Section Four
PROCESSES-B. MEMBRANE
38    THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGIES
IN POLLUTION CONTROL APPLICATIONS
Peter S. Cartwright, President
Cartwright Consulting Company
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55425
INTRODUCTION
Environmental Protection —the cleanup/elimination of pollutants in air, soil, and water is a topic
of continuous discussion today. It is a gut issue —the subject of untold editorials, articles, debates,
and television specials. In the United States alone, the current level of spending for pollution control is
about $70 billion per year, with almost $50 billion of that spent by industry. The Environmental
Control Agency (EPA) estimates that up to 275 million metric tons of waste per year covered under
the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act are generated in the United States.
As testimony to thoughtlessness and ignorance, 850 hazardous waste sites have been identified in
the United States. Cleanup is expected to take five years and cost $8 billion. The government, reacting
to almost universal public outcry, is taking steps to ensure that we will never again be in this situation.
Specifically, new chemicals are being added to the list of those regulated, discharge regulations are
being tightened, and enforcement is becoming increasingly active on both the national and local
levels. Industry has been put on notice: regardless of the economic consequences, the public will no
longer tolerate pollution.
Economic consequences are severe. In 1980, capital investments in pollution control, as a percentage of gross national product for American industry, was nearly four times that of Japan and France,
and three times greater than West Germany.
Unfortunately, over 99% of pollution control expenditures thus far have been directed towards
treatment/disposal after the waste has been generated, rather than reducing the generation of the
pollutant. The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) has called for a national policy to establish
priorities favoring waste reduction at the source (source reduction).
Source reduction involves reducing the quantity of pollutants which enter the environment. This
can be accomplished through such activities as:
•Process changes
•Product modification
•Raw materials substitution
•Improved housekeeping
•Recycling
Recycling can be divided into two categories: on-site and off-site. On-site recycling involves segregation of the pollutant with subsequent return to the process. Off-site recycling utilizes treatment
which allows the pollutant to be recovered and reused in some process other than that in which it is
produced.
Membrane separation technologies are applicable in both recycling categories and they will be
compared with other liquid treatment technologies in this chapter.
44th Purdue Industrial Waste Conference Proceedings, © 1990 Lewis Publishers, Inc., Chelsea, Michigan 48118.
Printed in U.S.A.
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