Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/K11086/01
Title:	VISUALISATION, VERIFICATION AND QUANTIFICATION OF PHYSICOCHEMICAL INTERACTIONS IN BIO SEPARATION PROCESSES
Principal Investigator:	Bowen, Professor WR
Other Investigators:	Lovitt, Dr Rw
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Chemical & Biological Process Eng
Organisation:	Swansea University
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	05 December 1994	Ends:	04 June 1998	Value (£):	245,757
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Separation Processes
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Chemicals Environment Food and Drink Water
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
On existing projects the principal applicant has developed, and is developing, advanced methods for predicting the rejection and rate of filtration at microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes. These are a priori methods that take into account all of the forces acting hydrodynamic, electrostatic, dispersion, hydrophobic and hydration. The proposed project aims to test these force predictions by using the ability of an atomic force microscope (AFM) to directly measure the force between particles and surfaces as a function of distance at better than nanometre resolution. It is proposed to directly quantify the interactions of silica particles, protein coated silica particles and yeast cells with membrane surfaces and membrane pores in solution under conditions of direct relevance to industrial separations. Through a simultaneous study of the interactions between silica particles and planar silica surfaces, and protein-coated silica particles and planar protein-coated silica surfaces, it is proposed to elucidate the importance of hydration and hydrophobic interactions under conditions of relevance to separation processes - there is at present no fundamental theory for these forces. These investigations will lead to substantially improved quantitative predictions of the microfiltration and ultrafiltration of inorganic and biological materials. The AFM equipment will also be used to investigate the compressibility of bacterial cells, to allow properly quantitative calculations for compressible filter cakes of such materials. In parallel with these quantitative force measurements, the equipment will be used to visualise and verify the mechanisms of two important aspects of bioseparations - the interactions of proteins with microfiltration membranes and the fouling of sorption (ion-exchange) materials.
Key Findings
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Potential use in non-academic contexts
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Impacts
Description This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk Summary Date Materialised
Sectors submitted by the Researcher
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Project URL:
Further Information:
Organisation Website:	http://www.swan.ac.uk