University of Virginia associate professor of chemical engineering Geoffrey M. Geise has been named an editor of the Journal of Membrane Science Letters, a leading scientific publication focused on technologies to solve clean energy and clean water challenges worldwide.
Geise is an expert in developing polymer membranes, filtering devices used to selectively separate substances like minerals and ions based on size, charge and other properties. The membranes are critical in clean energy production and storage, water purification and a range of biomedical applications.
As an editor, Geise helps shape the field by selecting high-impact research for publication and guiding new discoveries through peer review.
“For me, serving in this capacity is an important part of our broader mission as researchers to generate and disseminate research and knowledge,” Geise said. “Given the importance of membranes in addressing societal challenges, I think these roles are critical to ensuring timely reports of impactful research.”
Geise’s lab specializes in designing and characterizing new membrane materials for water desalination and multiple approaches to battery solutions for small- and large-scale energy storage.
A Path to Domestic Lithium Supplies
For instance, he leads a UVA School of Engineering and Applied Science cross-disciplinary team tackling a national priority: increasing domestic lithium reserves. Lithium is essential for lithium-ion batteries, which power everything from smart phones to the electrical grid.
The team developed, and continues to improve, a new process to separate lithium from “brine,” a liquid mixture of salt, magnesium and other minerals that is a byproduct of geothermal energy plants.
The Department of Energy believes these brines contain enough lithium for the country’s foreseeable needs, but conventional extraction methods are expensive and polluting. UVA’s technology, funded by a DOE competition prize grant, provides a clean and cost-effective way to tap these enormous reserves.
Geise recently co-authored “Engineering Lithium-Magnesium Selectivity in Hydrated Polymer Membranes through Polymer Backbone Rigidity,” a paper in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Macro Letters that received an “Editors’ Choice Award.” Papers are selected from among the entire ACS portfolio because of their “potential for broad public interest,” according to the publisher. The study demonstrates membrane designs to improve lithium selection, laying the groundwork for more efficient and scalable separation technologies.
Geise and his UVA colleagues are also attacking large-scale energy storage with new “flow” battery designs to dramatically shrink their footprint. Flow batteries could offer a safer, longer-lasting alternative to lithium-ion — if researchers can make them small enough to be practical.
A Record of Achievement
Geise, who joined the UVA Engineering faculty in 2014, quickly earned several young investigator honors, including a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Oak Ridge Associated Universities Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award and the Young Membrane Scientist Award from the North American Membrane Society.
His lab won best paper awards in 2019 and 2022, and he was named a member of the 2020 Class of Influential Researchers by Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, a publication of the American Chemical Society.