About this Event
The UCL-Cytiva Centre of Excellence Annual Seminar is an in-person event for professionals interested in membrane technology, chemical and pharmaceutical production, and commercialisation.
Membranes, Molecules, and Money
Speaker: Andrew Livingston, Queen Mary University of London. Livingston will introduce membranes developed by his lab and discuss their application, scale-up and commercialisation.
As developed economies transition to net zero systems, membrane technology offers potential alternatives to conventional separation processes such as distillation, evaporation, adsorption and chromatography. Membranes for these applications need to withstand harsh liquid environments while delivering high permeance, selectivity and operational lifetimes.
The seminar will cover ultra-thin polymer films formed by interfacial polymerisation, applied to molecular separations in pharmaceuticals and crude oil. It will also introduce tough membranes developed in LivingstonLab for Organic Solvent Nanofiltration, scaled for commercial use in spiral-wound membrane modules.
Topics include the challenges of commercial scale-up: manufacturing, quality and regulatory requirements; extended testing and process development; and cost, supply chain and the introduction of new technology. Livingston will reflect on challenges and experiences commercialising membrane technology through Evonik MET Limited and the created spinout Exactmer Limited.
Prof. Andrew Livingston FRS FREng is Vice Principal (Research and Innovation) at Queen Mary University of London, previous Head of Chemical Engineering , with leadership roles at Barrer Centre, Imperial College London, and the £100M Rosalind Franklin Institute. Raised in Taranaki, New Zealand. A world leader in membrane separations and chemical process design, his enterprise achievements include founding Membrane Extraction Technology in 1996 (acquired by Evonik in 2010) and co-founding Exactmer Limited in 2018 to produce exact synthetic polymers via proprietary Nanostar Sieving technology. His honours include election as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2006) and the Royal Society (2022), alongside the Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal and multiple IChemE awards.
Chaired by: Dan Bracewell, Professor of Bioprocess Analysis at the UCL Department of Biochemical Engineering
The UCL-Cytiva Centre of Excellence (CoE) is a strategic industrial research initiative setup in 2018 to foster innovation, facilitate knowledge transfer, and address critical bioprocessing industrial challenges. With support from EPSRC & MRC Prosperity Partnership fund the Centre will now continue until 2029 with a focus on "Smart Biomanufacturing for Genomic Medicines," to address the challenges of manufacturing revolutionary genomic medicines. The partnership will improve patient access to these transformative therapies and establish manufacturing innovation in a high-growth sector that will result in societal and economic impact.
Event venue & nearby stays
University College London, Gower Street, London, United Kingdom
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