Performance evaluation of silica membrane for water–n-butanol binary mixture

• Pervaporation performance of silica membrane for butanol dehydration was studied.
• Pervatech silica membrane has high flux and high water selectivity.
• n-Butanol permeation flux is influenced by its driving force and by water drag force.
• Permeance depends on temperature and feed composition.

The pervaporation performance of a commercial silica membrane (Pervatech BV) was evaluated for dehydration of aqueous n-butanol solutions. The influence of the operation parameters, such as feed composition, temperature and permeate pressure was experimentally investigated in terms of permeation flux, separation factor, permeance and membrane selectivity. The membrane exhibited high flux, 3.53 kg/m2 h, combined with a separation factor equal to 150, at 70 °C and for 10 wt.% water in feed. The mole fraction of water in the permeate ranged from 98.7% to 99.2% at 70 °C. The information collected is of most importance to design and optimize a pervaporation process for the dehydration of n-butanol, which can be integrated with an intensified technology, the simulated moving bed reactor, used in the synthesis of the green fuel, 1,1-dibutoxyethane.

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