Applications

Membrane Solutions for Pharma
Permionics due to its wide range of membranes available in different make and cutoff is best suited for processing of pharmaceutical bulk drugs, APIs and intermediates. We supply technologies to pharma for concentration, purification, separation of the compounds cost-effectively, enabling a high-product yield. Our highly specialized membranes can successfully replace centrifugation, extraction, distillation and chromatography wherever possible to provide the most economical solutions.

Impurities Removal from API
In some pharmaceutical processes where the traditional methods for purifying API’s using extraction & chromatography does not work, our membrane can help to purify the API based on the size differences in the API and the impurities. Integrating membranes for purifying API adds value as our membranes offer better savings compared to all other conventional purification technologies.

Solvent / Product Recovery
We provide membranes that are compatible with different hydrophilic and hydrophobic solvents to replace the conventional distillation – energy consuming process. Our membranes can concentrate the dilute product/ API and recover the solvents that can be recycled back thus improving the economics.

Membrane Solution for Biotech / Bioprocesses
Permionics supports different biotech applications with our wide range of membranes that helps to purify products, enhance yield, reduce cost and provide selective separations. Our efficient processes are widely used for different applications involving separations, concentrations or purification of various biobased products made by fermentation or biocatalysis process. Our membranes can be used for all types of biomolecules i.e. fine chemicals, amino acids, vitamins, antibiotics, polymers, polysaccharides, antibodies and enzymes

Fermentation Broth
Recovery of product from the fermentation broth is an important step after any fermentation processes that is done using bacterial, yeast or fungal cells. We provide cross flow MF membrane system that is used for clarification of the broth and subsequently to wash out the remaining product from the cells (called diafiltration) achieving complete recovery of the product. We have experience and have supplied our membranes systems capable of handling cell densities ranging from 2 % to 40% (w/v) present in the fermentation broths.

Separations / Recovery
We offer solutions for recovery of macromolecules like proteins after the fermentation process. Our membranes can be used to separate the proteins from the product and other media components added during the fermentation process. The recovered protein can be recycled back into the fermentation process.
Some biotech applications use enzymes like cellulases, lipases, peroxidases etc. as a catalyst for the reactions, and recovery of these enzymes for reuse is important for improving economics. We offer membrane processes that can be used for the recovery of different enzymes.

Product Concentration
Permionics have pioneered the world’s first membrane for the Papain concentration application and we have also supplied systems for the concentration of Streptomycin.

We offer membrane processes that can be deployed for the concentration of the product from the dilute fermentation broth, UF permeates, biocatalysis reaction, natural products/extracts etc.
Our membranes can be effectively used for concentration of different organic acids like lactic acid, butyric acid, citric acid etc., obtained from the fermentation broth.
We also offer systems for the concentration of dilute extracts/products obtained from the natural products. We have a wide range of membranes that can be used for concentration of dilute products present in aqueous, acidic, alkaline and solvent based streams.
The streams obtained from chromatographic separations are dilute and depending on molecular weight of the product we can provide membrane system for concentration of these dilute streams.

CONCENTRATION AND SEPARATION are the two unit processes in which membranes play a vital role. Antibiotics, proteins, enzymes etc can be simultaneously concentrated and dashed/purified by selecting our suitable membranes.

Membrane Solutions for Herbals & Natural Products
Permionics can offer multiple membrane based solutions for processing of herbals, natural products, phytochemical extracts and products. Our membrane processes can help to reduce the cost of extraction, separation, concentration and purification by replacing the conventional methods and thus offering the most cost effective and best solutions for a purer and energy efficient product.

Concentration
The cases where the extracts from herbs or natural products are dilute we can provide our suitable membrane process that can concentrate the extract and reduce the volumes of extract by 70-80%. Our membrane processes can be directly used for concentration of extract or even after chromatographic and other purification methods to concentrate the purified herbal / natural product. We have membranes for concentration processes that can handle all types of process streams viz. aqueous, acidic and alkaline.

Separation
Our membranes are also used for the separation/purification of herbal and natural products where there is enough difference in the sizes of the product of interest and impurities to be removed. Thus the cases where a conventional purification method such as extraction and chromatography does not work, membrane offer dual advantage i.e. product concentration as well as its purification. Most of the herbal extract requires removal of slats from the extract and the same can be achieved by our membrane processes.
Permionics have handeled various herbal and natural product streams and provided solutions for for various products such as Aloe Vera, Garcinia, Methi, Capsiacin, Beet root, Guar Gum, Nicotine, Azadraktin, and many others.

