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Membrane Engineering Science and Technology (MAST) Center

The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the Center author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Center Overview

The Membrane Science, Engineering and Technology (MAST) Center focuses on new membrane materials and processes and their industrial applications. Membranes are made of polymers, inorganic materials, or hybrids of the two. They are used for the separation and purification of chemical compounds, biological molecules, and other process streams. Membranes have broad industrial applications in biomedical, biopharmaceutical, chemical, food, petrochemical, and water purification/wastewater recycle and reuse. The MAST Center provides the expertise, infrastructure, facilities, and a range of state-of-the-art equipment for conducting highly specialized research projects.

The MAST Center mission is to:

Provide value for its members through high-quality research, access to facilities and a network of leading faculty.
Provide unique training opportunities for postdoctoral, graduate, and undergraduate researchers.
Promote membrane research through outreach to universities, industry, and the broader public.

Industrial separations account for a significant portion of the world's energy budget. Development of new, more efficient and sustainable separation processes is of tremendous societal benefit. By bringing together membrane manufacturers, users and experts at the research institutions, the MAST Center is uniquely positioned to affect many areas of society in water, energy and health care.

Universities

University of Arkansas
University of Colorado, Boulder
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University

View Center Website

Center Personnel

Yifu Ding
Center Co-Director
+1 303 492 2036
yifu.ding@colorado.edu

Ranil Wickramasinghe
Center Director
+1 479 575 8475
swickram@uark.edu

Kamalesh Sirkar
Center Co-Director
+1 973 596 8447
sirkar@njit.edu

Andrew Zydney
Center Co-Director, Bayard D. Kunkle Chair
+1 814 863 7113
zydney@engr.psu.edu

Research Focus

The MAST Center provides a unique opportunity to develop new membranes designed for targeted separation of industrial relevance. Its research program is divided into four broad areas:

Biopharmaceutical processing

Membrane-based unit operations are attractive for the purification of human therapeutics, as processing conditions are usually mild and scale-up of modular membrane units is straightforward. The MAST Center has significant expertise in developing advanced ultrafiltration processes, validating clearance of contaminants such as host cell proteins and DNA as well as FDA-recommended model virus particles. The MAST Center is also investigating the use of membrane-based separation processes for the purification of virus vectors, vaccines, and new gene therapies. Other applications of membranes in the biopharma area include microfiltration for use with perfusion bioreactors, membrane filters for sterilizing buffers and final product, and ultrafiltration for concentration and buffer exchange as part of the final formulation.

Chemical separations

Membranes are finding growing applications in non-aqueous phase separations such as the recovery of organic solvents, fractionation of organic chemicals, contaminant removal, and recovery of dissolved solutes from organic phases. Development of new organic solvent resistant membranes is essential for these applications. Other research areas include barrier membranes that could be used as protection against chemical warfare agents. Besides liquid separations, the MAST Center also has significant expertise in membranes for gas phase separations.

Membrane fundamentals

MAST Center focuses on developing new membranes with unique micro- or nanoscale structures and distinctive transport properties for emerging separation processes. In addition, tailoring the surface properties of membranes using advanced surface modification methods enables very fine separations while reducing the rate of membrane fouling, which is one of the critical factors governing the successful commercial application of membrane technology. The MAST Center also focuses on understanding membrane transport and fouling fundamentals using complementary modeling and simulations tools. Leveraging the range of equipment at the four participating universities provides accurate characterization of these new membrane structures.

Water purification

Water is a very valuable natural resource. Recovery, recycle, and reuse of water are essential to meet the increasing societal demands. The MAST Center is investigating emerging membrane technologies for treatment of produced water from oil and gas manufacturing operations as well as the treatment of wastewaters from food or agricultural production processes. MAST Center researchers are developing novel membranes and membrane processes for direct potable reuse of wastewaters. Besides treating agriculture and aquaculture wastewaters, the MAST Center is also focusing on nutrient recovery from wastewaters.

