The latest news in the membrane market is the takeover of Tri-Sep by Microdyn-Nadir. Both parties are well-known to us at Nizo, being a contract research organisation with a large food-grade pilot plant with extensive membrane facilities. Membranes have become the novel process technique in the food manufacturing in the last decennia, which has initiated a wide range of pilot plant projects at our facilities.
The benefits of membrane processes have initiated both replacement of traditional processes like evaporation, but have also generated complete new products. At Nizo, we can tell the end of this development is not yet in sight. Developments like the need to reduce carbon footprint and minimise water consumption and waste water generation will enhance the use of membrane processes. In addition, it should be mentioned that the regulatory laws regarding the generation of feed streams are getting more stringent and costlier than ever, which aids alternative approaches to eliminate the generation of these waste streams in the first place.
The competition in membrane manufacturing is quite fierce, as a large number of manufacturers can be found in the world. The various origins of the producers has led to an enormous diversity in membrane types, which has spurred the growth of the market but unfortunately also in membrane geometry. Spiral wound configuration is the workhorse in the food industry. In 4 inch size, at least three different diameters and four different lengths are available. In addition, the permeate tubes can be different as well. These values can be explained by the different manufacturing sites in the world and the history of their local market. In the modern world, with containers stockpiled with membranes shipped all over the world, the membrane market has made the transition from local to global.
A major trend in the food production market is upscaling of the size of the operations. This has spurred the development of membranes with more area per module. Nowadays 8 inch spiral wound modules are becoming the standard for both RO/NF and UF/MF, which has quadrupled the membrane area in comparison to the 4 inch modules, reducing both the square metre cost of the membrane area itself and that of the auxiliary equipment, like pumps, pressure vessels and instruments.
The facilities of Nizo have also been upgraded to this size. Being a pilot facility means that it has to be flexible in the membrane choice. It is, however, disappointing to find out that the new sizes have not been made to one uniform geometry; instead, the permeate tubes of the 8038 membranes are coming in two different sizes, namely 28.6mm and 28.9mm. The differences are so small that these are easily overlooked in the size of the chosen ATDs. Only after start-up of the process will leakage into the permeate elucidate this lack of uniformity to the user. For our pilot plant, we have tackled this by ordering all the different sizes and subsequently use laser engraving to mark the pieces. However, in the end, a change of membrane supplier should be enhanced to maximise the benefits of this technology.
So, my proposal to all manufacturers of membranes in the world: make worldwide standards like the manufacturers of electronics have; book a luxury resort somewhere on a tropical island and stay there till the future 10 inch standards have been agreed. I hope if this consensus can be made, the membrane manufacturers will still keep surprising us with their impressive progress on this exciting process component. In my opinion, competition should be on innovation and not on geometry.
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