High Flux Thin Film Composite PIM-1 Membranes for Butanol Recovery: Experimental Study and Process Simulation

Jorge Contreras-Martinez, Sajjad Mohsenpour, Ahmed Ameen, Peter Budd, Carmen García-Payo, Mohamed Khayet, Patricia Gorgojo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Thin film composite (TFC) membranes of the prototypical polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM-1) have been prepared by dip coating on a highly porous electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofibrous support. Prior to coating, the support was impregnated in a non-solvent to avoid the penetration of PIM-1 inside the PVDF network. Different non-solvents were considered and the results were compared with those of the dry support. When applied for the separation of n-butanol/water mixtures by pervaporation (PV), the developed membranes exhibited very high permeate fluxes, in the range of 16.1-35.4 kg m-2 h-1, with an acceptable n-butanol/water separation factor of about 8. The PV separation index (PSI) of the prepared membranes is around 115, which is among the highest PSI values that have been reported so far. Hybrid PV-distillation systems have been designed and modelled in Aspen HYSYS using Aspen Custom Modeler for setting up the PIM-1 TFC and commercial PDMS membranes as a benchmark. The butanol recovery cost for the hybrid systems is compared with a conventional standalone distillation process used for n-butanol/water separation and a 10% reduction in recovery cost was obtained.
Original languageEnglish
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 19 Aug 2021

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