.murrah@austin.utexas.edu

https://sites.utexas.edu/pstc/

Presentations cont.

The Welch Foundation, “Water: Science and Technology – Ion Transport in Charged Polymer Mem-

branes for Water/Energy Applications,” Benny D. Freeman – Houston, Texas, USA – Invited Talk

(October 23, 2018).

62nd Robert A. Welch Foundation Conference on Chemical Research, “Water: Science and Technolo-

gy,” Benny D. Freeman – Houston, Texas, USA – Invited Speaker (October 22-23, 2018).

AIChE Annual Meeting 2018, “Gas Separation Properties of Novel Poly(benzimidazole)s,” Benny D.

Freeman presented by Joshua D. Moon – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA – Invited Speaker (October

29, 2018).