International workshop on“Women Scientists Working on Membranes”
Date: 05 Oct. 2021
Time: 10:00-13:00 (Central Europe Time, CET)
/ 11:00-14:00 (Turkey) / 17:00-20:00 (Japan)
Place: Online (Zoom) (Registration required)

Scope:
International cooperation is essential to tackle global challenges and to deliver thegoals agreed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs). Membranes
are getting more attention as they can play key roles in various applications related
to the challenges above. This workshop is organized to reinforce the international
network in the membrane research area and to integrate young researchers. Theworkshop also celebrates the publication of a special issue entitled “Women inmembrane science” in the Journal of Membrane Science and Research*.
* http://www.msrjournal.com/news?newsCode=518
Co-sponsored by:
Chemical Engineering Association, Yamaguchi division
Faculty of Engineering, Yamaguchi University
CoreClusters of ResearchandEducation

for Chemical Process

Intensification (CPI), Yamaguchi University
Registration:
1. Please register by 28th September at https://forms.gle/xAqDBacv6kdKBtyU9(registration is for free of charge)
2. The invitation to a meeting place will be announced around 25th September.
Contact:Izumi KUMAKIRI, Yamaguchi University, Japane-mail: izumi.k＠yamaguchi-u.ac.jp

Program (tentative)
Time (in CET)

TopicsPresenter

10:00 (Spain) / 11:00 (Turkey)/ 17:00(Japan), Opening
Invited lectures,
Chair: Izumi Kumakiri, Yamaguchi University, Japan
10:10-10:40
10:40 – 11:10“Reclamation of geothermal water bymembrane processes”“Sustainable membranes for CO2 capture andutilisation”

Prof. Nalan Kabay
EGE University, Turkey
Prof. Clara Casado
Cantabria University, Spain

Student/Young researcher presentations, Part 1,
Chair: Nazely Diban, Cantabria University, Spain
11:10 – 11:25“Graphene-based nanomaterials scattered on

Marian Mantecón,biopolymeric membranes for in vitro neural andCantabria University, Spaincancer models”
11:25 – 11:40

Effect of Membrane Type on Salinity GradientEsra Altıok,

Energy Generation by Reverse Electrodialysis

EGE University, Turkey(RED)
11:40 – 11:55“Synthesis and application of novel anion

Mine Eti,

exchange membrane for salinity gradient

EGE University, Turkey

energy production by reverse electrodialysis”
Student/Young researcher presentations, Part 2,Chair: Haruyuki Ishii, Yamaguchi University, Japan
11:55 – 12:10

Photocatalytic decomposition of organics byAzzah Nazihah,

Ag-TiO2 membrane and inhibition behavior of

Yamaguchi University, Japansalt ions
12:10 – 12:25

12:25-12:40

Ionic liquid Role in mixed matrix membranes
for CO2 capture - a molecular dynamics study

Portugal
Marta Romay,

systems to predict phase separation membrane

Cantabria University, Spain

12:40-12:55
13:00

Universidad Nova de Lisboa,“Advances on the modelling of ternary polymer
morphology”-Paloma Ortiz,

Round table / Open discussion
ClosingShort abstract
Invited lectures“Reclamation of geothermal water by membrane processes”
Nalan Kabay *1, Yakubu Abdullahi Jarma1, Aslı Karaoğlu1,3,Islam Rashad A.Senan1, Özge Tekin1, Alper Baba2
1

Ege University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, 3510 Bornova-Izmir,Turkey
2Izmir Institute of High Technology, Department of International Water Resources, 35430 UrlaIzmir, Turkey

3

Ege University, Graduate School of Sciences, Division of Environmental Sciences, 35100 BornovaIzmir, Turkey(*nalan.kabay@ege.edu.tr)
Geothermal water is used mostly for heating purposes, greenhouses, agriculture, for generation ofhot water, therapeutic and recreational purposes and to generate electricity in power stations. After
extracting the thermal energy, the cooled water turns to be a problematic fluid due to its salinity andcontents of some elements such as boron, arsenic, fluoride, heavy metals, hydrogen sulphide etc.
Management of such fluids is a great challenge due to the stringent environmental regulations.
In this research, we focused on application of pressure driven membrane processes such as
nanofiltration and reverse osmosis for reclamation of geothermal water using pilot-scale treatmentsystems. Our target is to produce water for agricultural irrigation.
This research work was financially supported by an international bilateral research project ofTÜBITAK-NCBR (Project No: 118Y490) between Poland and Turkey.

