(90e) Membrane Based Separation in Metallurgy: Current Status and Perspective

Metallurgy is concerning metal extraction and purification. It is a very important or pillar industry in many countries worldwide. Nevertheless, in its traditional manner it has significantly negative impacts on environment. In the past decade of years, the body of literature on membrane application in metallurgy to improve its environmental friendliness and production efficiency has expanded rapidly and the new trends observed are listed below:

1) The previous ideas have been studied intensively by researchers from other countries with the advantages and disadvantages being analysed critically.

2) Incremental innovations either by modification of original technologies or transferring the technologies to the process concerning other groups of metals are emerging.

3) Various novel processes that combine membrane separation with metallurgy are proposed and investigated.

4) More and more attention is also given to tackling metallurgical waste using membrane process.

5) A distinct branch which is called “Special Industrial Membrane” mainly targeting metallurgy is growing rapidly. In addition to special polymeric membranes, inorganic and metal membranes attract great attention in recent years and are on the way of being commercialized.

With this presentation, the latest development of sustainability of metallurgy approached within the framework of membrane separation technologies will be summarized. We will goes through the above five aspects, trying to understand the strength and identify the future of membrane-based separation in this area, by describing and analyzing the real-world and potential design and applications.