ABSTRACT
Membrane filtration is an integral part of many industrial processes because it is often more environmentally sustainable and cost-effective than other separation techniques. The membrane processes play an important role in the separation/purification of biotechnological products. It is a fast, robust, and high-throughput technique that can handle large sample volumes. Membrane processes are increasingly being implemented for various applications in both upstream and downstream technologies such as microfiltration, ultrafiltration, membrane chromatography, high-performance tangential flow filtration, and emerging processes such as electrophoretic membrane contactors. Continuous upstream processing, commonly called perfusion, has been implemented and investigated in the biotech industry. Membrane processes are one of the most important unit operations in biopharmaceutical processing. In USP, microfiltration membranes filtrate media, buffer, and gases; in DSP, they can be used as an initial harvest operation for the removal of biomass.
