SOLVER

Solvent purification and recycling in the process industry using innovative membrane technology

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Solvents are widely used in process industries such as chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, food, biotechnology and microelectronics. The recovery of spent solvents containing all types of impurities presents a vast market, targeting thousands of small to medium sized companies in Europe that are generating highly as well as marginally polluted solvent streams. Many current solvent purification and manufacturing practices utilise a traditional, energy-intensive distillation-based technology in the production and/or recovery of liquid chemicals. This method of processing is costly, inefficient and produces a significant volume of hazardous waste. This project, SOLVER, proposes to debottleneck the heating step as well as the thermal chemical reactions involved, and replace them with membrane separation techniques working at room temperatures and able to achieve separations at the molecular level, i.e. pervaporation (PV) and organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN). Such chemical process intensification in solvent recovery and purification is expected to lead to significant improvements in product cost, materials usage, energy and waste reduction, as well as a decrease in risk and hazards. Thanks to the interdisciplinary and complementary skills of the consortium members, SOLVER aims at demonstrating the potential of OSN/PV technology in solvent manufacturing through lab-scale and pilot testing, but also at more fundamentally understanding the processes and the behavior of the membranes during filtration. The latter will be pursued by advanced characterization and on-line process monitoring tools. SOLVER joins two types of innovative SME end-users building out new business lines to stay ahead of competition. Two SMEs are active in solvent recycling/manufacturing, the other two in OSN/PV membrane production. The SME partners form a strategic supply chain and are expected to continue to leverage on the technological head-start after the project, take the results of the RTD work directly to the market, find new applications for their products, and be the market leaders in their respective sectors.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Scientists have designed a membrane-based filtration unit for purifying solvents from industrial waste.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Organic solvents are used by thousands of companies in a wide range of industries. Unfortunately, solvent recovery has traditionally relied on slow and inefficient distillation methods that produce large volumes of hazardous waste.

The EU-funded 'Solvent purification and recycling in the process industry using innovative membrane technology' (SOLVER) project aimed to develop a more efficient system. The approach targeted membrane techniques such as pervaporation (PV) and organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN).

SOLVER researchers first developed a new method for real-time monitoring of membrane behaviour. This was used to assess the success of the tested systems as well as develop a model of solvent transport across PV and OSN membranes.

Four case studies were selected based on the perceived needs of the industry, both in terms of purification and demand for specific solvents. Two of the case studies were addressed using PV technology, and the other two used OSN.

Lab-scale tests were generally successful, and so researchers built new prototypes for pilot-scale testing. Overall, the pilot-scale systems performed as well or better than expected.

Individual members of the SOLVER consortium will continue to develop these systems for commercial application. This project has the potential for major impact on industrial waste recovery.