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Today, we’re speaking with Michele Ongis, Technical Director and Co-founder of Modelta, a startup specializing in the mathematical modeling of membrane-based processes for the chemical, energy, and process industries. As the leader of the modeling work package in the MEASURED project, Michele plays a central role in developing the digital tools and simulations that support both the innovation and scalability of membrane technologies. In this interview, he shares insights into his role, the objectives and achievements of the modeling work package, and the collaborative efforts driving MEASURED forward.

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Can you briefly introduce yourself and your role in the MEASURED project? 

My name is Michele Ongis, I am technical director and co-founder of Modelta. Established in 2022, Modelta is a startup specialized in mathematical modeling of membranes, membrane reactors and membrane-based processes. Our software and models are developed for the chemical, energy, and process industries. In the MEASURED project, Modelta is the leader of the modeling work package and we’re also responsible for scale-up and techno-economic analysis.  

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? 

Modeling is an important activity in any development of innovative technologies. It has two parallel goals. One is to support the development of the technology itself, by creating a fac-simile that can be used to investigate and predict real-system behavior. Much like having a virtual laboratory to run (quick and cheap) experiments. In MEASURED, models are used to study the features of innovative membranes, mainly by predicting gas and liquid behavior inside the membrane module. The other major goal of modeling is to assess the impact of the technology from an industrial perspective. Process design deals with optimization of energy consumption and mitigation of environmental and social impacts, while economics gives an idea of its commercial feasibility.  

What are the key achievements of your work package so far, and what are the next steps moving forward? 

The focus of the modeling activity so far was the description of the membranes, both in terms of transport mechanisms and module design. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques have been used to study polarization phenomena in the membrane units and to understand the flow regime. These techniques provide great detail, but this comes at the expense of high computational time. Therefore, another achievement was the development of Reduced Order Models (ROMs): simplified descriptions of the membranes which maintain the key features identified through CFD. These simplified models will be linked to the model of the overall process and used for the Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) and the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). TEA, for process design and optimization, and LCA, for environmental and social impact, are the next activities of our work package.   

How did you collaborate with other work packages? What has been the impact of this collaboration? 

There are very few activities that modeling partners do not collaborate with. For the technology development in WP3, modeling is a support in understanding key features of the membrane and possible improvements. Engineering partners in WP4 benefit from the process calculations to define optimal performance and system design. In pilot plant development of WP5, modeling investigates potential variations due to a change in operating conditions, helping the pilot control and safety. In all cases, our interaction is two-way: we recieve data from lab-scale experiments and pilot plants operations and we respond with our modeling results. We also contribute to WP1 exploitation via a market-readiness study and to WP7 dissemination activities with a series of modeling-related webinars. 

Is there anything else you would like to share about your work package or the MEASURED project in general? 

Picking up on the last point, starting from September we are organizing a series of webinars about the modeling of membranes, covering several topics. Our aim is to provide the basic knowledge to develop mathematical models of membranes, both with simple models and via CFD, as well as the basics of techno-economics and LCA of membrane-based processes. I think these are great opportunities for researchers and companies that are interested in membrane science. Stay tuned to our LinkedIn channel for updates. Lastly, I want to mention the different partners contributing to modelling activity. WP6 is a joint effort of Modelta, Eindhoven University of Technology, the National Institute of Chemistry in Slovenia, TNO, EURECAT and Aix-Marseille University.