Ceramiques Techniques Industrielles, a company specializing in inorganic membranes, has received a license from ECN to commercialize ECN’s HybSi nanosieve membrane technology.
ECN in partnership with the University of Amsterdam and the University of Twente developed the high-stability HybSi nanosieve membrane. It is capable of purifying a variety of industrial solvents efficiently at a low cost. It is mainly used for the isolation of azeotropic mixtures and in bio-fuel production. High energy efficiency and enhanced product quality are some of the benefits of the HybSi membrane technology over traditional separation technologies.
The HybSi membrane demonstrates high stability in adverse and acidic conditions even at high temperatures, making it suitable to be used as pervaporation membranes. Ceramiques Techniques Industrielles’ Chairman, Francois Garcia commented that the HybSi membrane technology license enables the company to widen its offering, ranging from filtration technologies to molecular isolation technologies. Garcia added that the company expects that the license will bring in a substantial growth. He further said that the company along with its partners and customers will develop a commercially viable solution to address difficult separation issues in 2012.
According to Jaap Vente, ECN’s Manager of Membrane Technology, the organization is happy about the commercialization of its HybSi membrane technology through the licensing deal with Ceramiques Techniques Industrielles, a pioneer in the ceramic membrane field. The organization is confident that the competitiveness of its membrane solution will help it gain significance and will realize its use in large scale applications, Vente added.
Source: http://www.ecn.nl