Membrane separation technology of gases and liquids is considered a key technology of a modern economy since membrane separation is an energy-efficient and environmentally friendly technology with low energy input and without waste. Increasingly powerful inorganic molecular sieve membranes are going to be developed since they open new applications like purification of natural gas, separation of air into oxygen and nitrogen, production of hydrogen for green technologies, processing of bio-fuels and chemicals in bio-refineries.

 

Chinese and German scientists play a worldwide pioneering role in this field of molecular sieve membranes, especially Prof. Aisheng Huang at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology & Engineering (NIMTE), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Prof. Juergen Caro at Leibniz University Hannover. The two chemists Huang and Caro are also linked by a personal friendship dating back 6 years ago when A.S. Huang stayed together with J. Caro at Hannover University.

 

Huang and Caro decided to continue their cooperation, and to catalyze this cooperation, J. Caro has been appointed Visiting Professor at the CAS. A.S. Huang and Caro are also both principal investigators of the Joint Sino-German Lab on “Inorganic Membranes: Advanced Technology for Clean Energy and Clear Environment” which was founded in November 2013 and financed by the Sino-German Center for Research Promotion (SGC), Beijing. The SGC was founded jointly by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) in 2000, and receives 50% of its funding from each of these organisations.

 

The picture shows Prof. Runwei Li, Vice Director at NIMTE, passing the document on the ceremony on Nov. 22, 2013.