Awards

1841474

Phase II IUCRC at The Pennsylvania State University: Center for Membrane Science, Engineering and Technology (MAST)

The overall objective of this proposal is to develop a new Site in the Center for Membrane Science, Engineering and Technology (MAST) at The Pennsylvania State University with a specific focus on membrane applications in the biopharmaceutical industry and the development of novel methods for membrane characterization using state-of-the-art electron microscopy and tomography facilities at Penn State. Membrane-based separations offer a number of unique advantages compared to competing technologies including: lower energy requirements, relative ease of scale-up, and no phase changes or chemical additives. The establishment of a Penn State Site in the MAST Center will both complement and expand upon the existing research portfolio in membrane science and technology. The proposed research at Penn State is specifically designed to address pre-competitive research challenges in bioprocessing, including the development of membrane technology for use in continuous bioprocessing. In addition, the Penn State site will provide an ideal environment for student training, including both women and students from under-represented minority groups. The addition of the Penn State site will significantly expand and strengthen the MAST Center, including exciting new interactions with leading biopharmaceutical companies, providing an even stronger environment for student training, education, and research in membrane science and technology.This NSF IUCRC proposal aims to establish a 4th site within the existing Center for Membrane Science, Engineering and Technology (MAST) at The Pennsylvania State University with a focus on applications of membranes in bioprocessing, including new methods for membrane characterization. A number of recent developments are spurring further interest in membranes for bioprocessing. There are significant economic pressures associated with the growth in low-cost international manufacturers and the advent of biosimilars. There is also significant interest in transitioning from current batch processes to continuous operations, with the goal of enhancing product quality, improving manufacturing flexibility, and increasing overall productivity. Specific projects will address critical challenges in the application of membrane technology in bioprocessing, including issues of fouling and virus capture during virus removal filtration, integration of tangential flow filtration for product harvest and cell recycle with perfusion bioreactors, and the use of single pass tangential flow filtration / diafiltration for continuous product concentration and formulation. These projects will fully exploit the expertise at Penn State in bioprocessing along with state-of-the-art facilities for membrane characterization, providing significant fundamental insights that address critical pre-competitive research challenges in membrane technology in bioprocessing.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. Read More >

1822130

Phase II IUCRC at New Jersey Institute of Technology: Center for Membrane Science, Engineering and Technology (MAST)

Separation and purification processes are essential to production of biochemicals, biopharmaceuticals, chemicals, drugs, food products, gaseous/liquid fuels, healthcare products, metals, potable water, semi-conductor chips among others. Membrane-based separation/purification processes are becoming increasingly important in manufacturing such products. A membrane allows selective transport of one species from one phase on one side of the membrane to another phase on the other side of the membrane; often a membrane acting as a barrier selectively blocks one or more species from going through (e.g., membrane-based protective clothing against toxic gases). The species may be molecules in gaseous/liquid phase, ions in solution, macromolecules, nanoparticles, micron-size particles. Membrane devices and processes are favored due to lower energy consumption (e.g., desalination), easy scale-up (e.g., natural gas purification), smaller footprint (e.g., membrane contactors) and are the only viable option in kidney dialysis. The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) site of the Membrane Science, Engineering and Technology Center (MAST Center) is focused on solving specific separation problems by developing advanced membranes and characterizing such membranes and processes. NJIT site provides advanced education, training and research opportunities to students and young researchers on research topics specified by MAST Sponsors: industrial corporations, national laboratories and federal agencies.The MAST Center is a multi-university-based industry-university cooperative research center with three university sites. Guided by members of the industrial advisory board (IAB), MAST Center 1) conducts fundamental research in membranes via innovative materials and processes facilitating the use of membrane technology for current/emerging industrial applications; (2) sustains technological leadership in membrane materials and membrane-based separation processes and facilitates commercialization of innovative technologies; and (3) provides undergraduate and graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows with a relevant educational and research experience. The Center-spanning research themes aligned with IAB interests are: water treatment, bioseparations, membrane fabrication and characterization, organic solvent processing, gas separations, barrier membranes. NJIT's MAST Center faculty from four academic departments have their research focus on water treatment, barrier membranes, organic solvent-based system processing and membrane characterization. Research thrust areas of special interest to NJIT MAST faculty are: water treatment membranes for desalination, industrial effluent treatment and recovery of chemicals and metals by novel membranes, organic solvent-based system processing with solvent-resistant membranes, barrier membranes for chemical and biological protection. Research on advanced membrane materials and structures and their incorporation in novel separation devices/schemes are expected to respond to challenging separation and purification needs encountered by current and potential membrane users.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. Read More >

