Enhanced Ethanol Dehydration with Hydrostable Inorganic Pervaporation Membranes

Membranes which allow water diffusion in favour of other substances can offer increased efficiency in processes to dehydrate ethanol. Silica membranes can perform this selective diffusion, but have mostly been reported for their gas high gas separating ability. This work investigates the effectiveness of carbonised template molecular sieve (CTMSS) membrane to dehydrate ethanol/water mixtures. The silica derived top layer of the membrane was measured at 20nm thickness by XPS sputtering technique. However, the silica enters the porous structure of -alumina layer in excess of 90nm. After 200 minutes of operation, H2O/EtOH selectivity increased to 5.6 from around 1 due to gradual pore filling by adsorbed water and ethanol which contributed to inhibiting ethanol transport. The smaller water molecules were thus favoured in transporting to the permeate side. Total mass flux using a 10% ethanol feed remained constant at around 1.5 kg.m-2.hr-1. Selectivity of up to 9.5 was achieved when azeotropic feed solutions of 95% were used, displaying the potential for this technology for a wide range of ethanol dehydration applications. Pressurising the feed up to 400 kPa doubled the permeate flux, but enhanced the transport of ethanol over water