Event
CHBE Seminar: Dr. Oishi Sanyal, WVU
Friday, April 4, 2025
11:00 a.m.
Room 2108 Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Building
Patricia Lorenzana
301-405-1935
plorenza@umd.edu
"Pushing the Limits of Membrane Application for Same-sized Ion and Gas Molecules Separation"
Abstract: Membrane based separation has been demonstrated to be a widely effective separation technology for a variety of applications spanning liquid, gas and vapor phases with significant energy reduction potentials over thermal processes. Several examples in the literature have shown how membranes continue to enable highly challenging separations between molecules with very similar characteristics. In my talk, I will describe two specific case studies where we use membranes for same-sized molecule separation – one in liquid separations and one for gas separation. The first part of my talk will describe crosslinked polyelectrolyte membrane systems for the separation of NH4+ and K+ ions – two nutrient ions with the same hydrated radii. We envision that desolvation based ion separation is the primary envisioned separation mechanism, and this contributes to selective nutrient recovery from concentrated waste solutions. The second half of my talk will describe the sorption-driven separation of CO and C2H4 – two same sized molecules , using polyimide derived carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membranes. This separation is useful for the electrochemical upgradation of CO2 to C2H4, wherein CO is formed as an intermediate and requires separation from C2H4. Fundamental transport mechanisms that govern the diffusion and sorption of these molecules within CMS will be discussed.
Bio: Dr. Oishi Sanyal is the Wayne and Kathy Richards Faculty Fellow and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at West Virginia University. She leads a research program focused on membranes for water treatment and gas separation. Dr. Sanyal received the NSF CAREER (2024) Award and was named as one of the ASME Rising Stars (2024). In addition, she was selected as a 2022 Futures Issue Investigator by the AIChE Journal and was one of 100 early-career engineers selected to participate in the NAE Frontiers of Engineering Symposium in 2021. Prior to joining WVU, Dr. Sanyal was a postdoctoral researcher at Georgia Tech. She received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from Michigan State University and her B.S from Manipal University (India).