Purification
Our membranes are also used for the separation / purification of herbal and natural products where there is enough difference in the sizes of the product of interest and impurities to be removed. Thus the cases where a conventional purification method such as extraction and chromatography does not work, membrane offer dual advantage i.e. product concentration as well as its purification. Most of the herbal extract requires removal of slats from the extract and the same can be achieved by our membrane processes.
Permionics have handle various herbal and natural product streams and provided solutions for for various products such as Aloe Vera, Garcinia, Methi, Capsicum, Beet root, Guar Gum, Nicotine, Azadraktin, and many others.

Applications in the Fish processing Industry
Fish processing in order to obtain different fish products and fish oil generates a huge amount of waste water stream every day and recovery of the water from this stream has been a major challenge for all the fish processing industries. Recently, Permionics have solved this problem and can offer membrane systems for the recovery of water after fish processing.

Stick Water Concentration
The processing of fish in the industries involves steps like cooking of fish, crushing and fish oil separation. The effluent generated after these processes is termed as “stick water” and it is composed of proteins, BOD and inorganic salts. Our membrane process has been successfully installed for recovery of water from this stream (stick water) and Permionics is the only membrane company to develop and commercialize this process.

Omega 3 Fatty Acid Recovery
Fish industry generates a good amount of fish oil every day. The fish oil contains two major Omega three fatty acids i.e. Ecosapentanoic acid (ECA) & Decosahexanoic acid (DHA). There is a good market for these Omega 3 fatty acids and thus there is a need for a technology that can isolate them from fish oil. Permionics can provide a complete solution for isolation and concentration of these Omega3 fatty acids from the fish oil by integrating chromatographic and membrane based processes.

Membrane Solutions for the Soya Industry
The most rapidly growing and commercially attractive area in soybean processing involves the production of protein concentrates and isolates, products containing from 70 to 95% protein. Permionics membrane processes can add value to the soya meals or flours by providing complete solutions for concentration and purification of soya proteins. Membrane separation processes consume less energy when compared to other concentrating techniques, such as freeze-drying, spray drying or evaporation. Another advantage is our membrane processes can operate at low, ambient, and high temperatures depending on the nature of the application and the solids to be concentrated.

Soya Protein Isolate
After the digesting of soya meal/flour, we have membrane processes that can concentrate as well as purify proteins by removing of the sugars and mineral. Integrating membrane will also reduce the spray drying load and offer a huge improvement in the economics.

Soya Protein Concentrate
We offer membrane systems for the concentration of sugars and recovery of alcohols that are used in the processes for producing soya protein concentrates from the soya meal/ flour. Integrating membranes for recovery of alcohol in the SPC process will improve the economics compared to the conventional distillation process.

Soya Peptide Deashing
Removal of ash to improve the quality of soya peptide is major concern and our membrane processes can achieve this in the most economical way compared to the conventional technologies.

Membrane Solutions for the Food & Beverage Industry
The food industry is very dynamic, competitive and it is important to meet increasing consumer demands for high-quality, safe, and nutritious products while maintaining cost-effective operations. With decades of experience in meeting the special needs of food processors, we have developed a wealth of solutions proven to improve production, reduce costs, and increase process efficiency while improving yield and quality. We offer a full range of membranes and systems not only for removing contaminants, recovering materials, and purifying process streams within the plant, but also treating the outgoing effluent to meet environmental discharge standards.

Papain Enzyme Concentration
Papain enzyme which is extracted from papaya latex is a viscous liquid that oozes out of a raw papaya when it is slit. This enzyme is obtained in a dilute form, and finally used as a meat tenderizer and for various health and medicinal purposes. Our membrane systems have been successfully installed for concentration of papain enzyme. Along with concentration, unwanted salts and low molecular weight impurities are also removed making the final product much purer and fetching a higher price in the market. Since membranes remove water at room temperature, there is a saving of 80% of the energy cost over the conventional processes.

