Who We Are

The U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) Inorganic Membrane Technology Laboratory (IMTL) is a federal center for inorganic membrane research and development and commercialization. IMTL has over 500 man-years of experience developing porous inorganic membranes, with the last 15 years focused on developing membranes and filters for industrial end uses, many supporting program needs of DOE.

Located in DOE facilities at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, IMTL’s world-class facilities include rapid prototyping equipment and membrane and filter characterization instrumentation and test labs. Furthermore, IMTL has access to some of the best materials analysis capabilities in the world.

Technical Capabilities

In the last 15 years, IMTL has made tremendous advances in the state-of-the-art of inorganic membrane technology, leading to inorganic membranes with features that have not been previously possible. These features include

• defect-free, very thin membrane layers,
  
  
• tightly controlled pore size distributions, and
  
  
• pore sizes down to the sub-nanometer scale that are capable of separating very small molecules.
  

Based on IMTL’s technology, membranes and filters can be fabricated from a variety of materials including metal oxides, metals, carbides, and nitrides. The pore size of these products can be tailored to meet the requirements of the desired separation. We can produce membranes with effective pore sizes ranging from 50 µm (microns) down to as small as 5 Å (angstroms).

The IMTL Advantage

Our capabilities translate in advantages your business can benefit from immediately.

• Our versatile technology allows broad-ranging materials of construction and membrane performance qualities.
  
  
• We have the experience, skills, and equipment to rapidly design, develop, and prototype new products.
  
  
• We utilize our unique computerized models to guide the design, characterization, and performance evaluation.
  
  
• Our proven membrane-performance modeling and characterization methods verify functionality with minimum associated costs and time.
  
  
• Rapid prototyping produces working membranes that embody licensable proven low-cost manufacturing techniques.
  
  
• Broad testing capabilities provide industrial environment simulation, proof of membrane functionality, and system design data.
  
  
• Very high precision gas permeance measurements can evaluate and understand different transport mechanisms with a broad range of gases, temperature, and pressures.
  
  
• Unique mixed-gas separation testing is available.
  

Our Commitment to American Industry

DOE is offering its expertise to commercial industry due to its strong commitment to technology transfer and partnership. Broader use of this government-developed technology will

• benefit the U.S. economy by boosting the competitiveness of U.S. companies in the world-wide marketplace,
  
  
• benefit the environment through technologies like hot gas purification, which can reduce emissions, and
  
  
• benefit the nation by increasing energy efficiency and independence. For example, efforts are underway to produce membranes identified by DOE's Office of Fossil Energy for the improved clean coal-fired plants of the future.