Current Patents on Electromembrane Based Integrated/Hybrid Processes

Electromembrane processes are considered to be one of the promising industrial applicable ones using an electrical potential as high energy-efficient processes. Their applications can be found in various fields such as water desalination, water and wastewater treatment, food industries, production of acids and bases, elimination of toxic components, regeneration of metal ions from industrial waste streams, ultra pure water production and etc. The electromembrane process integration with other processes has received more attention recently in the patents as well as published articles since it provides versatile tools for industrial separations, increasing process effectiveness by optimization of the utilization of electromembrane processes. A substantial number of industrial applications for the integration of electromembrane process can be found mainly in areas of chemical unit operations, pressure-driven membrane processes, and biochemical unit processes. This review presents the recent progress on electromembrane based integrations for industrial separations based on patents as well as some published articles. The patent search has been performed in different databases in which the patents can be searched and in most cases downloaded. The keywords such as “Electromembrane process, Integration, Separation, Purification, Electromembrane” were considered for the current patents on electromembrane based integrated/ hybrid processes.