Pervaporation Polymer Membrane Design for Continuous Removal of Alcohol

Project Description

Independence from imported fossil fuels is imperative to ensure energy security. Among the wide range of potential renewable energy sources, biofuels are a promising, sustainable alternative to liquid fossil fuels. However, the separation of alcohols from bio-fermentation broths is difficult because many microorganisms are harmed by temperatures > 40 °C, limiting the applicability of distillation-based methods for continuous alcohol separation. Alcohol concentrations above 6% in the fermentation broth also inhibit microorganisms from biofuel production. A prominent challenge limiting the large-scale production of liquid biofuels is an effective recovery of the biofuels (e.g., ethanol) from mostly aqueous fermentation broths. Most pervaporation membranes show low selectivity for alcohol. The team will be using the high-throughput synthesis and characterization capabilities at BioPACIFIC MIP to efficiently screen the polymer membrane materials based on bio-derived monomer building blocks for alcohol and water separation.

Instruments