(363e) Membranes for Water Purification and Industrial Separations

Over the course of the last 5 decades, separations applications with membranes have significantly evolved, and membranes are becoming a preferred technology for various separations at industrial scale. Primary reasons for the evolution of membranes and their adoption are 1) the inherent energy efficiency of separations via membranes, as compared to other separations methods 2) new materials discovery and development, and 3) large scale manufacturing. In addition, economics presented by membrane processes due to efficiency in technologies like pumps, energy recovery devices, novel module designs and better fundamental understanding of membrane structure and property relationships due to advanced analytical methods, has also propelled their wide scale adoption.

In this talk some key industrial applications of membranes will be presented and analyzed from an efficiency and economics standpoint. Insight into the future of membrane technology development will also be provided.