Market ultrafiltration

The subsequent improvement of the physical and chemical characteristics of these membranes, their incorporation into machines, and the development of procedures to prevent or clean surface-fouling films were the principal areas of significant advancement. By 1990, the industrial ultrafiltration market had grown to an estimated (90-100) x 10 . ... 

The method used is governed by the market application of the exopolysaccharide. In general, the food industry has a requirement for a dry powder, whereas for several other applications, such as enhanced oil recovery, a liquid product is required and the ultrafiltration concentrate is preferred. 

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. 

SPEC was essentially able to market their Zr02-based ultrafiltration membranes to an already existing market in the sense that these membranes replaced polymeric UF membranes in a number of applications. They also developed a certain number of new applications. For Ceraver, the situation was different. When the Membralox membranes were first developed, microfiltration was performed exclusively with dead-end polymeric cartridge filters. In parallel to the development of inorganic MF membranes, Ceraver initiated the development of cross-flow MF with backflushing as a new industrial process. 

This technique of MEUF has also been successfully employed for the recovery of thuringiensin [258], removal of cresols [262], extraction of chromate anion [257], removal of dissolved organic pollutants [256], removal of -alcohols [263],preconcentration and removal of iron [260], and preconcentration of aniline derivatives [261].Kandori and Schechter [264] have given a detailed account of selecting surfactants for MEUF. The design characteristics of micellar enhanced utrafilters and cross-flow ultrafiltration of micellar surfactant solutions have been described by Markets et al. [265]. 

ICP-MS has been employed, as discussed in Section 9.5, for the determination of platinum originating from cisplatin, carboplatin and oxaliplatin in human plasma ultrafiltrate. The method developed was successfully used to support pharmacokinetic studies in cancer patients treated with cisplatin, carboplatin or oxaliplatin.5 Counterfeit products on the drug market, which have important implications for pharmaceutical companies and human health, can be clarified by mass spectrometric isotope ratio measurements. For example, precise and accurate sulfur isotope measurements (a 54S) by MC-ICP-MS, were employed to study the isotope variation of pharmaceuticals and to detect to the origin of counterfeits by Clough el al.6... 

The four developed industrial membrane separation processes are microfiltration, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and electrodialysis. These processes are all well established, and the market is served by a number of experienced companies. 

The current ultrafiltration market is approximately US 200 million/year but because the market is very fragmented, no individual segment is more than about US 10-30 million/year. Also, each of the diverse applications uses membranes, modules, and system designs tailored to the particular industry served. The result is little product standardization, many custom-built systems, and high costs compared to reverse osmosis. The first large successful application was the recovery... 

Because of the glamour of biotechnology, these applications have received a disproportionate interest by academic researchers. However, this is not a major market for ultrafiltration equipment, and many of the plants use little more than bench-scale equipment. 

The first widespread use of polymeric membranes for separation applications dates back to the 1960-70S when cellulose acetate was cast for desalination of sea and brackish waters. Since then many new polymeric membranes came to the market for applications extended to ultrafiltration, miciofiltration, dialysis, electrodialysis and gas separations. So far ultrafiltration has been used in more diverse applications than any other membrane processes. The choice of membrane materials is dictated by the application environments, the separation mechanisms by which they operate and economic considerations. Table 1.4 lists some of the common organic polymeric materials for various membrane processes. They include, in addition to cellulose acetate, polyamides. 

Membrane processes are one of the most important separation technologies in food industry. The operate, at room temperature, require no addition of chemicals and are gentle and non-destruc ive. Their potentiality is confirmed by an annual growth rate of 37% (1). However the major area for ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis in food applications is mainly whey purification, and the dairy industry in general. This market has been estimated of 2 million US dollars in 1976 and 5 million US dollars in 1981. 

Whether we cail the process we have talked about during this week reverse osmosis or hyperfiltration or ultrafiltration is of little importance. The important thing is that the membrane invented by Loeb and Sourirajan slightly over 20 years ago is a marketable product and has a fantastic future. Too often we allow semantics to act as a barrier to our mutual understanding of this technology. 

Ultrafiltration membranes are usually asymmetric and are also made from a variety of materials but are primarily made by the phase inversion process. In the phase inversion process, a homogeneous liquid phase consisting of a polymer and a solvent is converted into a two-phase system. The polymer is precipitated as a solid phase (through a change in temperature, solvent evaporation or addition of a precipitant) and the liquid phase forms the pore system. UF membranes currently on the market are also made from a variety of materials, including polyvinylidene fluoride, polyacrylonitrile, polyethersulfone and polysulfone. 

BCC Research. 2010. Ultrafiltration membranes Technologies and the U.S. market. Report code MST044C. 

Currently, the largest market for membranes is dialysis [56]. Driven by a global increase in the number of patients with end-stage renal disease, dialysis membranes are the leader in terms of surface area and sales revenue. Filtration membranes, ultrafiltration and microfiltration, are the next largest market with combined sales slightly less than that of dialysis membranes. Reverse osmosis and gas separation membranes round out the top five markets. 

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