Recovery of Biosynthetic Products Using Membrane Contactors

Membrane Contactors (MC) make possible to accomplish gas-liquid or liquid-liquid mass operations without dispersion of one phase within another. The membrane acts as a mere physical support for the interface and does not contribute to the separation through its selectivity, the separation being primarily based on the principle of phase equilibrium. Porous membranes with narrow pore size (typically in the range 0.02-0.2 m) are used. One of the two phases enters the membrane pores and contacts the other phase at the pore mouth on the opposite side. Generally MC operations involve an aqueous phase and the membrane has hydrophobic character, however hydrophilic membranes can be used too. The key factor is that one of the two phases enters the pores whereas the other phase is kept outside. In this Chapter Book the modelling of membrane based, dispersion free, solvent extraction by Hollow Fibre MC is analysed with particular attention to the mass transfer in the shell side. Application to the product recovery from bioconversion broth is considered in details.