The Tough Tech problem we are solving
To create the materials essential to modern life — chemicals and fuels — we must first isolate compounds from their naturally occurring mixtures. The process of separations, transforming complex mixtures into pure components, is ubiquitous in nearly every major industry. It is also incredibly inefficient, producing 16% of the world’s carbon emissions and requiring 15% of the world’s energy. The reason? Heat. The majority of separation processes rely on boiling off pure components by heating mixtures to precise temperatures.
These processes are at the heart of tens of thousands of chemical and fuel processing plants around the world. They also represent an existential bottleneck between clean energy solutions and a sustainable future. For example, we know that hydrogen represents a potentially unlimited zero-carbon fuel and energy source, but producing it efficiently and without contributing to the emissions problem that it is intended to abate, is impossible using current separation techniques.
About our solution
Osmoses, a startup spun out of MIT, has developed a membrane platform technology with unprecedented performance for a number of gas separation applications, which easily integrates into existing energy infrastructure. The materials platform solves the inherent tradeoff between permeability and selectivity in membrane technology, achieving the highest combination demonstrated to date of these two key parameters. This membrane has the potential to replace and / or retrofit thermal gas separations and prevent gigatons of carbon from entering the atmosphere.