“Membranes are materials that act as selective barriers allowing the passage of certain constituents and retaining others. These are mainly termed as filtration elements, which are widely used for commercial and industrial purposes. Certain properties of membranes, such as durability, porosity, permeability, stability, and selectivity, make them indispensable element in various industrial applications. Membranes are widely used in the water & wastewater treatment, industrial, laboratory, medical, food & beverage, and research applications to purify, concentrate, sterilize, or separate samples.
Membranes are commonly used in the purification and treatment of drinking & waste water. The demand for membranes is high due to the wide spectrum of their application areas. Membrane technology helps meet the critical separation challenges in the industrial applications, favors reduction of waste, and helps increase general recycling. The increasing environmental concern is also an important factor that influences market growth.
The global market for membranes was dominated by Asia-Pacific, accounting for 37.21% of the total market share in 2014. The market for the Asia-Pacific region is projected to growth at the highest CAGR between 2015 and 2020. This growth has been attributed primarily to the fast growing water, industrial gas treatment, pharmaceutical, and food & beverage industries. Country wise, China was observed to be the largest consumer of membranes globally, and is also projected to grow at the second-highest CAGR in Asia-Pacific between 2015 and 2020. India and China have enormous potential and are projected to be the fastest-growing markets for membranes globally. North America accounted for the second-largest share of 27.08% in 2014. However, the market for North America is fairly mature, and hence, the market in this region is projected to grow at a moderate CAGR of 7.17% between 2015 and 2020. The U.S. accounted for the largest market share of 87.04% in North America in 2014, in terms of value. However, Canada is expected to drive the growth of the market for membranes in North America as it is a relatively less explored market and the rapidly growing pharmaceutical, food & beverage, construction industries, and industrial gas processing application are directly driving the demand for membranes in the country.
The European countries are leading in research and development of high performance membranes products to be used in various applications. The European market for membranes is the most mature market globally and it is projected to witness a CAGR of 6.25% between 2015 and 2020. Germany and France were observed to be the largest market share holders, together accounting for 36.41% of the total European membranes market in 2014. Russia is a relatively less explored market in Europe, and hence, is projected to drive the growth of the membranes market in the region.
The microfiltration, reverse osmosis, and ultrafiltration technologies together accounted for the majority market share of 78.36% in 2014 in the membranes market. Nanofiltration technology is projected to grow at the fastest CAGR between 2015 and 2020 and this growth is attributed to the rapidly growing application areas for nanofiltration and the superior level of performance as compared to certain other technologies. The market for microfiltration garnered a market size by value of USD 5,939.0 million in 2014 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 8.06% from 2015 to reach a market size of USD 9,477.2 million by 2020.
The key players in this industry have also been profiled along with their recent developments and other strategic activities. The leading players include: The Dow Chemical Company (U.S.), LG Water Solutions (U.S.), Merck Millipore (Germany), Solvay (Belgium), Toray Industries (Japan), Asahi Kasei Corporation (Japan), Hyflux Ltd. (Singapore), GE Water & Process Technologies (U.S.), and Polypore International (U.S.).
