Abstract

COTAMO-DE LA ESPRIELLA, Ricardo-Javier; BARON-NUNEZ, Fredy-Wsbaldo  and  MUVDI-NOVA, Carlos-Jesús. OPERATING CONDITIONS INFLUENCE ON VMD AND SGMD FOR ETHANOL RECOVERY FROM AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS. C.T.F Cienc. Tecnol. Futuro [online]. 2015, vol.6, n.2, pp.69-80. ISSN 0122-5383.

This work focuses on Vacuum Membrane Distillation (VMD) and Sweeping Gas Membrane Distillation (SGMD) as a separating technique of ethanol from aqueous solutions. VMD was studied at moderate temperature (30, 40 and 50°C) and pressure (0.11, 0.20 and 0.30 atm) conditions, whereas SGMD was studied at different temperatures (50 and 70°C) and air-flow rates (10x10^-6 and 20x10^-6 m³·min^-1). These techniques were experimentally studied using prepared ethanol-water solutions and fermented broths, with ethanol at 10% w/w. Under these operating conditions and using prepared ethanol-water solutions, an average total flux of 22.61 and 1.6 kg·m^-2·h^-1, and concentration factors of 2.3 and 1.7 were obtained for VMD and SGMD, respectively. For fermented broths, total flux of 17.66 and 0.9 kg·m^-2·h^-1, and concentration factors of 1.8 and 1.9 were obtained for VMD and SGMD, respectively. The fouling impact was also studied, finding a significant effect of pressure (vacuum) for VMD technique; mainly due to the biomass presence in the solution. Experimental results show that applying pressurization/depressurization cycles decreases membrane fouling, stabilizing flux and concentration in the permeate. While for SGMD configuration, the incidence of fouling was significantly lower.

Keywords : Membrane distillation; Separation process; Ethanol; VMD; SGMD.

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