Juice Clarification & Concentration
Our membrane process can replace the single or multiple evaporators which have been used in the past to concentrate fruit and vegetable juices. The membrane process is more efficient in energy, time, space and cost saving. Placing our membrane filtration system before an evaporator will increase evaporator efficiency (pre-concentration or pre-powder preparation). A major advantage of our membrane filtration over more traditional separation methods such as vacuum or pressure filtration is that with the option of diafiltration, color is actually gained rather than lost.
Vegetable Juices: Wide variety of vegetable juices can successfully clarified and concentrated and spray dried using our membrane filtration. These include but are not limited to: Onion Juice, Carrot Juice, Celery Juice, Cucumber Juice, Leek Juice, Green Pepper Juice, Aloe Vera Juice, Garlic Juice
Fruit Juices: The fruit juices that can be efficiently clarified and concentrated by our membrane filtration and if required taken to powder stage by spray drying are: Grapefruit Juice, Strawberry Juice, Orange Juice, Peach Juice, Pineapple Juice, Apple Juice, Pear Juice and Tomato Juice.

Coffee / Tea Extracts
Permionics can supply membranes that can be used for concentration of coffee and tea extract by removal of water. Integrating membranes for removal of water from the extracts will add value by reducing the volumes of evaporation or spray drying.

Starch / Dextrose Processing
The starch and sweetener industry can deploy our membrane filtration replacing the traditional separation methods such as filter presses and rotary vacuum filters in a number of process steps as listed below.

• The concentration of starch wash water.
• Clarification of corn syrups such as dextrose and fructose.
• Dextrose enrichment.
• De-pyrogenation of dextrose syrup.

Sulphur Recovery
In the Gas processing recovery of pure sulphur from the sulphur slurry is an important process. Permionics can supply membrane systems that can help in the recovery of sulphur from such slurry very effectively. Our membranes can concentrate the slurry and provide a clear permeate stream that can further produce 99% pure sulphur cake.

Produced Water Treatment
Water produced during oil and gas extraction operations constitutes the industry’s most important waste stream on the basis of volume. The oil and gas industry produces approximately 14 billion bbls of water annually and thus proper treatment of this water to remove oils, inorganic salts, suspended solids, microbes, COD, BOD and hardness is important. Permionics can offer a complete set of solutions for treating such water in order to obtain good quality water.
Water for Process & Utility
Permionics can supply membrane systems that can treat the water from different sources like bore well and river and improve its quality by making it more suitable for the processes in oil and gas industries. Depending on the characteristics of the feed water, we can provide suitable pretreatment and membranes to achieve the required specifications of water to be used for the processes.

Membrane Solutions for Edible Oil
Crude vegetable oils consist mainly of triglycerides or neutral oil with fat-soluble and suspended impurities. The nontriglyceride fraction contains variable quantities of impurities such as free fatty acid, phospholipids (gums), color pigments, metal complexes, sterols, waxes, carbohydrates, proteins, water, and dirt. Most of these impurities are detrimental to the quality of the finished product and thus the requirement of purification of crude has has gained more attention. Permionics can offer membrane processes which can help to remove these impurities providing a good quality of oil at much cheaper cost as compared to traditional methods.

Degumming
The removal of phospholipids (“degumming”) is the first step of crude vegetable oil refining process. Conventional methods uses water degumming where crude oil is treated with water, salt solutions, or dilute acid to remove phospholipids. This process changes phosphatides into hydrated gums, which are insoluble in oil and are separated from the oil by filtering, settling, or centrifugal action. In this procedure, a considerable loss of neutral oil occurs and a large amount of wastewater is produced, and the energy consumption is fairly large. To overcome this we can provide membrane processes for the degumming of crude oil/hexane mixture and this will offer better savings compared to all the traditional methods currently in use.

Impurity Removal
Apart from triglycerides, crude oil contains different impurities such as fatty acid, phospholipids (gums), color pigments, metal complexes, sterols, waxes, carbohydrates, proteins, water, and dirt. Colored materials, some free fatty acids and other impurities are trapped by the reverse micelles and thus can be removed by using our membrane processes. Our membrane processes can also be used for the separation of free fatty acids (FFA) and triglycerides and thus help to reduce the FFA content in the crude oil. The advantages of this technology are that it is simple, it can be done at ambient temperature if required, and it demands a small amount of energy. Further, since no chemicals are used there is no wastewater generation.