“Sustainable membranes for CO2 capture and utilisation”
Clara Casado-Coterillo*, Andrea Torre-Celeizabal, Aurora Garea

1

University of Cantabria, Graduate School of Industrial Engineering, Department of Chemical andBiomolecular Engineering, 39005 Santander, Cantabria, Spain(*clara.casado@unican.es)
Membrane technology can be considered as a green alternative process for the separation of CO2according to the Process Intensification Strategy, meeting sustainability concepts as low energy
consumption and footprint. However, yet commercial CO2 separation membranes are based onconventional oil-derived polymer materials whose fabrication is still chemical or energy intensive.
Biopolymers and materials from other renewable sources have been long studied as a potential alternative
to produce environmentally friendly membranes of comparable permeability, selectivity and stability as
existing membranes. They may thus offer the possibility to narrow the gap between laboratory research andlarger scale implementation in the light of the climate and sanitary emergency faced by 21st century humansociety.
In this research, we focused on chitosan biopolymer and its combination by hybridization with nontoxic or low-cost wide range of materials (selected ionic liquids, layered silicates, zeolites, MOFs) tofabricate mixed matrix membranes and thin film composite membranes and the experimental andtheoretical evaluation of their CO2 separation performance.
This research work was financially supported by a national research project of the Spanish Ministry forScience and Innovation (Project ID: PID2019-10813RB-C31).

Student/Young researcher presentations“Graphene-based nanomaterials scattered on biopolymeric
membranes for in vitro neural and cancer models”
M. Mantecón-Oria*,1, N. Diban1,2, M.J. Rivero1, O. Tapia2,3, A. Urtiaga1,2
1

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, ETSIIyT, University of Cantabria, Avda.

Los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain; *manteconma@unican.es
2

Instituto de Investigación Marqués de Valdecilla (IDIVAL), Cardenal H. Oria s/n, 39011 Santander,Spain
3

Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED),

528031 Madrid, Spain
Our research is focused on searching for novel membranes based on biocompatible polymers
functionalized with graphene-based nanomaterials for biomedical applications. The biopolymeric
membranes are synthetized by phase inversion with a casting knife or a dry-jet wet spinning system,
to obtain either 2D flat or 3D hollow fiber membranes, respectively. These membranes incorporate
adequate physicochemical, mechanical, electrical and transport properties to improve cell proliferationand to modulate the differentiation process. The assembly of these membranes into a perfusionbioreactor system would facilitate the nutrients supply to the cells and metabolites removal while
simultaneously incorporate mechanical stimuli. The results obtained so far have shown the great
potential of the synthetized membranes to act as migrastatic agents to modulate tumor
microenvironments for anticancer therapy and to achieve regeneration of functional tissue from thecentral nervous system to be used as neural model for research and drug screening tests [1,2].
[1] Diban, N.; Mantecón-Oria, M.; Berciano, M. T.; Puente-Bedia A.; Rivero, M. J.; Urtiaga, A.;
Lafarga, M.; Tapia, O. Non-homogeneous dispersion of graphene in polyacrylonitrile substrates
causes a migrastatic response in breast cancer cells mediated by epigenetic mechanisms. Cancer
Nanotechnology. 2021. Submitted.
[2] Mantecón-Oria, M.; Diban, N.; Berciano, M. T.; Rivero, M. J.; David, O.; Lafarga, M.; Tapia, O.;
Urtiaga, A. Hollow Fiber Membranes of PCL and PCL/Graphene as Scaffolds with Potential toDevelop In Vitro Blood—Brain Barrier Models. Membranes (Basel). 2020, 10 (8), 161.

“Effect of Membrane Type on Salinity Gradient Energy Generationby Reverse Electrodialysis (RED)”
Esra Altıok1*, Tuğçe Zeynep Kaya1, Enver Güler2, Nalan Kabay1
1
2

Ege University, Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Turkey

Atılım University, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ankara, Turkey
The reverse electrodialysis (RED) is an efficient technology to harvest SGE, in other word blueenergy. By the help of a stack formed of alternating anion and cation exchange membranes, free energy
is generated by combining fresh water with saline water, thereby transforming the chemical potentialof low salinity water and high salinity water into electrical energy.
In this study, two different ion exchange membranes comprised of commercial ion exchange
membranes Neosepta (AMX and CMX) and Ralex (CMH-PES and AMH-PES) were tested todetermine the effect of membrane properties toward the efficiency of power generation via REDsystem. The RED tests were carried out by changing feed flow rates, number of membrane pairs in
RED stack and salt ratio between dilute and concentrated salt solutions.
This research work was financially supported by an international bileteral research project ofTÜBITAK-NCBR (Project No: 117M023) between Poland and Turkey.

