The Brazilian company PAM, awarded Sep. 19 as the best firm “incubated” by the National Association of Promoting Entities of Innovative Enterprise, is the first producer of microfiltering membranes in Latin America. Its products are used to treat industrial runoff that is contaminated with petroleum, dyes and other residues, allowing re-use of the water and recovery of raw materials, and are also used for treating sewage, PAM director Ronaldo Nobrega told Tierramérica.

The company began operations in 2005, in the postgraduate engineering incubator of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Next year it will begin producing “ultra-filtration” membranes, capable of trapping enzymes and proteins.

PAM has already launched a project for developing pervaporation membranes, which will boost productivity of ethanol from sugarcane, Nobrega added.