Separation of Butanol Using Pervaporation: a Review of Mass Transfer Models
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Avestia Publishing Journal of Fluid Flow, Heat and Mass Transfer (JFFHMT) Volume 6, Year 2019 Journal ISSN: DOI: 10.11159/jffhmt.2019.002 Separation of Butanol Using Pervaporation: A Review of Mass Transfer Models Hoda Azimi, Jules Thibault, F. Handan Tezel Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Ottawa Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6N5 [email protected] Abstract - Pervaporation is a suitable technique for butanol advantages of using biobutanol as a biofuel are its low recovery from aqueous solutions especially ABE fermentation volatility, low hydroscopicity and lower corrosiveness. broths. The performance of the membrane, in terms of The biological production of n-butanol is achieved via permeation flux and modelling of the mass transfer through Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE) fermentation. ABE membranes provides a deeper understanding, which may assist fermentation using Clostridium acetobutylicum yields to orient the research and the development of pervaporation processes. Modelling of the mass transport through the acetone, butanol and ethanol in a typical ratio of 3:6:1, membrane is based on sorption and diffusion of the respectively. However, to make butanol economically components into and across the membrane. In this study, an viable as a biofuel, the bioconversion efficiency and overview of the different models used for the pervaporation product purity via the ABE fermentation process should separation of butanol is presented. Up to now, the solution- be improved to compensate for the currently very low diffusion based models were the main methods used and the product yield, product toxicity to microorganisms and Maxwell-Stefan theory was very limited. In addition, to our multiple end-products [4,7–17]. knowledge, the pore-flow model was not applied for the Many studies have been undertaken in an attempt modelling of butanol pervaporation separation. Moreover, the to increase the efficiency of butanol produced from ABE Maxwell-Stefan theory seems to be the most accurate mass fermentation [2,3,18–23]. One method to improve the transfer model to be used for the pervaporation separation method in comparison to the other models. productivity of the ABE fermentation, the in-situ recovery of the solvents, has attracted considerable Keywords: Pervaporation, Butanol, Mass Transfer, attention. The main separation methods used for Solution-Diffusion, Maxwell-Stefan, Pore-Flow. butanol separation from the ABE fermentation process are vacuum fermentation [24] adsorption [25], gas- © Copyright 2018 Authors - This is an Open Access article stripping [26], liquid-liquid extraction [27], perstraction published under the Creative Commons Attribution [28,29] , reverse osmosis [30] and pervaporation [1]. License terms (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0). Among these methods, pervaporation is a highly Unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium regarded separation technique because of its low are permitted, provided the original work is properly cited. energy consumption, high selectivity and absence of harmful effect on microorganisms [1,31,32]. To mitigate 1. Introduction the higher cost associated with the incorporation of a The depletion of fossil fuels and world concerns pervaporation membrane for the in situ recovery of about climate change have motivated researchers to ABE solvents from fermentation broths, it is necessary find replacement fuels that would be renewable and to resort to highly efficient membranes. near carbon neutral such as biodiesel, bioethanol and The performance of a pervaporation membrane is biobutanol. Many studies have been performed to assessed by the permeation flux and selectivity. To propose ways to make the production of biofuels, and improve membrane performance, a judicious specially biobutanol, economically viable [1–6]. synergistic combination of theory and laboratory work Biobutanol, a four-carbon alcohol, has enviable is necessary. To explain the migration of species across properties in comparison to the other biofuels. Some pervaporation membranes, a few models have been Date Received: 2017-10-26 9 Date Accepted: 2018-04-17 Date Published: 2019-02-11 proposed: solution-diffusion model [33], Maxwell- membrane interactions. Figure 1 shows the simplified Stefan theory [34], and pore-flow model [35,36]. With schematic diagram of a typical pervaporation these models, it is possible to infer the performance of separation experimental system used to test pervaporation membranes, but pervaporation remains pervaporation membranes. a complex process to be modelled. Until now, many reviews have considered the pervaporation fundamentals and membranes; however, Coldtrap there are only few studies published in the literature to review the mathematical models for pervaporation Vacuum Pump Membrane Cells processes [37–45]. In this review paper, a brief Feed Tank summary of the mass transfer models used in Perstaltic Pump pervaporation separation is presented followed by the Permeate discussion on the models applied for butanol recovery Figure 1. Simplified schematic diagram for a typical via this process. The main focus of this manuscript was pervaporation separation setup. the models applied to pervaporation of butanol separation. 