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November 2021 Issue 199-Food and Beverage
Gasworld US Edition, Volume 59, Issue 11 (November)-LNG
Author: Anthony Wright2021-10-20T14:03:00 01:00
In the latest gasworld TV webinar Air Gases Part 2, Evonik’s SEPURAN process gas director Jörg Balster talked about Evonik’s membrane technology and its importance in the field of industrial gases. He also deeply studied the company's innovative SEPURAN film series and the importance of demand and technical scalability.
Evonik’s membrane separation technology acts as a filter, allowing certain gases to pass through while others remain behind. The design of its SEPURAN series has no moving parts and is considered to be less complex than technologies such as pressure swing adsorption (PSA).
Commenting on its technical advantages, Barster explained, “You don’t need additives, chemicals or anything.”
"So, if you have a pressurized gas stream and you have a membrane, you can automatically generate nitrogen or oxygen-enriched air. This simple process allows you to use it for many decentralized production."
This technology is also useful when the supply of a specific gas is insufficient to meet its needs. Barster gave an example. He said: "If you have a large air separation tower, a cryogenic device, but you see that you don’t have enough nitrogen during peak hours, you can look at the process needs that you may not have. With such high-purity nitrogen, then you can produce the nitrogen you need through the membrane process."
SEPURAN membrane fiber production plant, Austria.
Evonik’s advantage in the membrane market is that by using its SEPURAN technology, it can manufacture its own polymers for different membranes designed for different applications.
Balster explained: "We always strive to achieve the best separation efficiency in each application we serve by changing the polymer chemistry in the backend."
When asked about the growth opportunities of air gas and Evonik’s membrane technology, Balster said that due to the high demand for air gas and rising costs, many opportunities have emerged.
In addition to nitrogen, he added that the demand for oxygen-enriched air processes is also increasing, as is the need to separate carbon dioxide (CO2) from natural gas.
As the focus shifts to the global energy transition, Barster revealed that Evonik sees more opportunities in the hydrogen energy market.
"Evonik is now also manufacturing membranes for electrolysis, so that you can in principle produce hydrogen from water, and you can also use our gas separation technology."
"If hydrogen in Europe is now transported through the natural gas network, we can finally extract some hydrogen easily," he explained.
Then the topic turned to the practical application of membrane technology, such as the use of nitrogen generators in the aviation industry.
There are also technologies that can produce oxygen-enriched air. For example, it can be used in smoke-filled aircraft cabins to "protect" pilots from hypoxia or other related conditions.
In addition, Balster explained that there are also technologies on liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers that can generate nitrogen to cover LNG. This concept is used on a smaller scale in the food transportation industry.
"Evonik is currently seeing a lot of demand from the refrigerated container industry, which uses cold boxes and they have installed init nitrogen generators. You basically use nitrogen to purge the system all the time."
The purpose of this purification is to eliminate the gases released during transportation, such as those from fruits.
Carbon dioxide is also emitted and must be controlled and maintained at a certain level to maintain the taste and freshness of the food. This adjustment can be done by using a membrane system.
"Another example is the wine industry, so by reducing the oxygen content in the fermentation process, you will get better wine. Who doesn't like it? That's my favorite!" commented Barster.
Other areas where membrane systems are used include oxygen enrichment in gyms for fitness and health, which allows people with heart disease to exercise without worrying about getting enough oxygen.
Since a fire requires oxygen to burn and continue to burn, this type of system can also be used to reduce the oxygen content of the room to achieve both fire prevention and fire prevention purposes.
Balster sees the future. He has a second oxygen concentration button at home, so he can adjust it to 25% when he sleeps at night to optimize his rest, and then lower it to 17% before leaving the house.
"My health is safe, and nothing will happen to fires. It would be great if such systems were everywhere in the future."
You can access parts 1 and 2 of the gasworld air and gas webinar series on demand here.
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