Breakthroughs on tailoring membrane materials for ethanol recovery by pervaporation

Bioethanol, as a clean and renewable fuel, has gained increasing attention due to its major environmental benefits. Pervaporation(PV) is a promising and competitive technique for the recovery of ethanol from bioethanol fermentation systems due to the advantages of environmental friendliness, low energy consumption and easy coupling with fermentation process. The main challenge for the industrial application of ethanol perm-selective membranes is to break the trade-off effect between permeability and selectivity. As membrane is the heart of the pervaporation separation process, this article attempts to provide a comprehensive survey on the breakthroughs of ethanol perm-selective PV membranes from the perspectives of tailoring membrane materials to enhance PV separation performance. The research and development of polymeric and organic/inorganic hybrid membranes are reviewed to explore the fundamental structure-property-performance relationships. It is found that mixed matrix membranes with welldesigned membrane structures offer the hope of better control overphysi-/chemical microenvironment and cavity/pore size as well as size distribution, which may provide both high permeability and membrane selectivity to break the trade-off effect. The tentative perspective on the possible future directions of ethanol perm-selective membranes is also briefly discussed, which may provide some insights in developing a new generation of high-performance PV membranes for ethanol recovery.

Nanostructured Polyelectrolyte-surfactant Complex Pervaporation Membranes for Ethanol Recovery:the Relationship between the Membrane Structure and Separation Performance

Polyelectrolyte-surfactant complexes（PESCs） were fabricated through the interaction of poly（acrylic acid） and four different cationic surfactants or their mixtures. PESC membranes were prepared by solution casting method and were applied in ethanol recovery from aqueous solution via pervaporation. Elemental analysis（EA）, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy（FTIR）, water contact angle（CA） measurement, differential scanning calorimetry（DSC） and X-ray scattering were employed to characterize the composition, structure and properties of PESCs. The results reveal that the investigated PESCs are similar in hydrophobicity but different in hierarchical nanostructures. In separating 5 wt% ethanol/water mixture, PESC membranes with high crystallinity will have both low flux and ethanol selectivity because of the high packing density and low permeability of crystalline regions. Meanwhile, the hierarchical nanostructures of PESC membranes change under pervaporation environment as was revealed by in situ synchrotron radiation X-ray scattering measurement. That is, the crystalline region could melt at high temperature in swelling state, thus consequently enhancing the ethanol selectivity.

PERVAPORATION OF ETHANOL/WATER MIXTURES WITH HIGH FLUX BY ZEOLITE-FILLED PDMS/PVDF COMPOSITE MEMBRANES

Thin-film zeolite-filled silicone/PVDF composite membranes were fabricated by incorporating zeolite particles into PDMS(poly(dimethylsiloxane)) membranes.The morphology of zeolite particles and zeolite filled silicone composite membranes were characterized by SEM.The zeolite-filled PDMS/PVDF composite membranes were applied for the pervaporation of ethanol/water mixtures and showed higher flux compared with that reported in literatures.The effect of zeolite loading and Si/Al ratio of zeolite particles on pe...