Center Goal:  To promote advances in process science and technology and workforce education by leveraging government and industrial resources in a highly collaborative program.

Center Structure: The center will be divided into three focus areas:

Separations Technology Development

The research will extend and enhance the previous activities of the Separations Research Program. New separations technologies will be developed along with models with enhance predictive capability. Areas of investigation will include distillation, liquid-liquid extraction, adsorption, separations based on chemical complexation, membrane technology, and complex fluid behavior. World-class expertise exists within the host institutions with significant experimental equipment available. The pilot plant facilities at UT Austin provide unique experimental capabilities which can be utilized for a broad cross-section of research activities.

Process Optimization, Control, and Safety

The effort benefits greatly from the expertise of investigators who combine a fundamental understanding of process technology with advanced computational and model development expertise. State-of-the-art research will promote the development of processes which maximize both profitability and safety. The pilot plant equipment at UT-Austin features state-of-the-art process control capability which permits a wide range of research. The research programs will benefit from interaction with two world-class centers, the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center at Texas A&M and The Texas-Wisconsin Modeling and Control Consortium. Both organizations are leaders in the development of technologies which enhanced the control and safe operation of chemical processes.

Energy and Environmental Research

Projects will be undertaken which address energy consumption in a variety of processes. The host institutions are leaders in energy research with historically high levels of funding from the US Department of Energy. Research programs targeted at reducing both energy consumption and environmental impact for carbon dioxide recovery, water purification, and distillation processes are on-going. Initial efforts are also under way for developing novel methods of producing fuels and chemicals from renewable resources.

HIGHLIGHTS

Center Executve Summary

Sponsorship Agreement