Industries / Pharma and Life Science
RELIABLE PURITY AND EFFICIENCY
Conventional separation methods In the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries, product purity, process reliability and regulatory compliance are essential. Conventional solvent separation methods often require compromises between consumption, operating costs and product quality. We offer a reliable alternative for demanding applications: customised process plants that combine advanced membrane technology with proven plant and process engineering.
Meeting the demands of pharmaceutical solvent recovery
In the pharmaceutical industry, solvent processing demands exceptional purity: often less than 0.5% water by weight, free from solids and colour. Conventional methods such as distillation reach their limits, requiring high energy input and elevated operating temperatures.
Our pervaporation technology offers an efficient alternative. Using specially developed membranes, it selectively removes water, even at very low concentrations. The result is a reproducible process that achieves the required purity while significantly lowering operating costs.
Verifiable compliance: our certifications
In the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries, traceability, compliance and validation are essential. Our plants are designed and documented to support efficient qualification and validation.
- 3.1 material certificates: These confirm that the metallic materials used meet the specified chemical and mechanical requirements, ensuring full traceability.
- FDA compliance: For non-metallic components in contact with products, we provide the corresponding FDA certificates to support product safety and minimise the risk of contamination.
- ATEX compliance: As we work with organic solvents that may form explosive atmospheres, all relevant components are certified in accordance to the European ATEX directive (Explosive Atmospheres), ensuring maximum operational safety in hazardous areas.
- CE marking: Every plant is supplied with CE marking, confirming compliance with applicable European directives and regulations.
In addition to material and component certification, we verify system performance through comprehensive testing:
- Factory Acceptance Tests (FAT): Performed at our facilities prior to delivery, the FAT confirms that the plant complies with the agreed technical specifications and performs as designed.
- Site Acceptance Tests (SAT): Following installation, we support commissioning and work closely with your team to verify plant performance under actual operating conditions and demonstrate compliance with the specified process requirements.
Proven in industrial practice
Case 1: Reducing steam consumption in immunosuppressant production
- Challenge: A crystallization process required ethanol with a water content of less than 1,000 ppm, which previously had to be purchased at high cost for every production batch.
- Solution: A pervaporation plant that continuously dehydrates the used ethanol and recycles it back into the process.
- Outcome: The water content was reduced to below 500 ppm, exceeding the purity requirements, while achieving an exceptionally low steam consumption of just 0.06 kg per kg of dry ethanol.
Case 2: Zero discharge solvent recovery for medical device manufacturing
- Challenge: The external regeneration of large quantities of n-propanol resulted in high operating costs, complex logistics and unnecessary energy consumption.
- Solution: A fully integrated solvent recovery plant that combines distillation, vapour permeation, pervaporation and wastewater stripping.
- Outcome: A zero discharge process implemented directly on-site, reducing energy consumption by 50% compared to competitor solutions and cutting CO₂ emissions by approximately 2,000 tons per year.
Case 3: Nearly 100% solvent recovery in contrast media production
- Challenge: A conventional salt precipitation process for dehydrating sec-butanol generated large quantities of waste, high chemical consumption and low solvent recovery.
- Solution: A highly integrated process plant combining evaporation, distillation and vapour permeation, replacing the previous process entirely.
- Outcome: Product recovery of nearly 100% with a solvent that is solids-free, colourless and exceeds requirements with a water content well below 1%.
Frequently asked questions
Why is pervaporation often preferred to conventional distillation in Pharma and Life Sciences?
Pervaporation offers significant advantages whenever very high solvent purity is required. Conventional distillation requires complex configurations and high energy input to separate water from solvents at azeotropic compositions. Similarly, molecular sieves operate efficiently only within limited water concentration ranges and may also introduce impurities into the solvent. Pervaporation, by contrast, removes water selectively through a membrane, requires significantly less energy and delivers the high level of purity required for demanding processes.
Which purity levels does DeltaMem achieve?
We specialise in solvent purification across a wide water concentration range, from approximately 80% down to just a few ppm. The purified solvent must be solids-free, odourless, and colourless. By combining our membrane technologies such as pervaporation and vapour permeation with thermal processes, we also remove complex impurities efficiently, achieving the high purity levels required for demanding pharmaceutical applications.
Are DeltaMem plants designed for GMP applications?
Yes. Our plants are designed to support GMP requirements and are supplied with the documentation needed for qualification. This includes material certificates (3.1), FDA documentation for product-contact non-metallic components, comprehensive Factory Acceptance Tests (FAT) and Site Acceptance Tests (SAT). Together, these documents provide a reliable basis for plant qualification and validation, supporting consistent and reproducible process performance.
Is pervaporation a cost-effective solution?
The investment should be assessed in terms of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Thanks to significantly lower energy consumption and a high recovery rate (up to 100%), our plants often achieve a faster return on investment than conventional alternatives. In addition, lower solvent purchasing costs, minimisation of waste disposal and a smaller carbon footprint contribute to long-term economic and environmental benefits.
How does DeltaMem differ from other plant engineering companies and membrane suppliers?
DeltaMem combines membrane technology expertise with complete process engineering. Unlike companies that focus solely on membrane supply or conventional plant design, we develop fully integrated separation systems tailored to each individual application. Our in-house R&D centre brings together laboratory testing, process engineering and manufacturing, allowing us to validate every solution before industrial implementation. By combining technologies such as distillation, pervaporation and vapour permeation, we develop customised process solutions for separation tasks that cannot be solved efficiently using standard approaches.