Our know-how to support your process development involving ion exchange.

In brief

Processes using resins, chromatography or electrodialysis play a key role in various sectors, including the food, pharmaceutical and fine chemicals industries.

Working with these sectors for many years, our process engineers have been called upon to make recommendations and support our customers in industrializing processes involving ion exchange. Examples include construction projects for new units or optimization of existing processes.

Resins

Ion exchange on resin is a separation technique that involves capturing ions from a solution on a solid material, and replacing them with others. For instance, it is recommended as a polishing to remove salts from the product of interest, or to adjust pH without adding ions. Processium has the experience and tools to:

• Recommend this separation / purification technique;
• Specify the key characteristics of the most promising ion-exchange resin, and propose products from various suppliers;
• Run batch and continuous tests in the lab to confirm the best-suited resins and estimate potentially obtainable industrial performances.

Chromatography

Chromatography is a separation technique based on the principle of a difference in the affinity of the components of a liquid mixture, compared to a solid stationary phase. A liquid mobile phase is used to completely elute the compounds and bring them out in separate fractions. It is used either for very large volumes in the dairy or sugar industries, for example, or in fine chemicals when the actives have high value added. Processium supports you by:

• Recommending this separation / purification technique;
• Determining the preliminary mass balances;
• Running preliminary tests to validate technical feasibility;
• Validating performances at pilot scale through a partner or equipment supplier, providing pre-sizing of the process and estimating the related costs.

Electrodialysis

Electrodialysis is a separation technique that transfers ions through a membrane under the action of an electric field. It is, for example, used in the pharmaceutical industry to produce organic acids or amino acids, in the food industry and to correct pH or desalt aqueous matrices. Depending on the configuration, mineral acid or base solutions can be regenerated and recycled upstream.

Processium supports you by:

• Recommending this separation / purification technique;
• Determining the preliminary mass balances;
• Validating performances at pilot scale through an equipment supplier, providing pre-sizing of the process and estimating the related costs.