Abstract:
Separating molecules dissolved in organic solvents is important in pharmaceutical processing, where separations can account for 70% of the total manufacturing cost. Membranes, in particular nanofiltration, have been recognized as sustainable technologies allowing molecular sieving under mild conditions. The latest generation of membranes are robust, and they operate under harsh conditions including extreme pH and polar aprotic solvents. The membranes have excellent selectivity, low molecular weight cut-off with reasonable throughput. These novel membranes enable new opportunities for various applications such as the purification and isolation of active pharmaceutical ingredients and natural products. Hybrid processes consisting of continuous-flow reactors and membrane separation units are on the rise. In situ solvent recovery coupled with continuous adsorption processes for the isolation of bioactive plant-derived compounds resulted in process sustainability improvement. The basics of membrane separations for organic and aqueous streams as well as application examples will be presented during the seminar.

Bio:
Gyorgy Szekely received his MS in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Budapest, earned his PhD in Chemistry from the Technical University of Dortmund, under Marie Curie Actions. Gyorgy worked in the pharmaceutical research and development center of Hovione PharmaScience, and as an IAESTE fellow at the University of Tokyo. He has held positions at Imperial College London and The University of Manchester between 2012 and 2019, and he received the Distinguished Visiting Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Advanced Membranes & Porous Materials Center at KAUST. His multidisciplinary professional background covers green process engineering, green solvents and materials, continuous reactions, and membrane separations. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. To learn more about the speaker and his group, visit www.SzekelyGroup.com.