Research Abstracts

It has been found by recent researchers that the dominating fouling agents causing membrane pore blocking are extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) which seem to be produced by micro-organisms which make up the biomass. The other form of fouling caused by cake biomass build up on the membrane sur

The forward osmosis (FO) process potentially can be used as an alternative to traditional brine treatment technologies due to its low energy requirement. In this study, the feasibility of concentration of brine by the FO process was investigated using a laboratory-scale unit. An FO membrane and the

Pressure driven membrane processes are characterized by their low specific energy consumption. Since they constitute a mechanical separation without phase or temperature change, they are least energy intensive. This study focused on further energy reduction. Process industries (chemical, food, mecha

New strategies are necessary for efficient separation, purification and enrichment in biotechnology, medicine, and food technology as well as in the chemical and petrochemical industries. For such applications novel high-performance materials made by molecular surface engineering (MSE) are required.

Zeolites are known for their uniform pore size and are therefore suitable as membrane materials for the separation of different kind of molecules. The selectivity of these zeolite membranes is determined by the size of these molecules and by the diffusion and adsorption processes. These processes ar

The intention of this paper is to to provide a general overview of the commercial and technical development of seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) from the perspective of a manufacturer of spiral-wound reverse osmosis membranes. It illustrates the rapid rate of growth of the capacity of SWRO plants arou

Silicon nitride microsieves are microfiltration membranes manufactured with techniques commonly used in the semi-conductor industry for wafer production. These membranes are characterised by the uniform pore size and the high porosity. Furthermore, due to their extremely thin selective layer and the

In a membrane contactor the membrane separation is completely integrated with an extraction or absorption operation in order to exploit the benefits of both technologies fully. Membrane contactor applications that have been developed can be found in both water and gas treatment. Several recently dev

White biotechnology for the production of fine chemicals will substitute some chemistry based on petrol and gas in the near future. A standard process for this technology is fermentation. The downstream treatment with membranes is an essential and cost-intensive part of the processing. For downstrea

Crystallisation processes are well understood from the thermodynamic point of view. But all desalination processes, such as reverse osmosis, are kinetically limited, and thus the kinetics of the crystallisation is of particular interest. The kinetics of scale formation, especially together with impu