Distillation Alternatives

It is often the case that a problem is important enough that engineers must try to address it even if the current level of knowledge or research has not presented an immediate solution. A good example of this is alternatives to distillation. While distillation is one of the most commonly used separation processes in engineering and chemistry, particularly for liquid-liquid separations, there are some separations that distillation alone cannot achieve. Some of these separations are important enough when considering public and environmental safety that we must try and find alternatives to distillation that can achieve them, examples of these separations being considered are given in the images below:

Particularly important separations on the list above are greenhouse gases from dilute emissions and trace contaminants from water. Greenhouse gases from dilute emissions such as from powerplants have a large impact on the environment due to their impact on climate change, and it is due to this environmental consideration that we are researching these separations and trying to bring current developments to industrial scale. Similarly, separating trace contaminants from water is important as it would have a large impact on public safety, and so this separation is being developed in a similar manner.