Integrated Membrane Operations in Various Industrial Sectors

A brief outline on the membrane-based integrated systems precedes the essential part of this chapter. The classification of different hybrid processes is proposed along with the four main groups, that is, membranes with conventional unit processes, membrane contactors, membrane with aggregation processes, and membrane reactors. Essentially, this chapter comprises an overview of major applications of membrane-based integrated systems in various industry sectors, such as textile, tannery, pulp and paper, metal finishing, and electronic and food industry. Attention is focused not only on those membrane processes that have become well entrenched in industrial practice in recent years, delivering a long reference list of successful implementations and know-how, but also on some membrane-based integrated processes that are in use only in very specific applications and also at the laboratory level, which are waiting for a broader successful industrial implementation, anticipating a sharp development and generally many breakthroughs in future.