Membrane Solution for Textiles
The textile industry is a large consumer of water and continually strives to minimize pollution as regulation becomes stringent, particularly when dyeing cotton and cotton blend fabrics where a lot of salts and color dye pollutants are discharged into water. The conventional processes to remove these pollutants from wastewater are difficult and costly. Due to an increase of cost of fresh water, industries are looking at ways to decrease the water consumption by the reclamation of wastewater. For the solution of this Permionics has been supplying membrane based plants to the textile industry for several years for dye bath & wash water effluent treatment. Permionics has a very extensive experience of deploying membrane technology in the textile industry for brine, caustic, color and water reclamation from the effluent.

Brine Recovery
Permionics has developed membrane systems which have proved to be significant for energy and waste savings by employing membrane systems to reuse textile dye bath brines. HPA NF membrane technology offers a means to recover reusable brine while also providing for more efficient wastewater treatment. Permeate recovered from the HPA NF process contains salt and is suitable to reuse in the dye cycle.

Caustic Recovery from Mercerizing Bath
Permionics has designed and manufactures special alkaline resistant membranes to recover spent caustic from the mercerizing bath. The permeate stream obtained from our membrane systems would comprise of colorless caustic that is free from any starch or cotton fibres and color. Integrating our membranes for recovering and reusing of caustic will reduce the caustic consumption and thus will also reduce the fresh water consumption. This will add value as the load of alkaline effluent coming to the ETP will be reduced by a huge extent and thus the acid consumption for neutralization will also go down substantially.

Color Removal
In the textile industry, the printing operation uses large quantities of water for washing and this generates wastewater stream with fine pigments and binders having high color and BOD. Our membrane process can remove the color and reduce COD & BOD by 90-95% and provide colorless water that can be recycled back to the print machine for reuse directly.

ZLD
Permionics offers various combinations like Recycle & Reuse, Evaporation & Crystallization in designing Zero Liquid Discharge Systems in accordance with the unique requirement of the customer. The textile operation requires large quantities of water for washing. Thus the generated wastewater is laden with dye and other inorganic & organic impurities giving a stream with high color and BOD. Permionics membrane system removes this color and other impurities and provides a clean water stream that can be recycled back to the different processes for reuse.In order to reclaim maximum amount of water, Permionics have successfully installed the three stage system for various clients. Permionics’ proprietary membranes have the ability to handle the high COD effluent and gives better flux and a longer life due to lower fouling tendency.

Membranes Solutions for Capsule and Jelly
Gelatin is a water soluble high molecular weight protein (20 to 200 KDa) prepared by the thermal denaturation of collagen, isolated from animal skin and bones with very dilute acid/alkali or also even extracted from fish skins. Permionics can offer membranes and membrane solutions for concentration and de-ashing of gelatin extract and add value by making the process more economical compared to conventional technologies.

Gelatin Concentration
Gelatin broths after the extraction process have a typical solids content of 2 – 6 % (w/v). Our membrane can concentrate the gelatin to 10 – 18 % (w/v). Our membrane process will not only concentrate gelatin but also purify it by removing ash and undesired components from the extract. Integrating membranes prior to evaporator improves economics as the evaporator load can be reduced by 70-80% thus adding value to the process. The processes are very energy-efficient and we can provide compact, modular plant design with the completely automated operation.

Gelatin De-ashing
Gelatin extract also contains 0.5-1.5% (w/v) of ash and removal of this is important to increase the purity of gelatin for the various applications it is used for. Our membrane process is used for the concentration of gelatin and will also help for removal of ash and thereby no separate unit operation is required. Thus compared to ion exchange chromatography, membrane offers huge savings because there is no need to have separate unit operation for de-ashing. There apart there is no generation of effluent that generally comes from regeneration of the ion exchange column.

Condensate Recovery
Condensates from evaporation plants used in the gelatin processes can be subjected to our membranes for improving the quality of the condensate to obtain good quality of water that can be recycled back.

Gelatin Recovery
Washings from process plant and equipment contains less than 2% of gelatin which makes it uneconomical to put into the evaporators. Since the operating cost of removing water using membranes is 1/5th compared to evaporation costs, this gelatin also can be recovered by passing it through our membranes. There is a two fold advantage here: one is recovery of gelatin and the other is reducing load on the effluent treatment plant.

