Inorganic membranes liquid separation

In the recent years, many researchers have devoted attention to the development of membrane science and technology. Different important types of membranes, such as these for nanofiltration, ultrafiltration, microfiltration, separation of gases and inorganic membranes, facilitated or liquid membranes, catalytic and conducting membranes, and their applications and processes, such as wastewater purification and bio-processing have been developed [303], In fact, almost 40 % of the sales from membrane production market are for purifying wastewaters. 

Finally it should be noted that inorganic membranes suitable for separation by multilayer diffusion and capillary condensation are also appropriate for performing pervaporation (a technique in which the feed is liquid and the permeate is gas) and distillation at reduced pressure (where gases with overlapping condensation regions are separated). 

Microfiltration with uniform transmembrane pressure Commercial and developing liquid phase applications Gas separations using inorganic membranes... 

Larbot, A., J. Alary, C. Guizard, J.P. Fabree, N. Idrissi and L. Cot, 1987, Thin layers of ceramics from sol-gel process (or inorganic membranes) for liquid separations, iniMaier. Sci. Monographs (P. Vincenzini, Ed.) 38,2259. 

One area is analytical separations by inorganic membranes as part of sample cleanup. For example, it is imperative that a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)... 

In contrast to liquid-phase tqiplications reviewed in Chapter 6. the current sales volume and application varieties of inorganic membranes in the gas-phase separation market are still quite limited. Their commercial usage in the gas- and vapor-phase environments is far from being a significant presence. Even the first largest gas-phase separation application, gas diffusion for uranium enrichment, discussed in Chapter 2 no longer requires any major production efforts. 

Finally, the current status of the inorganic membrane technology is summarized for an overall perspective. The future is speculated based on that perspective to provide a framework for future developments in the synthesis, fabrication and assembly of inorganic membranes and their uses for traditional liquid-phase separation, high-temperature gas separation and membrane reactor applications. 

So far, commercialised membrane applications have been strongly (liquid separation) or exclusively (gas separation) dominated by polymer membranes. Inorganic membranes will have their share of the future growth if use can be made of their following strong points ... 

Catalytically active supported ionic liquid membranes were used for propylene/propane vapor mixture separation. In this case, the ionic Hquid was immobilized in the pores of an asymmetric ceramic support, displaying sufficient permeability, good selectivity, and long-term stabUity [51]. Porous inorganic membranes were also used as a support for chiral-selective liquid membranes. For this purpose, porous tubular ceramic membranes were impregnated with 3-cyclodextrin polymer. Such SLMs were used for separation of enantiomers of racemic pharmaceutical chlorthahdone [52]. 

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