Bundeld Early Adapter Program for Membrane Technology

Within the Bundled Early Adaptor Project (BEAP) we worked on setting up membrane pilots at industrial plants so that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) could showcase and tailor their membrane solution. The 5 technology developers (SolSep, Pertracta, i3, WiC an Eurekite) worked together with 5 different industrial end users (Shell, Corbion, Cosun, Carbogen Amcis, and Quackers) and 1 knowledge institute (EMI Twente / University of Twente) in order to either develop or optimize the separation challenged that was posed. For some applications no membrane exists yet, and work was mainly focusing on the development of a new membrane material for that specific application, including various improvements to make the material more robust, whereas in other cases, the work focused on development of a new pilot skid in order to demonstrate the technology at a larger scale.

The technologies offered by these SMEs encompass the entire membrane application area, such as organic solvent nanofiltration of water purification, and pertraction to membrane distillation. It was found during one of the matchmaking sessions that all of these technologies, even though tailored for a specific application, can potentially also be used for other applications. In addition to the technological work, also support was offered to the SMEs with respect to potential future funding opportunities or on how to improve their online presence during various workshops.