Overview
Français
ABSTRACT
The main objective of this short article is to illustrate the essential and saving part that membrane technologies are to play in the field of sustainable development and green chemistry. What a better way to explain other than to illustrate a few somewhat theoretical perspectives by presenting striking examples of separation processes and original concepts of reaction engineering as well as by opening different perspectives on other domains which give even more prospective which are already have an inescapable nature.
Read this article from a comprehensive knowledge base, updated and supplemented with articles reviewed by scientific committees.
Read the articleAUTHOR
-
Gilbert Marcel RIOS: Professor Emeritus - Doctor of Engineering - Director European Membrane House (AISBL) - Deputy Director of the UNESCO SIMEV Chair
INTRODUCTION
In a book published by Elsevier in 1995 , E. Sackmann writes: "Life in all its diversity only became possible after nature discovered the membrane. This tool represents the barrier needed to protect living entities from the harmful effects of their inert and hostile environment, while guaranteeing the necessary highly selective exchanges between the two worlds... The reduction of the tool's geometry to two dimensions ensures considerable efficiency, offering the possibility of irreversible charge separation and transient energy storage via the development of electrochemical potential gradients". Biological membranes represent the ultimate achievement of today's research and technological developments in the field of artificial membranes. Together with enzymatic catalysis, they form the basis of all living models, and are therefore a guarantee of the most sustainable development possible.
In principle , artificial membrane technologies offer considerable advantages in terms of green chemistry objectives:
Isothermal operations are characterized by improved energy efficiency, greater safety and better quality of the products processed (particularly if they are fragile, such as organic products);
as they do not require the use of solvents (except for the cleaning of installations outside the production cycle), they contribute to a reduction in the use of solvents and healthier finished products;
by working at the molecular or ionic level, they enable a more rational use of materials;
their modularity means greater on-line control of performance and greater plant reliability...
These are just some of the arguments that could be multiplied, all of which refer back to the corpus of principles mentioned in the "Disruptive technology" box.
Today, membrane technologies are considered "mainstream technologies" in a number of advanced countries such as the USA, China, Japan, Korea... particularly for their applications in the environmental and recycling...
The Ultimate Scientific and Technical Reference
KEYWORDS
introduction | Stakes | Processes | Green Chemistry | substainable dévelopment
This article is included in
Unit operations. Chemical reaction engineering
This offer includes:
Knowledge Base
Updated and enriched with articles validated by our scientific committees
Services
A set of exclusive tools to complement the resources
Practical Path
Operational and didactic, to guarantee the acquisition of transversal skills
Doc & Quiz
Interactive articles with quizzes, for constructive reading
Introduction to the challenges of membrane processes
Separation and purification challenges
Bibliography
Websites
Principles of Green Chemistry https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/greenchemistry/principles/12-principles-of-green-chemistry.html
IUPAC – Pore size definition http://old.iupac.org/goldbook/M03906.pdf
...Events
International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering CHISA http://www.chisa.cz
Directory
Laboratories – Design offices –Schools – Research centers
SINTEF research institute http://www.sintef.no
Trondheim University of Science and Technology NTNU http://www.ntnu.edu
The Ultimate Scientific and Technical Reference
