The separations research effort can be divided into three groups:
Traditional technologies: Research in this area addresses both mass transfer and hydraulic aspects of these technologies.
Novel technologies: Traditional separations processes suffer from high energy consumption and high capital cost requirements. More selective separations technologies offer the potential to reduce these negative factors and produce more cost effective process designs.
New applications of traditional technologies: The research effort is targeted at meeting challenges presented in these rapidly expanding areas by evaluating mature technologies for new applications.