MET stirred cell gets tougher skin

Membrane Extraction Technology has launched a new version of its METcell - a chemically-resistant high pressure stirred cell used in development laboratories in the pharmaceutical and chemical industry - that can cope with more corrosive compounds.

The product is a benchtop cell, suitable for a wide variety of membrane applications, including micro- to nano- filtrations and reverse osmosis. It has found a particular niche in the process sector, where it is used to develop and test new processes or speed up existing ones.

The new version - in Hastelloy - extends the range of reactions that can be carried out in the product to include those involving reactive compounds such as halides and weak acids without any risk of corrosion, according to the company. The unit is also available in stainless steel.

Chemical applications for the METCell product purification and concentration, size separations, chemical fractionation, catalyst recovery and reuse, valuable metal separation, solvent exchange, aqueous and non-aqueous separation, reverse osmosis, and filtrations in the nano to micro scales.

Meanwhile, in biological laboratories, it can also be used for applications such as protein concentration, cell harvesting and enzyme purification, accoridng to the company.

The product is unique in offering a separate connection port for an HPLC pump, allowing charging of solutions into the METcell without opening the cell, which is particularly useful when solutes are oxygen/moisture sensitive.This means it can also be used in continuous reactions.

MET claims that it is four times faster to operate than rival equipment.