MEMBRANE OPERATIONS FOR THE RATIONALIZATION OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTIONS

Membrane separation processes and membrane reactors are today a well established technological area characterized by several separation processes already operating in the wider variety of cases than any other existing technique. The integration of membrane operations with traditional technologies or the design of new productive cycles mainly based on membrane operations is becoming an attractive area of engineering research. The leather and textile industries, pharmaceutical and agrofood processes have been and are the objectives of research projects based on this approach. Higher productivity with the water available, water and chemicals recovery and reuse in the process itself are constant positive fall out of these studies. Inadequate intrinsic membrane properties, but more often insufficient module design or fluidynamic analysis are the origin of most of the existing limits to the applicability of membrane operations.