Membrane filtration

Technology
Technology details
Name:	Membrane filtration
Category:	Separation process
Feedstock:	all materials
Product:	separated products

Membrane filtration as a separation technology covers all engineering approaches for the transport of substances between two fractions with the help of permeable membranes. In general, mechanical separation processes for separating gaseous or liquid streams use membrane technology.

Feedstock

Origin and composition

The membrane filtration method is used to separate a solid from a liquid stream via permeable membranes of different sizes. The most common application in biotechnology processes is the separation of solids biomass from feedstocks or production cells within a pre-treatment or a downstream process.

Pre-treatment

For a membrane filtration in general no specific pre-treatment is needed since it is used to separate different fraction within a process chain. Sometimes it is combined with other separation technologies.

Process and technologies

Membrane separation processes differ based on separation mechanisms and size of the separated particles. The widely used membrane processes include microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, electrolysis, dialysis, electrodialysis, gas separation, vapor permeation, pervaporation, membrane distillation, and membrane contactors. All processes except for pervaporation involve no phase change. All processes except electrodialysis are pressure driven. Microfiltration and ultrafiltration is widely used in food and beverage processing, biotechnological applications and pharmaceutical industry, water purification and wastewater treatment, the microelectronics industry, and others. Nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes are mainly used for water purification purposes. Dense membranes are utilized for gas separations (removal of CO₂ from natural gas, separating N₂ from air, organic vapor removal from air or a nitrogen stream) and sometimes in membrane distillation.

Products

The products of a membrane filtration are the solids captured within the membrane and the filtrate that can be further processed.

The remaining liquid that lies above the precipitate is called a supernatant or supernate. The precipitate and the supernatant can then be further processed or are the final product.

Post-treatment

The post-treatment of the filtrate is depending on the next steps within the production chain.

Technology providers

ABC

Membrane filtration provider

General information
Company:
Country:
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Technology and process details
Technology name:		Technology category:	Pre-processing (Separation technologies), Post-processing (Separation technologies)
TRL:		Capacity:	kg·h-1
Filter material:		Hydrophobicity:
Molecular cut-off:	kDa	pH:
Pore size:	µm	Pressure:	bar
Processable volume:	L	Surface area:	m2
Temperature:	°C	Other:
Feedstock and product details
Feedstock:		Product:

describe the company, here is an example

ABC was founded in 20... 12 by KNN and Syncom, in collaboration with the university of Groningen, Netherlands. The company is a technology provider developing chemical recycling technologies for different feedstocks including non-food bio- and plastics waste. In 2018 a pilot plant with the capability to process biomass and plastic waste was set up at the Zernike Advanced Processing (ZAP) Facility. The company is now focused on setting up their first commercial plant with a capacity of 20,000 to 30,000 tonnes. The investing phase B was recently completed, with the last investment phase in 2019 the financial requirements are fulfilled to complete the commercialisation activities to build the plant which is expected for 2023.

describe their technology, here is an example

The technology is based on an Integrated Cascading Catalytic Pyrolysis (ICCP) process, being able to produce aromatics including benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX) as well as light olefins from low grade biomass and plastics waste. This technology utilises catalytic cracking in a two-step process at temperatures between 450- 850 °C. In the first step the feedstock material is vaporised via thermal cracking. The pyrolysis vapours are then directly passed into a second reactor in which they are converted into aromatics by utilising a zeolite catalyst which can be continuously regenerated. Finally, the products are separated from the gas via condensation. An ex situ approach of catalytic conversion has several advantages such as the protection of the catalyst from deactivation/degradation expanding its lifetime, a greater variety of feedstock, and a precise adjustment of process conditions (e.g. temperature, catalyst design, and Weight Hourly Space Velocity (WHSV) in each step for improved yields. In current pilot plant with 10 kg h-1 feed capacity for either waste plastics or biomass, final design details are established, which will be include in the running engineering activities for the commercial plant.

Open access pilot and demo facility providers

Pilots4U Database

Patents

Currently no patents have been identified.

References and further readings

• Membrane filtration in Wikipedia