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2016|17 Annual Report Fraunhofer IGB - Use of membranes for processing biobutanol by osmosis

100 99 98 97 96 95 94 93 % n i n o i t n e t e r l o n a t u b 2 CA membranes (from right to left: 50-70-90°C) TFC membranes (from right to left: 30-120-480 seconds) RO-1 RO-2 IGB-CA IGB-TFC 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 water permeation in L / (h m2) 3 grew by 30 percent and the passage of butanol increased by a maximum of 55 percent. Contact Excellent water low, rapid phase separation Subsequently tests were carried out to optimize process parameters. Depending on the low velocity, for example per- meations of 12 L / (h m2) were measured for TFC membranes; in this case the water / butanol ratio was 30. The best com- mercial reverse osmosis membranes exhibited a water lux of 1.8 L / (h m2) with a water / butanol ratio of 22. Using these results, the time to the occurrence of the phase separation were estimated in each particular case. The result was a time of 42 hours for the best commercial membrane. In comparison, a time of four hours was estimated with the best TFC membrane. No phase separation was observed in experi- ments with the commercial membranes over a period of up to ive days. However, with the best TFC membranes a clear phase separation was apparent after six hours. Christopher Hänel Phone +49 711 970-4125 christopher.haenel@igb.fraunhofer.de Dr. rer. nat. Thomas Schiestel Phone +49 711 970-4164 thomas.schiestel@igb.fraunhofer.de Literatur [1] Qureshi, N. et al. (2000) Renewable Energy 22: 557 – 564 [2] Zhang, X. et al. (2013) Chemical Engineering Journal 232: 397 – 404 Outlook [3] Kunst, B. et al. (1970). Journal of Applied Polymer Science In summary, it can be stated that it is technically possible with 14(10): 2559 – 2568 forward osmosis to concentrate butanol solutions to such an extent that a phase separation occurs. The production of membranes will now be transferred to a larger scale (Fig. 3). The feasibility of the overall process is then to be demon- strated on a pilot plant scale. 1 TFC membrane under the electron microscope. 2 Forward osmosis tests in a stirred cell. 3 Flat membrane coating plant. [4] Touati, K. et al. (2015) Desalination 365: 182 – 195 [5] Jin, H. et al. (2015) RSC Adv. 5: 79774 – 79782 Funding We would like to thank the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) for funding the project “Innovative Process Combination for the Downstream Processing of Biobutanol”, promotional reference 22032014. Project partner Institute of Environmental Process Engineering, University of Bremen 1 0 1

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