Classical membrane processes like microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) are being applied in the last years more frequently in environmental and effluent process problems. Newer technologies and developments like pervaporation (PV) and gas sepaxation (GS) recently found commercial applications in the treatment of waste waters and gas streams. The incentive here is either the clean-up from organic components to comply with federal emission regulations or the recovery of the organics for economical reasons. Processes still in their development stage are combinations of chemical reactions with membrane processes to separate and treat SOx and NOx laden waste gas streams in the clean-up of stack-gases. In this paper we will first give a short overview of the more recent developments in MF, UF and RO. This is followed by a closer look on newer technologies applied in environmental problems. The applications looked at are the recovery of organic components from solvent laden gas streams and the separation of organic volatiles from aqueous waste waters via pervaporation. Technical solutions, the advantages and disadvantages of the processes and. where possible, cost estimations will be presented.

• Blume I.(University of Twente, Department of Chemical Technology, P.O.Box 217 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands)
• Smolders C.A.(University of Twente, Department of Chemical Technology, P.O.Box 217 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands)