Natural odorant molecules have a high added value and are very widely employed in the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics or perfume industries. Their separation, traditionally ensured by distillation or liquid-liquid extraction, remains a difficult and costly operation. New technologies are now being developed. One of these is membrane contactors developed by a french cleantech company named Ederna which, because of their compactness, flexibility, selectivity and low energy and solvent consumption, have undeniable advantages.
Membrane contactors are porous membranes whose only role is to stabilise an interface between two or more fluids.