Modeling and simulation of butanol separation from aqueous solutions using pervaporation

A study was conducted to separate butanol from an aqueous solution using pervaporation. A specially designed and manufactured cell was used to separate the butanol from butanol/water solutions of different butanol concentrations (6-8-11-16-20-50) g/l. A 250 cm3 butanol mixture at 33 °C was used to feed the cell, while the pressure of permeation side was about ∼0 bar. Results revealed that butanol concentration changes non-linearly during the first 3 h, and then proceeds linearly. The percentage of butanol removal increases with increasing feed concentration. The permeability of the used membrane was determined experimentally. A resistance in series model was used to simulate the pervaporation step. The butanol concentration in the feed during the pervaporation step was predicted by using the developed model. There is a fair agreement between butanol concentration in feeding tank of pervaporation cell both experimentally and predicted from the developed model.