Life Sciences & Biotechnology

In chemical/petrochemicals industries, organic solvents are liberated with the industrial effluent, most notably, in the process stream of polyester and ethanol industries, low concentrated acetic acid is liberated with the process stream. Several methods such as distillation, extraction, neutralization, over-liming, vacuum evaporation, stream stripping, charcoal adsorption, ion exchange resin adsorption etc. are available to remove acetic acid from the process stream. However, removal of acetic acid (?3%) from process stream is very challenging. Application of membrane technology for removal of acetic acid from process stream is an efficient process. CSIR-NEIST has developed a membrane for removal of acetic acid from the process stream containing ?3% acetic acid with highest separation efficiency (95%).