Techverse has been involved in various research and development projects funded by federal agencies (e.g. U.S. Department of Energy) and private clients to develop membrane technologies for process and energy efficiency improvements. Some examples are discussed below:
» Algae dewatering – Because of very dilute algae concentrations and consequently very large volumes of water that must be processed, harvesting and concentrating algae contributes a significant cost to algal products. Reduction of capital and operating costs of algae harvesting and concentration step is essential to make algal products economical. Techverse, Inc. has developed a membrane filtration-based, continuous, algae dewatering process to produce algae paste in a U.S. DOE Phase II SBIR project.
» High temperature H2 separation – For sustained coal utilization for power generation while addressing possible long-term global climate change, it is imperative to develop cost-effective means to capture and sequester the resulting CO2. Techverse demonstrated ternary Palladium-alloy based membrane reactor process for pre-combustion CO2 capture and hydrogen generation in a U.S. DOE Phase I SBIR project. This efficient membrane technology will utilize coal in environmentally responsible IGCC power generation.
» Water recovery from produced water in oil and gas operations – Water produced in oil and gas production contains high concentration of salts and solids that must be removed for water recycling in cost-effective production operations. In a research project funded by a large oil and gas company, Techverse has demonstrated substantially greater water recovery using SmartFlow membrane modules both in a filtration process as well as in a membrane distillation process compared to that achieved by conventional spiral wound membrane module technology.
» Biogas upgrading by membrane contactor process – Biogas produced by anaerobic digestion contain substantial amount of acid gases, CO2 and H2S, which need to be removed for upgrading of biogas to pipeline quality natural gas. In a research project funded by a private client, Techverse demonstrated efficient use of a membrane contactor process to remove acid gases as well as to regenerate solvent used.