Chemical Engineering June 2022 - 12

Newsfront
New Membranes Support
Sustainability Trends
Advances in membrane technologies allow processors to delve into gas- and water-separation
applications more effectively and efficiently
IN BRIEF
INNOVATING FOR
ROBUSTNESS
OVERCOMING FOULING
INCREASED SELECTIVITY
C
onventional membranes have a
reputation for being " finicky " and
" high maintenance " because they
don't operate well under high pressures
or temperatures, are subject to fouling
and consume significant amounts of energy.
However, growth in gas- and water-separation
applications has led to the development
of more robust membranes with higher
fouling resistance and enhanced selectivity,
both solving problems and opening avenues
for new applications driven by sustainability
trends, including a green gas economy and
water conservation.
" Membrane systems get a bad reputation
for being picky or needy with the water
quality they are able to accept, as well as for
fouling and scaling that leads to increased
cleaning, frequent membrane replacement
and, ultimately, unplanned downtime, " says
Jared Galligan, director of engineering with
Kurita America,
Inc.
(Minneapolis,
Minn.;
www.kuritaamerica.com). " But, as water
conservation and reuse and other sustainability
practices become standard operating
procedure, membranes will be playing a
bigger role, so current users are demanding
more robust and reliable operation from their
membrane systems, and providers of membranes
and membrane systems are working
on developments to support these needs "
(Figure 1).
Innovating for robustness
" In many applications, especially in gas separations,
the membrane requires an enormous
robustness, " explains Goetz Baumgarten,
vice president of membranes at Evonik Industries
AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.
com). " Membranes for these types of applications
are made of high-performance polymers,
which offer fantastic gas-separation
abilities. But if you have separation of natural
gas where conditions of high temperatures,
high pressures and organic liquids are present,
you need membranes that can operate
under these harsh conditions. "
12
FIGURE 1. As water conservation and other sustainability
practices become standard, membranes will be playing a
bigger role. Providers of membranes and membrane systems
are developing more robust and reliable components
and systems
Baumgarten says more robust membranes
are becoming essential as we move
toward a sustainable gas economy because
they are needed for applications in hydrogen
extraction and other green-gas processes.
And, Evonik, he says, is developing
membranes for these types of applications
(Figure 2). " For example, we identified the
need to extract hydrogen from natural gas
grids because as the world heads towards
a hydrogen economy, we need the ability to
transport hydrogen in its own pipeline systems
in the future, " says Baumgarten. " However,
currently, most of the globe uses natural
gas pipeline grid infrastructure. To take
advantage of the existing infrastructure, we
partnered with Linde Engineering [Pullach,
Germany; www.engineering.linde.com]
to
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
JUNE 2022
Kurita America
http://www.kuritaamerica.com http://www.evonik.com http://www.evonik.com http://www.engineering.linde.com http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
Chemical Engineering June 2022

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