Progresses on membrane crystallizers

The opportunity to couple membrane processes and crystallization operations, in order to develop an efficient crystallization technology, has been proposed in the form of a membrane crystallizer (MCr). One of the main features of the MCr system is that the membrane acts as selective support for the solvent evaporation, but also as a support able to activate heterogeneous nucleation starting at low supersaturation ratios and enhancing the kinetics of crystallization, even for large molecules like proteins. In view of this, the fine control in the crystallization processes for both organic and inorganic materials with the production of crystals with controlled morphologies and structures can be achieved. In perspective, this technique gives also interesting possibilities for enantioselective crystallization by using surface functionalized membranes carrying chiral selectors.