KmX's membrane system can achieve similar results with virtually any azeotropic spent solvent mixture making it highly versatile
KmX has acquired the North American license for and has launched a unique chemical pervaporation membrane system capable of economically separating all types of chemical waste streams through a user friendly patented liquid delivery system at volumes of between 3000litres to 25,000litres a day and higher.
"By being capable of breaking azeotropes, our highly scalable technology can recover chemical waste streams to near virgin purities of 99.5% and above, thereby enabling their reuse or resale and providing major savings for chemical users as well as overall environmental betterment" said Isaac Gaon, CEO.
At the heart of the system are reinforced pervaporation membranes which come in flat sheet and hollow fibre configurations that can withstand the harshest of chemical mixtures.
They are guaranteed to last at least 18 months.
Many solvent waste streams are uneconomical or simply impossible to separate using conventional methodologies, but can now be purified to almost virgin quality using these proprietary membranes.
KmX's portfolio of pervaporation membranes include:.
Hydrophilic membranes for separating water from chemicals.
Organophilic membranes for separating chemical from chemical.
Hydrophobic membranes for separating volatile organic compounds from contaminated effluent.
KmX's exclusive membrane system can separate and purify each element within a chemical waste mixture allowing chemical users to recover the intrinsic values of each component part contained within the spent stream.
The process is a low energy, closed loop system providing environmentally sound operation.
In the USA alone, of approximately 600 hazardous chemicals tracked by the Environmental Protection Agency, some 1.8million tonnes of these chemicals are being released into the environment each year.
KmX's technology will enable more of these waste chemicals to be economically recovered into high purity recycled products.
As a result KmX provides both an effective way for companies to minimise the disposal of toxic waste streams and save money.
While there are innumerable examples of how solvent users can benefit from this technology, one prime example is found in acetonitrile which is used extensively in the pharmaceutical industry for chromatography and spectroscopic measurements as well as other applications and is disposed of primarily through incineration.
Recycling this material to a 99.95% HPLC grade would allow users to reuse this highly expensive solvent many times over, providing pharmaceutical, chemical, bio-technology firms and many other chemical users' huge savings in purchase and disposal costs.
"We are working with some of the top names in the pharmaceutical and petrochemical industries" said Jill Harris, general manager, "and due to the enormous environmental benefits this technology provides through waste minimisation we are being financially supported by the Ontario government as well as private sector funding", she concluded.
