Nanofiltration Membranes To Offer Specialised Applications Across Varied Sectors

Nanofiltration membranes aim at bridging the gap between reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration, enabling diverse applications in various sectors like dairy, food, textile, water treatment, and pharmaceuticals.                           

FREMONT, CA: Nanofilter membranes have emerged as a significant development in recent years, bridging the gap between well-established technologies such as reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration. These nanofiltrations (NF) membranes are particularly effective in permeating monovalent ions, such as sodium chloride, while blocking divalent and multivalent ions like sodium sulfate. This enhanced membrane flexibility opens up new possibilities for specialized process applications in various sectors. Business leaders who adopt nanofiltration membranes are now focusing on expanding their product offerings beyond ultrafiltration and microfiltration membranes.

Nanofiltration membranes offer integrated opportunities for businesses across diverse industries, including dairy, food and beverage, plant extracts, gibberellins, textiles and dyes, optical brightening treatments, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical practices. In the dairy sector, the adoption of nanofiltration membranes enables simultaneous concentration and demineralization of lactose to achieve varying degrees of purification tailored to specific processes. Similarly, in the food, beverage, and plant extract industries, nanofiltration membranes effectively reduce costs and processing time, unlike conventional boiling methods used for thick maple syrups.

Gibberellins are plant hormones that significantly enhance plant growth and other developmental processes. Nanofiltration is being utilized to improve overall product yields by concentrating plant hormones like gibberellins. Similarly, this process proves to be an effective alternative for concentrating and desalinating dyes used in the textile industry, allowing salts and water to pass through the nanofiltration membrane during the dyeing process. Nanofiltration is also employed for the recovery of dyes to meet discharge regulations after penetrant testing with fluorescent dyes.

Optical brightening agents enhance the appearance of colours by increasing the amount of reflected light. Utilizing the nanofiltration approach enables the concentration of optical brightening agents, thereby reducing operational costs for reuse in the textile sector.

Nanofiltration membranes exhibit high capability in removing sulfate from seawater, which is crucial for preventing scaling in oilfield waterflood operations. Deploying nanofiltration membrane practices aids in removing natural organic matter (NOM) from surface water to produce NOM-enriched water for industrial processes. This low-energy alternative is critical for treating certain landfill leachates by effectively removing pollutants, reducing total organic carbon (TOC) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) levels, as well as decreasing turbidity.

These nanofiltration membranes also have high sulfate rejection rates, allowing easy passage of sodium chloride ions through the membrane, providing a crucial solution for brine recovery in industrial processes. Furthermore, nanofiltration membranes play an indispensable role in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries by aiding in the capture of fibrinogen in blood serum.