March 12, 2021

Graphene Oxide Membranes Could Reduce Energy Costs

The U.S. pulp and paper industry uses large quantities of water to produce cellulose pulp from trees. To reuse the water and the chemicals, paper mills rely on steam-fed evaporators that boil up the water and separate it from the chemicals. Water separation by evaporators is effective but uses large amounts of energy.

An alternative is to deploy energy-efficient filtration membranes to recycle pulping wastewater. But conventional polymer membranes — commercially available for the past several decades — cannot withstand operation in the harsh conditions and high chemical concentrations found in pulping wastewater and many other industrial applications.

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have found a method to engineer membranes made from graphene oxide (GO), a chemically resistant material based on carbon, so they can work effectively in industrial applications.

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The researchers have published their results here:
Zhongzhen Wang, Chen Ma, Chunyan Xu, Scott A. Sinquefield, Meisha L. Shofner, Sankar Nair. Graphene oxide nanofiltration membranes for desalination under realistic conditions. Nature Sustainability, 2021; DOI: 10.1038/s41893-020-00674-3

Paper and Packaging Physical Testing Services

The Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI) is excited to announce that Drs. James Collins and Christopher Muhlstein are the new leadership team for the physical testing laboratory in RBI. For decades, RBI has provided members, industrial clients, and academic partners with key infrastructure and staff support to meet their physical testing needs.

The new leadership team will continue this tradition, which compliments the established expertise that Dr. Rallming Yang provide for fiber and chemical analyses. In addition to traditional paper, board, and box physical testing services, Drs. Collins and Muhlstein support the transdisciplinary mechanical behavior and material performance challenges that arise in modern manufacturing environments. This extension of lab capabilities beyond traditional testing is possible because they represent a direct link to the Mechanical Property Characterization Facility (mpcf.gatech.edu) and the interdisciplinary Institute of Materials. Drs. Collins and Muhlstein are looking forward to sharing their broad experience in conventional and emerging mechanical characterization.

Georgia Tech Faculty Win $3.75 Million DOE Award for Multiphase Forming Process

The faculty team, lead by Cyrus Aiden (PI) and Devesh Ranjan (coPI), received the award based upon an RBI consortium project with RBI member companies Kimberly-Clark and Solenis. The work innovates the papermaking process by introducing a novel multiphase forming technique that saves a tremedous amount of energy compared to conventional forming.
View all DOE grant awardees here >>

Congratulations to PSE Fellow Udita Ringania!

One of RBI's Paper Science and Engineering Fellows, Udita Ringania is the recipient of the 2020-21 US Blue Sky Young Researchers and Innovation Award for her submission of "Dewatering of Cellulose Nanomaterials Using Ultrasound."

Register for Our Workshop

Join us for a Circular Paper and Packaging Virtual Workshop, April 1-2, Renewable Bioproducts Institute.

April 1: 1:00 to 3:30 PM. EST
April 2: 10 AM to 12 Noon. EST

The workshop will feature talks from WestRock, Printpack, Forest Products Laboratory, Greenblue, NCASI, Two Sides and Georgia Tech.

The workshop is free. Register here

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW:
In this workshop we will explore several key questions:
(1) How is paper-based packaging already approaching circularity? What are the challenges that need to be addressed?
(2) How can paper- and fiber-based products be used to substitute for single-use plastics?

We will hear from a panel of experts that includes:
Pat Lindner (Westrock)
Megan Robinson (Printpack)
Kathy Rowzie (Two Sides)
Nina Goodrich (GreenBlue)
Caroline Gaudreault (NCASI)
Jinwu Wang (Forest Products Laboratory, USDA)
Blair Brettman (ChBE, Georgia Tech)
Meisha Shofner (MSE, Georgia Tech)
Bernard Kippelin (ECE, Georgia Tech)
Chris Muhlstein (MSE, Georgia Tech)

Participants will also have access to a poster session highlighting the cutting-edge research being performed by Georgia Tech Paper Science & Engineering PhD students.

In May 2014, IPST was renamed the Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI), and given an expanded scope of work and research. The move enabled the Institute to broaden its appeal to research investors seeking to unlock the potential of biomass materials for a range of products beyond just paper.