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produce membranes that are superior to those already available in the market . It was clear to us that by going one step further in the value chain , through forward integration , we could harvest the full separation potential hidden our polymers . This was our starting point and remains the backbone of our business to the present day .”
Competitive advantages
As one of the largest specialty chemicals companies in the world , Evonik is a major player in the global polymer market . Not surprisingly , for a manufacturer of polymer-based membranes , expertise in polymer chemistry constitutes a crucial competitive advantage . Mr . Baumgarten , who holds a PhD in engineering , explains why : “ Firstly , we have high-performance polymers designed to withstand extreme conditions . To be honest , our polymers are much tougher than what is actually needed in membrane production , but we can take advantage of their properties and stability when producing and crosslinking the membranes .
“ Secondly , our ability to engineer polymers that are meant to become membranes for specific applications with very specific properties is what sets us apart from our competitors . For example , if a polymer designed and manufactured by one company is turned into a membrane for a certain application by another company , then every tweak made to the polymer affects the membrane performance . Unlike others , we design the entire polymer production process in such a way that we achieve extremely stable production . This in turn results in high-quality separation products , because the polymer is designed to run through this customised membrane production process .”
From start-up to market leader
When entering the membrane business in 2010 as a complete newcomer , Evonik joined the innovation race not as a follower but immediately as a market disruptor . Instead of developing its first membrane product for an established market segment , the company created an entirely new one . With more than 800 biogas upgrading plants equipped with SEPURAN ® Green membranes worldwide , Evonik is today an undisputed leader in the market segment it created itself .
“ In the past , raw biogas was typically upgraded to biomethane by one of three long-established processes : pressurized water scrubbing , pressure swing adsorption ( PSA ), or amine scrubbing ,” explains Mr . Baumgarten . “ With SEPURAN ® Green , we have developed and patented a novel , three-stage biogas upgrading process that makes it possible to obtain biomethane with a purity level of up to 99 % from raw biogas with just one compression step . Compared to other process , our membrane technology has multiple advantages : it requires no consumables , chemicals , or wastewater treatment and is extremely energy efficient . On top of that , it has proven to be extremely durable : after more than a decade since the first installation and with more than 1,000 installations in operations globally , there is still hardly any membrane replacement business . Our first membrane innovation has turned out to be such a great success that all membrane manufacturers are now following us into the biogas market .”
SEPURAN ® Noble – overview of membranes portfolio for efficient hydrogen recovery or helium purification / recovery
Hydrogen Tech World | Issue 6 | October 2022 11