SME of the Month April - MET Ltd

Main activities of the company 
MET mission is to create commercial advantage for our customers through innovative separation technology. We do this by developing membranes and processes to carry out separations of components of liquids, using our two technology platforms:

• Molecular separations using Organic Solvent Nanofiltration (OSN).
• Selective extraction of organic molecules from aqueous streams via membranes. 

Total number of people employed
5 of whom 0 chemists!

Company start date
August 1995 

History of the Company
MET began operations as a spin out company to develop Extractive Membrane Bioreactor Technology, used for extracting and biodegrading selected compounds present in chemical industry wastewater. Starting in 1995, after 6 years, the first commercial plant was built and put into operation. Meanwhile, a second technology, the Membrane Aromatic Recovery System (MARS) had been invented in 1999, and the first commercial plant was installed in 2002. These developments were financed by a combination of DTI grants, venture capital and customer sales.

In 2002 MET began working in a second technical area, organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN). This is used to effect molecular separations in organic solvents. MET provides membranes, with manufacturing partner Grace Davison Membranes of the US, bench scale equipment, and process development services. Over 80% of MET sales are outside the UK. MET revenues in 2006/07 year will be 50% higher than in the 2005/06 year, and the company will be profitable.

What the future holds
MET has an aggressive growth plan coupled to a development programme that is underway aimed at making the OSN membranes more solvent stable, and also at providing regulatory support information for pharmaceutical customers.