Challenges in Down-Streaming from Chemical and Biotechnological Processes

In the processing of chemical and biotechnological products, two groups of separation processes in particular are industrially established: thermal and mechanical. In order to optimize investment and operating costs, different separation processes are combined where possible by interconnecting separate separation operations in terms of equipment. Methanol is presented as an example of the processing of a basic chemical. Its production from synthesis gas leads to a proportion of by-products of up to 5%. Biotechnological processes are more demanding in this respect, because the products usually occur in dilute aqueous solution, contain by-products as well as complex media components and also require cell disruption in some cases.