Best Oral Presentation Awards at Euromembranen 2021 and Best Poster Award at Network Young Membrains 2021
Maik Tepper and Stephan Emonds, both PhD students at the Chair of Chemical Engineering (AVT.CVT), have been awarded with two Best Oral Presentation Award for their talks at the European membrane conference Euromembrane 2021 in Copenhagen. Just before that, Jens Rubner won a Best Poster Award in Lund at the affiliated Network Young Membrains meeting.
Maik Tepper convinced the jury with his presentation titled: "Rotation in a spinneret integrates static mixers inside hollow fiber membranes". The talk demonstrated the in situ fabrication and integration of static mixers inside hollow fiber membranes, an in-house patented technology platform. When applying the evolving membrane system, the geometry of the static mixer induces secondary flow to achieve significantly improved mass transfer by mitigating boundary layer formation. The work showcased the effectiveness of this principle within a gas-liquid membrane contactor application for carbon capture.
Stephan Emonds received the award for his presentation: "Sustainable dry-jet wet spinning of polyelectrolyte complex membranes via an all aqueous salt dilution induced phase inversion". In the work presented, a sustainable, all aqueous process for the production of polymer fibers and membranes was developed. This new manufacturing method eliminates the use of organic toxic solvents. As a great potential, components that are not compatible with organic solvents, e.g. chemical as well as biological catalysts, can be integrated into the process. Thus, enzymatically active fibers and membranes can be produced in one process step.
Jens Rubner was awarded for his poster entitled: "PECVD surface layer prevents aging of a polymer with intrinsic microporosity". He shows how the physical aging of polymers can be reduced by means of an industrially established surface coating. In this process, a layer only a few nanometers thick is deposited on the polymer by means of plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Depending on the degree of oxidation of the layer, this coating reduces the speed of aging by up to two orders of magnitude and thus opens up new application possibilities for polymers with strong physical aging behavior.