Pervaporation as a Potential Method for Fuel Ethanol Production in Vietnam

Renewable biomass energy has potential as the alternative energy source to fossil fuels. A typical biomass fermentation process produces 3 – 8wt % ethanol and requires further purification up to more than 99.5wt % as pure ethanol or gasohol. Conventional ethanol fermentation systems usually make use of batch operation and the concentration of ethanol is very low, because fermentation is inhibited by the ethanol that produced. It leads to high cost directly in the production of biomass ethanol. Pervaporation can be utilized for recovery of ethanol from fermentation broths, thus suggesting a continuous fermentation process for fuel ethanol production. In this study, an investigation on the pervaporation separation of ethanol/water mixtures utilizing polydimethylsiloxane/PDMS membrane has been carried out. The results show that polydimethylsiloxane/PDMS membranes can break up the azeotrope of the ethanol/water mixture by pervaporation. A 99,95wt % ethanol has been obtained. Diversified experimental results of the study have supplied excellent bases for choosing an appropriate model for designing of a pervaporation system in a milling ethanol plant. In addition, a hybrid process for production fuel ethanol in terms of pervaporation and distillation suitable for Vietnamese industry has been propose