Chemical Engineering October 2021 - 6

The new plant covers the
manufacturing steps from harvesting
to separation of proteins.
GEA will now construct
the process systems, which
include membrane filters,
mixers, homogenizers, heat
exchangers, pasteurizers and
ultra-high temperature (UHT)
units, cleaning and filling systems,
as well as the pump and
valve technology. Installation
will start mid-2022. The production
capacity initially built
can easily be expanded to multiply
the capacity in the future
as demand grows.
CULTURED MEAT
Last month, a new entity for
developing cellular agricultural
products was established by
Swiss companies Givaudan
(Vernier; www.givaudan.com),
Bühler AG (Uzwil; www.buhler.
com) and Migros (MigrosIndustrie
Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund;
Zurich; www.
mgb.ch). The Cultured Food
Innovation Hub, located in
Kemptthal (near Zurich), Switzerland,
aims to accelerate
the development and market
penetration of cultured meat
- meat produced without
slaughter or factory farming, a
significantly better climate balance,
no use of antibiotics and
ensured food security.
With operations expected to
begin next year, the Cultured
Food Innovation Hub will be
a self-sustained, standalone
company wholly owned by
Givaudan, Bühler and Migros.
The new entity will provide facilities
and knowledge to accelerate
other companies on their
cultured meat, cultured fish
and seafood, and precisionfermentation
developments.
The Hub will be equipped with
a product-development laboratory,
as well as cell culture
and fermentation capabilities
to help start-up companies
develop and go to market with
the right product.
Cellular agriculture for cultured
meat provides the means for
the farming of animal products
without raising animals. Instead,
animal cells are used as
a starting point, and then technologies,
such as fermentation
are employed for the cultivation
of meat products. The result is
meat that is identical in struc(Continues
on p. 8)
6
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
OCTOBER 2021
Two new semiconductor-based nanomaterials
synthesized for the first time
T
a
few
he latest
generat ions
of computer
chips are only
nanometers
in size and are becoming
ever more
energy-saving and
powerful as a result
of progressive miniaturization.
Since the
etching processes
traditionally used in chip production are increasingly
reaching their limits, the development of
new, nanostructured semiconductor materials is
essential. Such nanoscale semiconductors also
play a central role in converting electricity into
light and vice versa.
With these goals in sight, a team at Goethe
University Frankfurt (Frankfurt am Main, Germany;
www.goethe-university-frankfurt.de),
led by professor Matthias Wagner, has succeeded
in synthesizing molecular nanoscale
spheres made of 20 silicon atoms,
dubbed silafulleranes, with the formula
(Cl@Si20H20)1-. The 20 silicon atoms (blue) of
silafullerane form a dodecahedron, a body composed
of regular pentagons (diagram, left), and
encapsulates a chloride ion (green). The hydrogen
atoms (grey) that protrude outward at each
silicon corner of the body can be replaced with
functional groups to give the compound differGoethe
University Frankfurt
ent properties.
The second new class of materials are crystalline
building blocks made of 10 silicon (blue)
and germanium (magenta) atoms that have a
diamond-like structure (diagram, right). The
silicon-germanium alloy has the potential to
form " faultless " nanodiamond-like crystals,
with possible applications in pharmaceutical
and catalyst research.
Insights into the electronic structures of the
new compounds were provided by computerbased
theoretical analyses from professor
Stefan Grimme's research group at the University
of Bonn (Germany; www.chemie.unibonn.de).
The two new classes of materials
have potential applications in the miniaturization
of computer chips, in high-resolution
screens for smartphones, and in solar cells
and light-emitting diodes with the highest levels
of efficiency.
Membrane productivity springs forward with new
degradation-control method
T
he ability to precisely control the molecular
structure of polymer membranes
could expand their use in challenging
separations, such as the purification
of xylene isomers. Using highly selective
membranes that can be operated at ambient
conditions to separate such hydrocarbons has
been proposed as an alternative to energyintensive
distillation, but membrane productivity
has limited their use in such large-scale
hydrocarbon separations. Building on previous
work from the Georgia Institute of Technology
(Georgia Tech; Atlanta; www.gatech.edu) and
Exxon Mobil Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.exxon
mobil.com) focused on separating xylene isomers
using hollow-fiber membranes, researchers
have recently demonstrated an enormous
increase in membrane productivity while still
maintaining a high selectivity.
In this project, polymer membranes undergo
pyrolysis treatment, where they are degraded
in a controlled manner to yield the desired final
structure. " What we discovered is that you can
expose the polymer to different gaseous atmospheres
while it is degrading. In our case,
we used hydrogen, so while the polymer is
degrading, it's being exposed to low levels of
H2. The H2 changes the degradation reaction
chemistry, resulting in dramatic increases in
the productivity of the membrane while retaining
efficiency and selectivity, " explains Ryan
Lively, associate professor in Georgia Tech's
School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering.
By doping the pyrolysis atmosphere with
H2 gas, the researchers were able to realize
a very subtle change to the membrane by altering
the ratio of the types of carbon in its
structure. " The membranes contain a ratio of
diamond-like versus graphite-like carbons. We
found that we can precisely control the ratio of
these two types of carbons, and these small
changes in carbon chemistry yield positively
enormous changes in membrane productivity, "
says Lively.
The team's experimental work demonstrated
that increasing the ratio of the three-dimensional,
diamond-like carbon by 33% could increase
membrane productivity 30- to 50-fold.
http://www.givaudan.com http://www.buhler.com http://www.goethe-university-frankfurt.de http://www.mgb.ch http://www.chemie.uni-bonn.de http://www.bonn.de http://www.gatech.edu http://www.exxon.com http://www.mobil.com http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
Chemical Engineering October 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering October 2021
