Economics commercial membrane

Membrane chlor-alkali cells represent a very successful, commercially verified, economically competitive technology with a short histroy of very rapidly advancing technology. 

In Task 2.1, "Commercial Plant Economic Evaluation," advanced ITM Syngas/ITM H2 processes will be developed, and the economics of operation at the commercial plant scale will be evaluated based on the results of the Phase 2 program. In Task 2.2, "Materials and Seals Development and Evaluation," membrane materials and seals will be tested at the laboratory scale under ITM S mgas/ITM H2 process conditions to obtain statistical performance and lifetime data. In Task... 

As we shift our interest from laboratory permeation cells to commercial membrane modules, our focus shifts from one of convenience to one of economics. The initial cost, or capital cost, of the membrane module is very important, but we cannot ignore the ongoing operating costs which include any and aU maintenance, as well as dedicated energy and utiUty costs. As mentioned previously, if the feed stream to the membrane module is sufficiently hot and suppUed at the... 

One potential application of chitosan complexes in seafood processing is the treatment of surimi wash water (SWW), which contains 0.1%-2.3% protein (Morrissey et al. 2000) to obtain not only clean wash water for reuse in the plant but also to recover suspended proteins for use in feed production. Flocculation of SWW protein by using Chi-Alg at a concentration of 100 mg complex/L SWW for 1 h achieved high protein adsorption and turbidity reduction (Wibowo et al. 2005a,b). The Chi-Alg complex is an effective alternative in not only recovering soluble proteins that would otherwise be discarded into the environment, but more so an economically viable downstream process over expensive, commercial membrane treatments and their limited use due to periodic fouling (Savant 2001). Insoluble proteins can be recovered in the same step used for SWW (Wibowo et al. 2007). 

A continuous process is studied with commercial membranes in a loop tube membrane reactor. Based on the data obtained in a pilot plant, an economic analysis demonstrates that significant savings can be obtained in operating and investment costs with the PVR in comparison with the conventional reaction distillation process. 

The recovery ranges from 0 to 1 and is a parameter of economic importance. Commercial membrane processes are often designed with a recovery value as high as possible. However, the recover also influences the membrane or process performance. In laboratory set-ups the recovery usuall approaches zero (S 01. which implies maximum separation performance. With increasing recover, the performance declines... 

Whey has been used ia some substitute dairy products but aot as a source of proteia. Whey proteias have beea used ia dairy substitutes only siace the commercialisation of ultrafiltration (qv) technology. Membranes are used that retain proteia and permit water, lactose, and some minerals to pass through as permeate. Proteia coaceatrates are available from both acid and sweet whey and ia coaceatratioas of 35—80 wt % proteia. Whey proteia isolates are commercially available having proteia >90 wt%. The cost of these isolates is too high, however, to make them economical for substitute dairy foods. 

Carbon Dioxide-Methane Much of the natural gas produced in the world is coproduced with an acid gas, most commonly CO9 and/or H9S. While there are many successful processes for separating the gases, membrane separation is a commercially successfufcompetitor, especially for small instaUations. The economics work best for feeds with very high or veiy low CH4 content. Methane is a slow gas CO9, H9S, and H9O are fast gases. 

The process design principles of SLM, non-dispersive extraction, and hybrid hquid membrane systems need to be understood through bench scale experiments using feed solution of practical relevance. While the economic analysis of an ELM process can be performed from small scale experiments, such an analysis is difficult for other LM systems. In particular, availability and cost of hollow fiber membranes for commercial application are not known apriori. A simple rule of thumb for cost scale-up may not be apphcable in the case of an HE membrane. Yet we feel that the pilot plant tests would be adequate to make realistic cost benefit analysis of a liquid membrane process, since the volume of production in )8-lactam antibiotic industries is usually low. 

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