1. 2. Pervaporation Membranes Membranes, which have been used for 1. 1. Introduction to Pervaporation pervaporation separation of butanol, are either zeolite Pervaporation is a partial pressure or more membranes such as silicalite zeolite membranes and generally concentration driven process, which is the ultrathin zeolite X films [55–58] or polymeric combination of two mass transfer mechanisms: membranes. Different kinds of polymers have been permeation and evaporation [46–48]. During reported in the literature for butanol separation such as pervaporation, a phase change from liquid to vapour styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) [59], ethylene occurs. A liquid feed solution to be separated is in propylene diene rubber (EPDM) [60], contact with one side of the membrane surface and the polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) [61], polypropylene permeating product leaves at a low vapor pressure (PP) [62], polyurethane (polyether based) (PUR) [63], from the other side that is kept under vacuum [49] or polyether block-amide (PEBA) [64], poly swept with a purge gas [50]. The permeate is then (vinylidinedifluoride) (PVDF) [65], poly (methoxy condensed or released depending on the objective of siloxane) (PMS) [66], poly (dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) the separation [51]. Because of the presence of vacuum [19], poly (1-(trimethylsilyl)-1-propyne) (PTMSP) [67] or the sweeping of an inert purge gas on the permeate and polyamide-imide (PAI) containing cyclodextrin side, a driving force across the membrane prevails. The (CD) [68]. Polymeric membranes are less expensive and required heat of vaporization comes from the liquid more flexible in comparison to zeolite membranes feed such that the temperature of the feed must be set [46,69]. However, a composite membrane incorporating accordingly. In recent years, several studies have been these two materials have also been used by some undertaken to better understand the pervaporation researchers [70–73] to benefit from the outstanding process and use it for numerous separation processes characteristics of each medium to enhance membrane including the separation of water and alcohol mixtures performance. using hydrophobic membranes [41,46,51–54]. Generally, pervaporation applications fall under three 2. Models Used for Mass Transfer in categories: (i) removal of water from organic solvents, Pervaporation (ii) removal of organic compounds from aqueous Description of mass transport through solutions, such as the recovery of the aromatic membranes is essential to enhance the design efficiency components and biofuels from fermentation broths, and and consequently obtaining better separation (iii) separation of anhydrous organic mixtures. In this performance. Up to now, different models have been process, the separation depends on the chemical nature introduced to study the pervaporation separation of the macromolecules that comprise the membrane, process by considering the species behaviour, the physical structure of the membrane, the membrane properties and operating conditions. Similar physicochemical properties of the mixtures to be to the proposed models for membrane-based gas separated, and the permeant-permeant and permeant- separation applications, a resistance-in-series theory 10 can be used to describe the mass transfer of components through membranes in pervaporation Liquid Membrane Vapour separation system. According to this theory, the sorption of species in the liquid feed takes place at the membrane surface and species then diffuse through the µfi membrane prior to desorbing on the other side of the membrane. However, the mass transfer resistance at µPi the permeate side has been reported to be negligible in pf the overall mass transfer due to considerably lower pp pressure in the permeate side [45]. Therefore, desorption step can be modelled in a similar way to the Cfi sorption step such that it will not be discussed CPi individually in this study. Figure 2 provides an overview of the different mass transfer models, which have been used in pervaporation separation processes. l M In addition, Figure 3 shows the chemical potential Upstream interphase Downstream interphase (휇), total pressure (p) and concentration (C) profiles of a migrating species across the membrane thickness in Figure 3. Gradient