M4WASTE · Microgel-based high-performance smart filtration membranes for liquid nuclear waste treatment
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-01-04 → 2024-02-06
- EU contribution
- €162,806
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Microgel-based high-performance smart filtration membranes for liquid nuclear waste treatment
The rapid development of nuclear energy inevitably produces radioactive wastes either released from nuclear accidents (e.g. Fukushima Daiichi), or from routine operation of nuclear power plants, and thereby brings radioactive threats to environment and human being. In the aqueous liquid nuclear wastes, long half-life radioactive isotopes, 137Cs+ (half-life ~ 30 years) and 90Sr2+ (half-life ~ 28.79 years) represent the most abundant species, while the remediation remains a challenging task. In the past decades, various separation technologies including adsorption, precipitation, flotation, and membrane filtration have been developed, among which the membrane purification still remains one of the most useful water treatment technologies thanks to its high flexibility, easy up-scalability and low energy consumption, etc. However, the conventional filtration membranes have some limitations for nuclide contaminated water including low sorption capacity and selectivity to nuclide ions (e.g. Cs+ and Sr2+), and large and fixed pore size that are unable to retain the ions. The overall goal of this MSCA-IF project is to develop a new generation of membrane technology that owns a superior adsorption capacity and selectivity for nuclide ions (e.g. Cs+), and a smart water gating function with permeability modulated by Cs+ adsorption process using stimuli-responsive microgels assembled as gates in membraned pores, to efficiently remedy liquid nuclear wastes. So far, the project has achieved most of the deliverables, milestones and exploitable results, though tasks have slightly shifted mainly according to new research findings and/or new research obstacles being developed during the action, and also largely due to the restrictions and measures adopted in the COVID19 pandemic. In particular, the synthesis of functional composite microgels, the membrane filtration for efficient water treatment and the good understandings of the microgel deformation, etc. have been achieved. Good trainings on the researcher and effective knowledge transfer between researcher and the host institution have been obtained throughout the action of the project.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The release of radioactive isotopes, with caesium (e.g. 137Cs+) being the most abundant species, are polluting a large quantity of water, substantially threatening human health, while the remediation remains challenging. Membrane separation is a good technology for water treatment thanks to its flexibility and easy up-scalability. However, the use of conventional membranes in nuclear industry is greatly limited due to their low adsorption capacity/selectivity to Cs+ and the fixed pore size that allows only retention of solid wastes but with the contaminated water remained untreated. Hexacyanoferrates (HCFs) nanoparticles(NPs) are among the most superior adsorbents of Cs+, but haven’t been combined with filtration membranes for nuclear water waste remediation due to the difficulty of NPs immobilization onto membrane and their relatively slower adsorption kinetics compared to water permeation rate. This proposed action aims to develop a new generation of smart membrane technology that can recover Cs+ straightforwardly and efficiently from aqueous nuclear wastes, by effectively integrating HCF into filtration membranes to enhance its Cs+ adsorption capacity/selectivity and by introducing a smart water gating function modulated by Cs+ adsorption to automatically control membrane water permeation. Microgel, being assembled in membrane pores, enables achieving the objectives with HCF NPs in situ grown in the microgel and with a Cs+ responsiveness designed for its size deformation. The action involves an experienced researcher, Dr Huagui Zhang, from Newcastle University in UK visiting the Institute of Physical Chemistry at RWTH Aachen University in Germany, under the supervision of Prof. Walter Richtering for 24 months to work on the project “Microgel-based high-performance smart filtration membranes for liquid nuclear waste treatment” (M4WASTE). The action will provide a leap forward in the area of water treatment with membrane technology in nuclear industry and beyond.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- RHEINISCH-WESTFAELISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE AACHEN · AachenCoordinatorGermany
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union