High-Flux Thin Film Composite PIM-1 Membranes for Butanol Recovery: Experimental Study and Process Simulations

Abstract

Thin film composite (TFC) membranes of the prototypical polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM-1) have been prepared by dip-coating on a highly porous electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofibrous support. Prior to coating, the support was impregnated in a non-solvent to avoid the penetration of PIM-1 inside the PVDF network. Different non-solvents were considered and the results were compared with those of the dry support. When applied for the separation of n-butanol/water mixtures by pervaporation (PV), the developed membranes exhibited very high permeate fluxes, in the range of 16.1–35.4 kg m–2 h–1, with an acceptable n-butanol/water separation factor of about 8. The PV separation index (PSI) of the prepared membranes is around 115, which is among the highest PSI values that have been reported so far. Hybrid PV-distillation systems have been designed and modeled in Aspen HYSYS using Aspen Custom Modeler for setting up the PIM-1 TFC and commercial PDMS membranes as a benchmark. The butanol recovery cost for the hybrid systems is compared with a conventional stand-alone distillation process used for n-butanol/water separation, and a 10% reduction in recovery cost was obtained.

Functionalized MOF-Derived Nanoporous Carbon as Compatible Nanofiller to Fabricate Defect-Free PDMS-Based Mixed Matrix Pervaporation Membranes

“… 1 , 2 To obtain an organophilic PV membrane for recovering butanol with a low concentration, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is the currently used material because of its high hydrophobicity, excellent chemical stability, and good thermal properties. 3 − 7 However, the separation performance of the PDMS membrane is limited by the mutual restriction between permeability and selectivity, 8 − 10 restricting the further application of the PDMS membrane. Recently, doping hydrophobic nanoparticles such as metal organic frameworks (MOFs) into the PDMS matrix to prepare mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) turns out to be an effective way to break through the bottleneck.…”

“…Pervaporation (PV), as a promising membrane separation technology, has been successfully applied in recovering dilute biobutanol from fermentation broth due to the unique advantages of simple process, low energy consumption without secondary pollution, and restriction of vapor–liquid equilibrium. , To obtain an organophilic PV membrane for recovering butanol with a low concentration, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is the currently used material because of its high hydrophobicity, excellent chemical stability, and good thermal properties. − However, the separation performance of the PDMS membrane is limited by the mutual restriction between permeability and selectivity, − restricting the further application of the PDMS membrane. Recently, doping hydrophobic nanoparticles such as metal organic frameworks (MOFs) into the PDMS matrix to prepare mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) turns out to be an effective way to break through the bottleneck. − MOFs, as a new type of crystalline material, are excellent fillers with high specific surface area and designable structure and pore size for preparing MMMs. − Although these membranes combine the advantages of PDMS and MOFs and improve the pervaporation performance to some extent, the acid byproducts in practical fermentation broth may destroy the structure of MOFs, , affecting the long-term stability and limiting the application of MOF-based MMMs in recovering butanol.…”

“…7, which was 20.7% and 53.3% higher than that of the pure PDMS membrane, respectively; and as the feed n-butanol temperature increased,Authors Xu Zhang − Center for Membrane and Water Science & Technology, Institute of Oceanic and Environmental Chemical Engineering, State Key Lab Breeding Base of Green Chemical Synthesis Technology, Zhejiang University of Technology, 310014 Hangzhou, China Congjie Gao − Center for Membrane and Water Science & Technology, Institute of Oceanic and Environmental Chemical Engineering, State Key Lab Breeding Base of Green…”

Biodegradable Polymeric Membranes for Organic Solvent/Water Pervaporation Applications

“…Its driving force is the chemical potential difference between membrane upstream and downstream. Membrane pervaporation can provide profitable benefits: simple process design, straightforward operation, easy maintenance, compact space, low energy consumption, high product quality, and low pollution [4][5][6][7], leading to widespread applications, such as solvent dehydration, azeotropic solvent purification, removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from aqueous streams, separation of liquid hydrocarbons, dehydration to intensify esterification reaction, and so on [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”

“…Most popular pervaporation membranes are polymeric such as PVA (polyvinyl alcohol), PAN (polyacrylonitrile), PI (polyimide), CS (chitosan), sodium alginate, PDMS (polydimethyl-siloxane), PTFPMS (poly((3,3,3-trifluoropropyl) methylsiloxane)), PTMSP (poly(1-(trimethylsilyl)-1propyne)), PEBA (poly(ether block amide)), prototypical polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM-1), etc. [3,7,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Inorganic membranes, such as graphene, zeolite, metal organic frameworks (MOFs), and ceramic materials (e.g., titania, alumina, zirconia, silicalite, etc.)…”