[Digestion] New Plastic Membrane

[Stephen Etheridge]

???? Methane is smaller than Carbon Dioxide in all structural formations!

Dr Stephen Etheridge
CTO
AsiaBiogas


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Madhu Ranganathan" <madhurangi at yahoo.com>
To: <digestion at listserv.repp.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 3:23 AM
Subject: [Digestion] New Plastic Membrane


This new item appeared on the Times Of India

WASHINGTON: A new membrane that mimics pores found in plants and allows 
carbon dioxide to move through while preventing the movement of methane, 
could be used to cut greenhouse gas emissions while purifying water at the 
same time.

The membrane allows small molecules such as those of carbon dioxide to move 
through its pores while preventing the movement of larger molecules such as 
methane.

Separating carbon dioxide from methane is important in natural gas 
processing and gas recovery from landfill.

Dr Anita Hill of CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, part of the 
research team, said: "This plastic will help solve problems of small 
molecule separation, whether related to clean coal technology, separating 
greenhouse gases, increasing the energy efficiency of water purification, or 
producing and delivering energy from hydrogen".

"The ability of the new plastic to separate small molecules surpasses the 
limits of any conventional plastics. It can separate carbon dioxide from 
natural gas a few hundred times faster than current plastic membranes and 
its performance is four times better in terms of purity of the separated 
gas," she said.

She said the secret lay in the hourglass shape of the pores, which helped 
separate molecules faster and using less energy than other pore shapes.

In plant cell membranes, hourglass-shaped pores known as aquaporins 
selectively conduct water molecules in and out of cells while preventing the 
passage of other molecules such as salt. Dr Hill said the research had shown 
how plastics could be systematically adjusted to block or pass different 
molecules depending on the specific application.

For example, these membranes might provide a low energy method for the 
removal of salt from water, carbon dioxide from natural gas, or hydrogen 
from nitrogen, she said.


Would'nt it be just the thing AD needed???????


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