L’abstract:
Membrane Contactors and their various applications have been described for many years. Their compact design, easy scale-up and high package density (surface to volume ratio) make membrane contactors an interesting alternative to conventional technologies in fluid-fluid contacting (e.g. liquid-liquid extraction, aeration or degassing). However, process design limitations do appear due to restricted membrane material resistances and (industrial) contactor designs. Thus, applications where specific membrane contactor properties show benefits cannot sufficiently be served, e.g. extraction with strong solvents or in presence of solids and turbidity. To overcome these limitations, membrane materials like Polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE) have been described frequently. Recently, new developments allow the assembling of (tubular) PTFE membranes in dedicated membrane contactors. In combination with a rigorous mass transfer model which incorporates both the thermodynamics and the fluid dynamics of each desired application, unique membrane modules and configurations can be designed in order to fit these requirements best. In addition, using this mass-transfer model the scale-up of the desired membrane supported processes is easy and was successfully carried out up to a factor of 300. Using an easy test set-up, kinetic data of almost every fluid-fluid system (liquid-liquid, liquid-gas, liquid-gas-liquid) can be obtained in short time and can be incorporated in both the scale-up and/or the membrane (module) design (optimization). It could be shown with several systems that the scaleup as well as the module design and configuration can be applied successfully and thus helped to optimize several processes where conventional membrane contactor approaches failed. As an example, the lactic acid extraction directly out of a fermentation broth (non-filtered solution) succeeded with this approach for a time-period of three weeks in continuous operation without membrane blocking and easy cleaning afterwards. Another example is the bubble-free aeration of ozone from the gas-phase into (waste-)water which could be successfully carried out using different flow-rates and membrane modules. In beer dealcoholisation, such membrane processes can also be applied to deliver oxygen-free water. Meanwhile, the first industrial reverences using this technology progress are in operation.
CV:
Lecturer for Chemical Engineering / Process Technology, Head of ProcessTechnologyCenter (PTC) part Thermal Separation, Biorefinery and Natural Products Technology at the University of applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, School of Life Sciences, Institute for Chemistry and Bioanalytics, Hofackerstraße 30, 4132 Muttenz (BL). User representative for the new building project "ProcessTechnologyCenter (PTC)" since 2011 https://www.fhnw.ch/de/personen/wolfgang-riedl
Academic Career: 2010-to date : University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, School of Life Sciences, Institute for Chemistry and Bioanalytics: Lecturer in process engineering / chemical engineering, head of pilot plants thermal separation processes and reaction engineering, biorefinery and natural products.
Industrial Career 2007-2010 LSMW GmbH (today: Exyte GmbH), CH-Allschwil: Position "Product Manager Engineering and Qualification", Kader member, in this position responsible for up to 10 project members and for the acquisition of industrial projects Reference projects. 2005-2007 DSM Nutritional Products GmbH, D-Grenzach, position "Plant Performance Expert Downstream Technology Biotech”. 2002-2005 Kühni AG, CH-Allschwil (today: Sulzer Chemtech AG), product manager membrane technology
Education: 1998-2002 ph.D. student; topic ph.D. thesis: “Membrangestützte Flüssig-Flüssig Extraktion bei der Caprolactamherstellung”, Friedrich-Alexander Universität, Erlangen-Nürnberg. 1992-1998 Study of Chemical Engineering («Chemieingenieurwesen»), with major in Separation Technology («Verfahrenstechnik»), Friedrich-Alexander University, D-Erlangen-Nürnberg, Grade point average 1.7 Industrial experience