Membrane Pervaporation

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the potential markets for and industrial needs of membrane pervaporation in biofuel separation. The fundamentals of the pervaporation process and performance evaluation are elucidated. The engineering principles for pervaporation membranes for different applications-dehydration or recovery, are discussed in detail, including material selection and morphology design. To understand the roles of pervaporation units in an integrated biorefinery process, different designs of hybrid processes involving pervaporation are compared and elaborated. In the industry, the pervaporation-distillation hybrid process is still the most popular configuration for biofuel separation. However, future works should focus on the science and hybrid engineering so that one can wisely select the best hybrid system for specific fermentation types, production scales, product purity requirements, and available investment. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.