Ongoing projects
- Project: PICT-2017-2410 – Development of an O2 microdevice separator from air. Funded by: FONCyT - ANPCyT. Duration: June 2019- June 2022. PI: Dr. Rossana Madrid, Dr. Adolfo M. Avila.
Oxygen gas is required in many applications related to chemical, electronic, welding and cutting, health, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. 100 million tons of O2 are consumed annually. The O2 demand grows continually due to the increased use of clean technologies. Oxygen is mostly produced through cryogenic distillation. This is an intensive process in terms of capital and operation costs which are highly associated with product transportation and storage. The development of novel applications for O2 production in-situ is highly attractive from the point of view of the process economy and operational practicality.
- Project: PICT-0815 - Towards the development of sustainable separation technologies for biogas upgrading: material screening and process design. Funded by: FONCyT - ANPCyT. Duration: April 2018- April 2021. PI: Dr. Adolfo M. Avila.
Although commercial technologies for biogas upgrading are available, it represents a field of continuous development which is calling for innovative ideas due to the increasing interest in the upgrading process. There is a real need of sustainable engineering solutions that can address the challenges that local agro-industries face in terms of process efficiency and environmental needs. One of the most important challenges for biogas upgrading process relies on the marginal cost associated with the purification. However, agro-industries operations are not completely aware of the effects of untreated biogas on process equipment on the long run. In current available technologies, the highest energy consumption is generally associated with the cost of regeneration of adsorbents or membranes. Innovative energy-efficient desorption/regeneration processes are required to decrease overall energy costs. Additional limitations are associated with:
- Agro-industries in the region are not taken advantage of the full energy potential of bio-methane generated in their facilities
- H2S removal current processes are not completely reliable generating operative troubles in waste disposal which eventually increase the cost of operation.
The primary advantage of the development of this program relies on adding value to biogas generated by the different digesters in the region to be used as a renewable natural gas for injecting in the grid or in the vehicle tanks for transportation.
Additional advantages that the development of the program can bring are summarized below
- Energy saving associated with the use of bio-methane with higher heating value.
- Increased contribution of renewable energy sector to the national energy consumption.
- Increased flexibility in the treatment capacities of biogas streams.
- Building innovation capacity in advanced separation processes which is a growing research and development area.
- High potential to treat biogas streams from different biomass feedstocks and variable methane contents.
- Safe and simple implementation.
- Flexibility for scaling-up and versatile.
- The generation of an innovative and competitive technology would contribute to the growth of the bioenergy economy and thus demanding high qualified personnel.
- Novel separation agent materials derived from biomass will be generated.
- Project UNT: Water purification through shock electrodialysis using biochar derived from harvest residues. Funded by: University of Tucuman. Duration: March 2018 – March 2022. PI: Dr. Adolfo M. Avila.
We certainly believe that biochar is a cost-effective carbonaceous material with a promising future and can serve as raw material to create new separation agents and microdevices for gas purification, water treatment, electrochemical reactors, microseparators and many other advanced applications. We focus on sustainable purifications combining renewable carbon-based materials together with emerging separation concepts. For instance, one area of our research work focuses on the use of renewable carbon-based materials for enhanced ion concentration polarization for sustainable separation devices. The results are promising for biochar material design and development to explore new applications related to control release, chemical sensing and biomolecule separation. The development of a microdevice for ionic separation through the shock electrodialysis phenomenon using biochar porous material aims as an innovative engineering solution for strategic chemical separations associated with residual water purification.
- Project Biochar-T: Technological development of biochar derived from harvest residues for water and gas purification. Funded by: Gov. of Tucuman. Duration: April 2018 – April 2020. PI: Dr. Adolfo M. Avila. Renewal of 2020-2021 period to be applied in Aug 2020
Biochar material has enormous potential for becoming a cost-effective solution for different technological applications. The research group is currently working on innovative projects promoting new applications using sugar-cane harvest residue biochar materials. By adding technological value to biochar derived from sawmill and sugar cane biomass residues, research is conducted with the aim of showing proofs of concepts by creating innovative biochar-based devices involving sustainable chemical separation through process intensification.