“SYNTHESIS AND APPLICATION OF NOVEL ANIONEXCHANGE MEMBRANES FOR SALINITY GRADIENT ENERGYPRODUCTION BY REVERSE ELECTRODIALYSIS”
Mine Eti1,Ezgi Karakoç2, Esra Altok1, Tuğçe Zeynep Kaya1, Aydın Cihanoğlu1,Enver Güler2, Nalan Kabay1

1

Ege University, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Izmir, Turkey(e-mail: eti.mine91@gmail.com)

2Atılım University, Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, Ankara, Turkey

Reverse electrodialysis (RED) is a technology to generate electrical power by mixing waters
with different salinity. In this work, novel anion exchange membranes were synthesized andapplied for salinity gradient energy production by the RED system. The properties of the anion
exchange membranes such as ion exchange capacity, swelling degree, fixed charge density andelectrical conductivity were determined using the standard methods. The SEM and FTIR analyses

were performed to examine the morphology and chemical structure of the anion exchange
membranes synthesized. In RED system applications, the anion exchange membranes synthesizedin this study were coupled with the commercial cation exchange membranes (Neosepta CMX).
The results obtained were compared with the effectiveness of commercial Ralex membranes(AMH-PES and CMH-PES) employed using the similar conditions.
This research was supported by Concert-Japan project (Project no.

TÜBİTAK 118M804).

“Photocatalytic decomposition of organics by Ag-TiO2 membrane andinhibition behavior of salt ions”
Azzah Nazihah, Izumi Kumakiri
Yamaguchi University, Japan
Dissolved organics in produced water from the oil and gas industry can be challenging to treat.
Silver deposited on TiO2 has shown remarkable results in photocatalytic oxidation of thesecontaminants. However, there are limited studies on behavior of this catalyst with salts ions commonly
available in produced water.
TiO2 and Ag-TiO2 membranes were prepared on porous ceramic disks and tubes. Membrane
performance was examined by the oxidation of formic acid dissolved in water. Influences of Ag
amount and salt ions in the solution, e.g. NaCl, MgCl2, MgSO4, on the catalytic membrane
performance were investigated.
This work was supported by JST SICORP Grant Number JPMJSC18C5, Japan.

“Ionic liquid Role in mixed matrix membranes for CO2 capture - amolecular dynamics study”
Paloma Ortiz-Albo1, Luís Cunha-Silva2, Hiromitsu Takaba3, Izumi Kumakiri4, Joao Crespo1, Luísa
A. Neves1
1

Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal
University of Porto, Portugal

2

34

Kogakuin University, Japan

Yamaguchi University, Japan

Greenhouse gas CO2 capture has become of great importance for industrial processes due toenvironmental adverse effects. Among the emerging technologies, mixed matrix membranes (MMMs)
are an attractive alternative for CO2 effective separation as they combine the advantages ofinorganic/hybrid fillers with a versatile polymeric matrix.
In this work, MMMs comprising metal-organic frameworks and ionic liquids were prepared andcharacterized, and the experimental results obtained were compared with insights from molecular
dynamics simulations.
Different membrane microstructures combining these materials and potential preparation methods
have been modeled to determine the most favorable material arrangement as a function of IL location,loading and CO2 affinity.
This work has been supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (PhD grant
SFRH/BD/139389/2018), Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry – LAQV (UIDB/50006/2020 andUIDP/50006/2020) and Chugoku Regional Innovation Research Center, Japan.

“Advances on the modelling of ternary polymer systems to predict
phase separation membrane morphology”
Marta Romay, Nazely Diban, Ane Urtiaga
Cantabria University, Spain

The morphology of polymeric membranes synthesized by non-solvent induced phase separationstrongly depends on the synthesis variables. Developing a suitable mathematical model could
result in reliable predictions of the membrane morphology before its fabrication. This work
presents the advances in the development of thermodynamic and kinetic models for several
ternary polymeric systems as well as their validation. Furthermore, as an application, it will be
addressed the material design to the development of tissue engineering scaffolds andphotocatalytic membranes.