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. 2024 May 22;2(6):1515-1525.
doi: 10.1021/acsaenm.4c00060. eCollection 2024 Jun 28.

Recycling and 3D-Printing Biodegradable Membranes for Gas Separation-toward a Membrane Circular Economy

Sharifah H Alkandari  1 , Matthew Ching  1 , Jasmine C Lightfoot  1   2 , Nael Berri  1   3 , Hannah S Leese  1   3 , Bernardo Castro-Dominguez  1   2
Affiliations

Recycling and 3D-Printing Biodegradable Membranes for Gas Separation-toward a Membrane Circular Economy

Sharifah H Alkandari et al. ACS Appl Eng Mater. .

Abstract

Polymer membranes employed in gas separation play a pivotal role in advancing environmental sustainability, energy production, and gas purification technologies. Despite their significance, the current design and manufacturing of these membranes lack cradle-to-cradle approaches, contributing to plastic waste pollution. This study explores emerging solutions, including the use of biodegradable biopolymers such as polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) and membrane recycling, with a focus on the specific impact of mechanical recycling on the performance of biodegradable gas separation membranes. This research represents the first systematic exploration of recycling biodegradable membranes for gas separation. Demonstrating that PHB membranes can be recycled and remanufactured without solvents using hot-melt extrusion and 3D printing, the research highlights PHB's promising performance in developing more sustainable CO2 separations, despite an increase in gas permeability with successive recycling steps due to reduced polymer molecular weight. The study emphasizes the excellent thermal, chemical, and mechanical stability of PHB membranes, albeit with a marginal reduction in gas selectivity upon recycling. However, limitations in PHB's molecular weight affecting extrudability and processability restrict the recycling to three cycles. Anticipating that this study will serve as a foundational exploration, we foresee more sophisticated recycling studies for gas separation membranes, paving the way for a circular economy in future membrane technologies.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing financial interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Chemical structure of PHB.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic procedure of the recycling and 3D-printing cycle of PHB membranes, highlighting the closed loop from PHB granules to the printed membrane.
Figure 3
Figure 3
3D-printed PHB polymeric membranes: (a) illustration of PHB-1 flexibility; (b) PHB-1; (c) PHB-2; (d) PHB-3.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Schematic of the thermal degradation of PHB by random chain scission.
Figure 5
Figure 5
SEM images for (a) PHB-1, (b) PHB-2, and (c) PHB-3 cross section.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Thermal analysis of membranes: (a) TGA; (b) DSC curves for the 2nd heating cycle.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Tensile stress vs strain curve of PHB membranes.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Pure gas permeability and ideal gas selectivity.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Relative permeability and relative ideal selectivity over time of the PHB-3 membrane.
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