Performance of Commercial and Laboratory Membranes for Recovering Bioethanol from Fermentation Broth by Thermopervaporation

Abstract

A poly[1-(trimethylsilyl)-1-propyne] membrane was studied in a thermopervaporation process for ethanol recovery from fermentation media. Four commercial composite membranes based on polysiloxanes (Pervap 4060, Pervatech PDMS, PolyAn, and MDK-3) were studied for comparison. The dependences of the permeate flux, permeate concentration, separation factor, and pervaporation separation index on the temperature of the feed mixture (5 wt % ethanol in water) were obtained. The maximal values of the ethanol concentration in the permeate (35 wt %) and separation factor (10.2) were obtained for the poly[1-(trimethylsilyl)-1-propyne] membrane, whereas the PolyAn membrane provided the highest permeate flux (5.4 kg m^–2 h^–1). The ethanol/ water separation factor for the systems studied has a maximum at 60°С; this temperature of the feed mixture is optimum for recovering ethanol from aqueous media by thermopervaporation. The existing membranes based on polysiloxanes show low ethanol–water selectivity (less than 1). Poly[1-(trimethylsilyl)-1-propyne] membranes are the most promising for recovering bioethanol from fermentation mixtures by thermopervaporation, because they showed the highest selectivity to ethanol.