Separation of Organic Compounds from ABE Model Solutions via Pervaporation Using Activated Carbon/PDMS Mixed Matrix Membranes

Hoda Azimi; Arian Ebneyamini; F Handan Tezel; Jules Thibault

doi:10.3390/membranes8030040

Separation of Organic Compounds from ABE Model Solutions via Pervaporation Using Activated Carbon/PDMS Mixed Matrix Membranes

Membranes (Basel). 2018 Jul 10;8(3):40. doi: 10.3390/membranes8030040.

Authors

Hoda Azimi¹, Arian Ebneyamini², F Handan Tezel³, Jules Thibault⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Ottawa, 161 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada. hazim087@uottawa.ca.
² Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Ottawa, 161 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada. aebne013@uottawa.ca.
³ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Ottawa, 161 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada. Handan.Tezel@uottawa.ca.
⁴ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Ottawa, 161 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada. Jules.Thibault@uottawa.ca.

Abstract

The pervaporation separation of organic compounds from acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation model solutions was studied using activated carbon (AC) nanoparticle-poly (dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) mixed matrix membranes (MMM). The effects of the operating conditions and nanoparticle loading content on the membrane performance have been investigated. While the separation factor increased continuously, with an increase in the concentration of nanoparticles, the total flux reached a maximum in the MMM with 8 wt % nanoparticle loading in PDMS. Both the separation factor for ABE and the total permeation flux more than doubled for the MMM in comparison to those of neat PDMS membranes prepared in this study.

Keywords: ABE; PDMS; activated carbon nanoparticle; mixed matrix membrane; pervaporation.