Variable and self-regulating permeate recycling in organophilic nanofiltration

The invention provides an improvement in terms of control and process technology for a method of continuous removal of a component from a liquid mixture using a membrane unit comprising at least one membrane stage. The improvement is that a portion of the overall permeate stream is recycled to the feed vessel and/or beyond the feed vessel but upstream of the conveying device, and the remainder of the overall permeate stream is removed, with the recycled permeate having a higher concentration of the component to be separated off than the removed permeate. The presently disclosed method can especially be used for separation of a homogeneously dissolved catalyst from a liquid reaction mixture.