Membrane-Based Separations in Metallurgy

Metallurgy is the technology that relates to the production and engineering of metals and metal alloys, the materials indispensible to the modern world. The book offers us an opportunity to see how the sustainability of metallurgy could be approached within the framework of membrane separation technologies. The book is contributed to the science and engineering of applying membrane-based separation to facilitate the green development of metallurgical industry. Metallurgy is a sophisticated process, which in its traditional manner has significantly negative impacts on environment. In the past few decades, it has been found that membrane separation, combined with various points of metallurgical process, can bring great benefit, both economically and environmentally. We try to understand the strength and identify the future of membrane-based separation in this area, by systematically describing and analyzing the real-world and potential applications. The following information will be featured: * Background of metallurgical process and how widely the membrane-based technology has been applied in metallurgical industry; * Basic principles of membrane-based separation in terms of material science, membrane structure engineering, transport mechanisms and module design; * Detailed metallurgical process flowchart with emphasis on where the membrane separation is involved, why it is designed in such a way, what are the problems that still exist and the potential solutions; * Science and engineering aspects related to specific membrane application, including molecular design of materials, fine tuning of membrane's multi-scale structure, module selection and process design; * Qualified and/or quantified analysis about the environmental and economic benefits achieved with the upgraded processes. The book is primarily designed to be used as a course or reference book for research and teaching activities in universities and research institutions. In countries across Asia and other less developed countries the increasing demand for metallurgical and chemical engineers results in the establishment of new teaching departments either at existing universities or as part of new institutions. Educators at these organizations have to develop related programmes from scratch. * Faculty whose teaching is focused on metallurgical separation can use the book for preparing concrete and systematic teaching materials. The integration of the information ranging from fundamentals to technologies and the sound description of case studies would make the course become a critical part of the overall education (teaching, learning and project) that facilitates undergraduate students to acquire knowledge of fundamental principles, subject-specific skills and transferrable skills required by workplace. * Undergraduate students who are majoring in chemical and environment science and engineering can have the book as a reference for the courses they selected, as membrane separation is an important unit operation in these fields. * For graduate students doing research in membrane separation in metallurgy, the sectors they will go into is generally different from that of a Bachelor. Such a book will enrich their knowledge and make them resourceful. The solution to any problem is not straightforward and superficial. Analysis of the novelties proposed and detailed procedures adopted to actualize the benefits will give them a critical thinking experience that is essential for their research work. In industrial sectors related to membrane production and application of membrane separation in metallurgy and environment , the major readership include R&D Staff takes the responsibility of flow sheet development in process integration and hybridization, and technical trouble shooting in material, membrane and module preparation or selection and operation conditions optimization (e.g. temperature, flow rate, pressure, cleaning etc.). The book offers sound and scientific technical description about the above aspects of the applications in an expedient format. Staff at management level who takes the major responsibilities in defining the organization's future in the context of growing regulation about industry, community and environment needs to be well-informed of their options. The book is designed to contain some detailed examples quantifying the analysis about not only economic implications, but also environmental and social impacts. Therefore, it may also provide some reference for managerial planning and policy making.