Dye Concentration and Desalting
In the manufacturing processes of reactive and acid dyes, salt and low molecular weight complexes are present in the final product liquor. The salt, reduces the solubility and the complexes and intermediates interfere with the brightness of the dyed fabric, thus there is a need for salt-free dye. Our membrane processes can not only concentrate but also dealt the dye and provide the best and most economical solution to the problem.

Ultra Pure Dyes
Most of the applications require highly pure dyes i.e. free from slats as well all the lower molecular weight impurities. Our membrane processes have been very successful in removing these impurities as well as glaubers salt (Na2SO4,) to achieve high strength with high total solids. The higher concentration achieved saves energy as the concentrated liquor is then spray dried at lower energy levels.
Reactive and acid dyes constitute our major applications and we have supplied over 5000 msq of membrane area installed in the Industry for desalting and concentration of Dyes. Our membrane systems are also operating for Food colors concentration and desalting. Tartrazine-yellow and Sunset yellow are examples of food colors where our membrane systems are giving excellent performance with minimum (< 0.1%) dye loss and >95% desalting

Color Removal
Dyes and pigments are highly visible material and thus there is the requirement on industry to minimize environmental release of colour, even in cases where a small but visible release might be considered as toxicologically rather innocuous. Our membrane filtration processes can remove these colors and is very effective in comparison to other chemical and biological treatments used.

Pigment Concentration
PERMIONICS has developed a robust & novel membrane based technology for removal and concentration of pigment from wash water stream. As we know pigments are insoluble non-ionic compounds or insoluble salts and retain their crystalline or particulate structure throughout their application.
As and when pigment is poured in a tank then it is taken out for manufacturing, then the tank is washed thus generates effluent containing water, salt and some amount of pigment. This wash water when passed through ETP plant, which is considered as long process, creates a problem as it is insoluble in nature and settles down in the ETP. For removing these pigments, a huge quantity of chemicals are used, which generate enormous quantity of sludge. Permionics has made a process technology to solve the turbidity and suspended solid issue in the effluent due to pigment, without any chemical treatment. These membranes have large channel diameter so work effectively in presence of pigment which is in un-dissolved form.

Membrane Solutions for Biofuels Production
Production of biofuels from lignocelluloses biomass (LBM) would require mega scale plants and thus would require less energy intensive, high throughput continuous and scalable unit operations. Membrane filtration technologies such as microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) are therefore poised to provide cost effective solutions for separations, concentrations and recovery processes in the entire technology. Permionics have the expertise of integrating membrane in the different stages of bio fuels process viz. alkali pre-treatment, acid hydrolysis, enzymatic hydrolysis, sugar concentrations and water recovery. We provide membranes along with a complete system for Biofuels Technology with better recoveries/separations/concentrations compared to conventional technologies thus reducing the overall capital & operating expenses.

Acid /Alkali Recovery
We offer membranes for recovery of acid or alkali that are used for pre-treatment or fractionation of lignocelluloses biomass in the biofuel technology. In processes that use acid/alkali treatments extracts are can be composed of hemicelluloses or lignin depending on the pretreatment deployed and our membrane processes can be used to recover and concentrate these streams thus adding value. Acidic treatment for biomass is used in some cases that convert biomass to dilute soluble sugars. We can provide membrane processes for concentration of these dilute sugars and recovery of acids that can be recycled back.

Membrane Reactors for Hydrolysis & Enzymatic Recovery
We provide membrane systems (membrane reactor) for batch as well as continuous enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass i.e. cellulose / hemicelluloses to produce monomer sugars. The membrane system helps to recover the enzymes used in the hydrolysis process that can be reused multiple times and thus improves the economics.

Sugar Concentration
​The sugar stream resulting from the enzymatic hydrolysis process is dilute and needs to be concentrated to a desired level before fermenting to produce ethanol. Our membrane processes can concentrate these sugars and also recover water that can be recycled back.

Ethanol Fermentation
We provide membranes for clarification of fermentation broth and can supply systems for batch as well as continuous fermentation i.e. “high cell density recycle concept”. Integrating membranes for continuous cell recycles during the fermentation process increases the overall productivity and also makes the process continuous.
Permionics can provide complete solutions to biofuels processes from lab to commercial scale adding value at each stage of the processes involved.