Absorption Adsorption Filtration Membrane Crystallization Distillation

Solving the world’s greatest separations challenges through innovative research and design.

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What are separations?

Take a look around you. Virtually every item that you see, from hand sanitizers to air purifiers, relies on the science of separations. Separations are processes that extract the materials we want from their raw source. Separations often take a lot of heat, energy, and resources to complete.

Our goal at the SSEC is to collaborate and innovate on sustainable, effective, and economical separations processes.

 
 
 
 
 

Separations account for 40-60% of the energy used in chemical processes.

Through our collaborative research efforts, we are discovering new materials and technologies that make separations more energy efficient. In addition, we are developing scalable solutions to extract carbon from the atmosphere to help address climate change.

Our projects target a wide variety of applications, from chemicals to pharmaceuticals to energy technologies.

Discover 6 separation techniques that underpin our world:

Click on a separation below to discover how it works and examples from our everyday lives.

Latest news from our center

Latest News
New Polymer Membranes, AI Predictions Could Dramatically Reduce Energy, Water Use in Oil Refining
New Polymer Membranes, AI Predictions Could Dramatically Reduce Energy, Water Use in Oil Refining

Georgia Tech researchers Ryan Lively, M.G. Finn, and Rampi Ramprasad have created a new kind of polymer membrane for separating crude oil into useful components. The membrane could greatly reduce the energy necessary for those initial separations. They’ve also created artificial intelligence tools to predict the performance of these kinds of polymer membranes, which could accelerate development of new ones.

Inside-Out Heating and Ambient Wind Could Make Direct Air Capture Cheaper and More Efficient
Inside-Out Heating and Ambient Wind Could Make Direct Air Capture Cheaper and More Efficient

A team of researchers, including Professors Ryan Lively, Christopher Jones, and Matthew Realff, developed a direct air capture system with no fans, rapid heating, high energy efficiency, and lower cost. The system combines sorbent-coated carbon fibers, resistance heating, and passive, wind-driven air flow.

Georgia Tech Engineers Develop Carbon Membranes Enabling Efficient Removal and Concentration of Organic Molecules from Water
Georgia Tech Engineers Develop Carbon Membranes Enabling Efficient Removal and Concentration of Organic Molecules from Water

A team of Georgia Tech ChBE researchers, led by Haley White, developed rigid, carbon membranes that effectively remove and concentrate small organic molecules (such as solvents) from water. Published in PNAS, this discovery challenges conventional understanding. The potential applications for these membranes are wide-ranging, with particular promise in biorefineries where valuable organic species are often highly dilute in aqueous media.

 
 

Let’s work together

We build interdisciplinary teams of engineers and scientists from across the Georgia Tech campus, including Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil & Environmental Engineering, and more.

Our teams design, build, test, and characterize technologies and materials to build better separations.

Interested in carbon dioxide removal from air?

For more than a decade, Georgia Tech researchers have worked to develop materials and processes that extract carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. With a recent spate of new awards, Georgia Tech researchers — with the support of Georgia Tech’s Strategic Energy Institute (SEI) — have launched the Direct Air Capture Center (DirACC), under the guidance of Professors Christopher W. Jones and Matthew J. Realff.

DirACC is a forum for collaborative research on negative emission technologies and direct air capture, bringing together researchers from across the Institute working in energy, sustainability, policy, and related fields.