Gas transport and characterization of inorganic ceramic membrane for lactic acid esterification.

Ethyl lactate is an important organic ester, which is biodegradable in nature and widely used as food additive, perfumery, flavor chemicals and solvent. Inorganic porous ceramic membrane has shown a lot of advantages in the equilibrium process of ethyl lactate separation. In this work, the transport characteristic of carrier gas including Nitrogen (N2), Helium (He), Argon (Ar) and Carbondioxide (CO2), with α-Al2O3 inorganic ceramic membrane used for ethyl lactate separation was investigated, at the pressure drop of 0.01-0.09bar and 298K. The carrier gas flow rate was molecular weight dependent in the order: He > Ar > N2 > CO2 with respect to pressure drop. The membrane pore size distribution was analysed using Scanning electron microscope coupled with energy dispersive x-ray analyser (SEM-EDXA). THIS PAPER WON CERTIFICATE OF MERIT(STUDENT) FOR INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CHEMICAL ENGINEERING 2014: MISS EDIDIONG OKO