1822101

Phase II IUCRC at University of Arkansas: Center for Membrane Science, Engineering and Technology (MAST)

The Membrane Science, Engineering and Technology (MAST) Center focuses on membrane-based separations. Separation processes are essential to purify and recover products. Separations using synthetic membranes are often cost-effective. Membrane-based separations have broad industrial applications including but not limited to: chemical, biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical, food production, biomedical devices and oil and gas production. Membranes are critical for desalination of seawater and for water recycle and reuse. The MAST Center is largely sponsored by corporations as well as federal agencies and national laboratories. The industrial members represent major membrane manufactures and users. By bringing them together, the MAST Center catalyzes the development of new membranes, devices and processes for emerging separations challenges thus directly addressing the national interest by promoting progress in science, advancements in health care, prosperity and welfare. The new membranes and membrane-based separation processes developed in the MAST Center can lead to more affordable human therapeutics, new specialty chemicals and accelerated efficiency for water recovery and reuse. The education and training opportunities provided to students and researchers at the University of Arkansas site are directly leading to the development of a highly trained workforce that is attracting new high-tech industries to Arkansas.The MAST Center focuses on developing new membranes, devices and processes for a range of industries. The Center consists of three university sites. Current center-spanning research themes, aligned with sponsor interests and fundamental challenges include water treatment, bioseparations, membrane fabrication and characterization, organic solvent recovery, gas separations and barrier membranes. The University of Arkansas site focusses on water recovery and reuse, bioseparations and the use of modeling tools to design advanced membranes and membrane processes. A major research area is the removal of emerging contaminates from wastewater in order to facilitate direct potable reuse. Water recycle and reuse for the aquaculture and agriculture industries is another major thrust. The University of Arkansas site has a strong thrust in understanding the performance of commercially available membranes and membrane based unit operations for removal of contaminants such as host cell proteins and DNA as well as validating virus clearance in the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals. A cross-cutting theme on multi-scale modeling leads to unique fundamental insights into separation mechanisms as well as membrane formation processes. These insights will enable the design of new advanced membranes that address the separations challenges faced by membrane users.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. Read More >

1624602

Phase II U. of Colorado Boulder Site: Center for Membrane Science, Engineering and Technology (MAST)

A membrane is a selective barrier that enables some small particles, molecules or ions to pass through but rejects others. Membrane-based separations offer a number of advantages over conventional processes used in chemical separations. They are often more energy efficient, more environmentally friendly, easier to scale-up for manufacturing, and more compatible with process streams, and thus provide lower-cost separation in a wide range of critical applications including sea water desalination, food and beverage production, pharmaceutical processing and blood dialysis. The University of Colorado Boulder site of the MAST Center is focused on providing more advanced membranes for future separations needs as well as leading the development of new separations processes. This work addresses critical national economic competitiveness, defense and health needs.The MAST Center is a multi-campus industry-university collaborative research Center with the University of Colorado Boulder (UCB) as one of the three sites that (1) conduct fundamental and applied research in the field of membranes via innovative materials and processes to facilitate the use of membrane technology for current and emerging industrial applications; (2) sustain U.S. technological leadership in membrane materials and membrane-based separation processes and accelerate commercialization by Center industrial sponsors of novel, sustainable and innovative technologies; and (3) provide undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral researchers with a superior educational and research experience that will enable them to become productive and effective professionals. Research at the UCB site is focused on the development of novel membrane materials and structures, innovative membrane characterization techniques and the generation of fundamental and applied knowledge regarding selective molecular transport mechanisms and membrane fouling. The technical expertise represented by participating UCB faculty from five academic departments is focused on important membrane applications in water, energy, and barrier materials. Read More >

Member Organizations

IUCRC affiliated member organizations are displayed as submitted by the Center. Non-federal organizations are not selected, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the National Science Foundation.

AbbVie
Amgen
Army ERDC
Asahi Kasei
Avanpore
Biogen
Bureau of Reclamation
CSL Behring
Cytiva (Formerly GE Healthcare)
Dairy Management Inc
Donaldson Corp.
Millipore Corporation
Pall Corporation
Repligen
Spark Therapeutics
W.L. Gore and Associates