Fine chemicals: Membrane technology in the fine chemicals industry

Athony Bennett examines the use of membrane technology in the fine chemicals industry in the production of the chemicals themselves and also in the generation of process water and the treatment of effluent from chemical synthesis. The types of process water required for the production or dilution of agrochemicals, specialty chemicals and high purity chemicals can vary considerably due to the vast range of fine chemicals available and their production processes. Membrane technology has a significant part to play in the production of these grades of process water for use in fine chemicals production. RO systems would be fitted with high rejection (HR) membranes. RO is a cross-flow membrane separation process providing a level of filtration down to ionic levels for removal of dissolved salts. Either electro deionisation (EDI), utilizing membranes, or ion exchange technologies are required for producing high purity water; both technologies utilize ion exchange resins.