Liquid membranes industrial applications

Gas flow processes through microporous materials are important to many industrial applications involving membrane gas separations. Permeability measurements through mesoporous media have been published exhibiting a maximum at some relative pressure, a fact that has been attributed to the occurrence of capillary condensation and the menisci formed at the gas-liquid interface [1,2]. Although, similar results, implying a transition in the adsorbed phase, have been reported for microporous media [3] and several theoretical studies [4-6] have been carried out, a comprehensive explanation of the static and dynamic behavior of fluids in micropores is yet to be given, especially when supercritical conditions are considered. Supercritical fluids attract, nowadays, both industrial and scientific interest, due to their unique thermodynamic properties at the vicinity of the critical point. For example supercritical CO2 is widely used in industry as an extraction solvent as well as for chemical... 

Membrane absorption process is an integrated mass transfer operation in whieh one of the eomponents in a multicomponent gaseous mixture can be selectively removed through a membrane and simultaneously dissolved in an absorbing liquid. It facilitates a bubble free gas-liquid mass transfer, which is most desirable for shear sensitive biological mixtures. Some of the important industrial applications of membrane absorption include removal of COjfrom flue gas, removal of H S from gas streams, recovery of cyanide from waste-water and absorption of NHj (in a polypropylene hollow-fiber coliunn) with dilute HjSO as absorbent. 

Pervaporation is a relatively new process with elements in common with reverse osmosis and gas separation. In pervaporation, a liquid mixture contacts one side of a membrane, and the permeate is removed as a vapor from the other. Currendy, the only industrial application of pervaporation is the dehydration of organic solvents, in particular, the dehydration of 90—95% ethanol solutions, a difficult separation problem because an ethanol—water azeotrope forms at 95% ethanol. However, pervaporation processes are also being developed for the removal of dissolved organics from water and the separation of organic solvent mixtures. These applications are likely to become commercial after the year 2000. 

In general, high selectivities can be obtained in liquid membrane systems. However, one disadvantage of this technique is that the enantiomer ratio in the permeate decreases rapidly when the feed stream is depleted in one enantiomer. Racemization of the feed would be an approach to tackle this problem or, alternatively, using a system containing the two opposite selectors, so that the feed stream remains virtually racemic [21]. Another potential drawback of supported enantioselective liquid membranes is the application on an industrial scale. Often a complex multistage process is required in order to achieve the desired purity of the product. This leads to a relatively complicated flow scheme and expensive process equipment for large-scale separations. 

Ultrasound can thus be used to enhance kinetics, flow, and mass and heat transfer. The overall results are that organic synthetic reactions show increased rate (sometimes even from hours to minutes, up to 25 times faster), and/or increased yield (tens of percentages, sometimes even starting from 0% yield in nonsonicated conditions). In multiphase systems, gas-liquid and solid-liquid mass transfer has been observed to increase by 5- and 20-fold, respectively [35]. Membrane fluxes have been enhanced by up to a factor of 8 [56]. Despite these results, use of acoustics, and ultrasound in particular, in chemical industry is mainly limited to the fields of cleaning and decontamination [55]. One of the main barriers to industrial application of sonochemical processes is control and scale-up of ultrasound concepts into operable processes. Therefore, a better understanding is required of the relation between a cavitation coUapse and chemical reactivity, as weU as a better understanding and reproducibility of the influence of various design and operational parameters on the cavitation process. Also, rehable mathematical models and scale-up procedures need to be developed [35, 54, 55]. 

All the novel separation techniques discussed in this chapter offer some advantages over conventional solvent extraction for particular types of feed, such as dilute solutions and the separation of biomolecules. Some of them, such as the emulsion liquid membrane and nondispersive solvent extraction, have been investigated at pilot plant scale and have shown good potential for industrial application. However, despite their advantages, many industries are slow to take up novel approaches to solvent extraction unless substantial economic advantages can be gained. Nevertheless, in the future it is probable that some of these techniques will be taken up at full scale in industry. 

Chlorinated poly (vinyl chloride) (CPVC) has increased Tg compared to PVC, and this increases its upper use temperature. Applications include hot- and cold-water pipe as well as pipe for the handling of industrial chemical liquids. Chlorinated polyethylene (CPE) finds use as roofing and other vapor barrier membranes, as pond liners, and as an additive to improve the impact strength of PVC. 

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. 

Draxler, J. and Marr, R. (1986) Emulsion liquid membranes part I Phenomenon and industrial application. Chemical Engineering and Processing, 20, 319. 

Another already mentioned application of membrane filtration is for the recovery of ionic liquids from wastewaters. Here the challenge is to find appropriate membranes, since rejection values that have been reported to date [136] are too low for industrial application. However, for similar ionic liquids we found a membrane that shows rejection rates above 99% throughout at considerably high permeate flow rates above 50 L m 2 h 1 in cross flow filtration. Such numbers make washing in combination with nanofiltration an interesting option. 

Separation of manufactured sohds from process liquids and recycling of these liquids (water or organic solvents) is an interesting way to valorize by-products and to minimize the production of liquid effluents in a number of industries. Microfiltration ceramic membranes have been aheady used for the recovery of particles in the ceramic industry and in drilling operations, of pigments in paint and ink industries, and have potential applications in a wide variety of liquid-solid separation... 

Eyal A and Bressler El. Industrial separation of carboxylic and amino acids by liquid membranes Applicability, process considerations, and potential advantages. Biotechnol Bioeng, 1993 41 2S1-293. 

Zhang XJ, Fan QJ, Zhang XT, and Liu ZF. New surfactant LMS-2 used for industrial application in liquid membrane separation. In Li NN, Strathmann H, eds. Separation Technology, New York United Engineering Trustees, 1988 215-226. 

Some research groups worldwide are currently working on the application of membrane technology to the treatment of radioactive liquid wastes with different levels of activity, from low to high activity waste. Research is mainly focused on wastes from the nuclear industry. However, the nuclear industry is not the only source of radioactive wastes medical and research applications of radioisotopes also generate radioactive wastes. 

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