In this interview, we speak with Yvonne van Delft, Senior Project Manager at TNO and leader of Work Package 3 in the MEASURED project. With over 25 years of experience in R&D for the energy and process industries, Yvonne shares insights into her team’s work on scaling up advanced membrane technologies and fostering cross-application innovation within MEASURED. She also highlights key achievements, ongoing collaborations, and the next exciting steps toward pilot-scale demonstration.
Discover more by reading her interview!
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Can you briefly introduce yourself and your role in the MEASURED project?
My name is Yvonne van Delft. I have been working over 25 years in research and development for the energy and process industry and has worked on a wide range of topics, including process engineering, industrial electrification, technology transfer, separation processes and process intensification. I’m currently SR project manager at TNO and WP3 leader in MEASURED.
Could you provide an overview of your work package’s objectives, its importance within the MEASURED project, and the key goals, targets, or milestones you aim to achieve?
The focus of WP3 is on the development and scale-up of the key components for the three lines (pervaporation, gas separation, membrane distillation). The special task of this WP is to also assess cross fertilization between the lines, so that membranes developed for one line will be also efficiently tested for other applications. This WP also takes care of the scale-up of these building blocks for the TRL7 demonstration.
What are the key achievements of your work package so far, and what are the next steps moving forward?
Key achievements are: For purification of wastewater with membrane distillation, polymeric membranes have been successfully developed based on a green solvent. These membranes will be used in Air Gap Membrane Distillation (AGMD) prototype for proof of concept tests. For polishing of the outlet stream of a CO2 methanation reactor to gas grid specifications, supported Carbon Molecular Sieve Membranes containing boehmite nanoparticles (Al-CMSM) have been successfully developed at 50 cm length. Starting from the composition of these membranes, new Al-CMSM membranes are developed with thicker supports to enhance the mechanical strength. For the dehydration of an acrylic ester production reaction from Arkema acid resistant Hybrid Silica (HybSi) membranes have been developed in multi-channel ceramic supports. The membrane exhibited a stable performance throughout a two-month pervaporation dehydration test under acidic conditions of the Arkema esterification reaction mixture. Due to its excellent performance and stability, the integration of pervaporation of the HybSi membranes with the esterification reactor demonstrates potential for esterification reaction intensification.
How did you collaborate with other work packages? What has been the impact of this collaboration?
There is a strong collaboration with WP4 Engineering and construction of the three pilot units especially on determining the prototype module size and the preparation of the feed to the membrane module in the pilot units. The test data of WP4 is used for the modelling in WP6. In the following months of the MEASURED project, the three types of membranes will be upscaled and 1 to 3 m² will be manufactured for pilot demonstration in WP5.
Is there anything else you would like to share about your work package or the MEASURED project in general?
I really enjoy working with the partners on three different advanced membrane materials and to see and solve the challenges for each development line. I’m looking forward to seeing how the advanced membranes will perform in the three pilot installations at GVS, XMEM and Arkema.
