Stability of Filled PDMS Pervaporation Membranes in Bio-Ethanol Recovery from a Real Fermentation Broth

Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) have shown great potential in pervaporation (PV). As for many novel membrane materials however, lab-scale testing often involves synthetic feed solutions composed of mixed pure components, overlooking the possibly complex interactions and effects caused by the numerous...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Membranes (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 11; p. 863
Main Authors: Van Goethem, Cédric, Naik, Parimal V., Van de Velde, Miet, Van Durme, Jim, Verplaetse, Alex, Vankelecom, Ivo F. J.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.11.2023
Subjects:
Acids
Alcohol
Alcohol, Denatured
Autopsies
Autopsy
bio-ethanol
Biofuels
Chemical properties
Dimethylpolysiloxane
Ethanol
Evaluation
Feeds
Fermentation
Glycerol
Hydrolysates
Membrane permeability
Membranes
metal–organic framework
Methods
MMM
Nanoparticles
PDMS
Pervaporation
Polymers
Silica
Silicalite
stability
Synthetic feeds
Belgium
ISSN:2077-0375, 2077-0375
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) have shown great potential in pervaporation (PV). As for many novel membrane materials however, lab-scale testing often involves synthetic feed solutions composed of mixed pure components, overlooking the possibly complex interactions and effects caused by the numerous other components in a real PV feed. This work studies the performance of MMMs with two different types of fillers, a core-shell material consisting of ZIF-8 coated on mesoporous silica and a hollow sphere of silicalite-1, in the PV of a real fermented wheat/hay straw hydrolysate broth for the production of bio-ethanol. All membranes, including a reference unfilled PDMS, show a declining permeability over time. Interestingly, the unfilled PDMS membrane maintains a stable separation factor, whereas the filled PDMS membranes rapidly lose selectivity to levels below that of the reference PDMS membrane. A membrane autopsy using XRD and SEM-EDX revealed an almost complete degradation of the crystalline ZIF-8 in the MMMs. Reference experiments with ZIF-8 nanoparticles in the fermentation broth demonstrated the influence of the broth on the ZIF-8 particles. However, the observed effects from the membrane autopsy could not exactly be replicated, likely due to distinct differences in conditions between the in-situ pervaporation process and the ex-situ reference experiments. These findings raise significant questions regarding the potential applicability of MOF-filled MMMs in real-feed pervaporation processes and, potentially, in harsh condition membrane separations in general. This study clearly confirms the importance of testing membranes in realistic conditions.
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ISSN:2077-0375
2077-0375
DOI:10.3390/membranes13110863