Gyorgy received his MEng in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Budapest, and he earned his PhD degree in Chemistry under the European Commission’s Marie Curie Actions from the Technical University of Dortmund. He worked as an Early Stage Researcher in Hovione PharmaScience Ltd and an IAESTE Fellow at the University of Tokyo. He was a Research Associate working with Professor Andrew Livingston on molecular level separations in Imperial College London. Gyorgy was appointed a Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at The University of Manchester between 2014 and 2018, and was a recipient of the Distinguished Visiting Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Gyorgy served as an Adjunct Faculty at Saveetha University between 2016 and 2018. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Chemical Engineering at the Advanced Membranes & Porous Materials Center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), and a Visiting Academic at The University of Manchester. His multidisciplinary professional background covers molecular imprinting, process development, sustainable separations, waste utilization, membrane reactors, nanofiltration and pharmaceutical purification. He serves as an Academic Editor for the journals Advances in Polymer Technology, Advanced Materials Letters, and Current Nanomaterials. Gyorgy is a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and was appointed a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). He has over 40 publications, 4 patents and 4 book chapters. His research interests and activities can be followed through his personal website at szekelygroup.com.
Invited Talk (Liquid Separation)
Nanofiltration-Enabled Green Process Engineering
Gyorgy Szekely
Advanced Membranes & Porous Materials Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia
School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Manchester, UK
(gyorgy.szekely@manchester.ac.uk)
Sustainable manufacturing is one of the grand challenges of the 21st century. It has recently been realized that conventional downstream separation processes are unsustainable because they account for as much as 80% of the total manufacturing costs, and eventually contribute 50% of the industrial energy usage. With profit margins growing thin, there is an imperative drive for minimizing both the cost and environmental impact via process intensification (PI). PI through minimizing solvent and raw material consumption, as well as utilizing waste, can make a significant difference towards environmentally benign and economically viable chemical production. As an effective PI tool, nanofiltration is getting recognized as an emerging technology, which provides green process engineering.[1]
The presentation covers the development of sustainable separation processes using solvent-resistant nanofiltration membranes. Examples and case studies for solvent recovery and recycling,[2–4] yield enhancement,[4–5] integrated catalysis-separation platforms,[5] valorization of waste[2] are discussed. Investigation into the polymer memory effect for nanofiltration membranes as well as its exploitation are explained.[6] The potential of imprinted membranes for unique separations such as three-way fractionation of solutes is discussed. Synergistic coupling of nanofiltration and imprinting technologies for hybrid processes is presented. Examples will demonstrate that separation processes based on nanofiltration and molecular imprinting can reduce carbon footprint by 90% and process mass intensity by 99%. Surface modification of polybenzimidazole membranes for catalytic membrane reactors and improved stability will be discussed.
[1] Green Chemistry, 2014, 16 (10), 4440–4473.
[2] Green Chemistry, 2017, 19, 3116–3125.
[3] ChemSusChem, 2017, 10, 3435–3444.
[4] Journal of Membrane Science, 2016, 514, 646–658.
[5] ACS Catalysis, 2018, 8, 7430−7438.
[6] ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2017, 9 (12), 11279–11289.
