Fractionation of wood components using membrane filtration

Development of efficient separation processes are vital for the realisation of the biorefinery concept. Membrane filtration as a pressure driven operation has the potential of being a very energy efficient separation and fractionation method in this application. However one of the largest challenge when using membranes is fouling and these fouling problems can be expected to very severe for the streams in the biorefinery. The focus of this project will be on investigating fouling behaviour during membrane fractionation and purification of dissolved wood components. The aim is to expand the mechanistic understanding of the relationship between the properties of the extracted wood components and membrane separation and fouling behaviour which will facilitate energy-efficient recovery and fractionation of extracted wood components using membrane separations, producing well defined process streams at high yields.