Separation and purification of isobutanol from dilute aqueous solutions by a hybrid hydrophobic/hydrophilic pervaporation process

• A hybrid pervaporation process was used for concentration and purification of isobutanol.
• Effect of main operating parameters on the performance of pervaporation was studied.
• Resistance in series model was used to calculate transport resistances through membrane.
• High pure isobutanol was produced by proposed hybrid process from diluted solutions.

In this study, a hybrid hydrophobic/hydrophilic pervaporation process was employed to separate and purify isobutanol from its dilute aqueous solutions. For this purpose, composite polydimethylsiloxane membranes were initially used for the recovery of isobutanol by hydrophobic pervaporation. Then the hydrophilic pervaporation with a composite polyvinyl alcohol membrane was utilized to separate water from the organic phase of the permeate stream of the hydrophobic pervaporation. The effect of feed flow rate on the performance of pervaporation was investigated. The resistance in series model was also applied to calculate the transport resistances through the composite membranes. It was observed that an enhancement in the feed flow rate led to higher permeation flux and selectivity of the more permeable component, while the flux of the less permeable component was almost constant. Also, the ratio of liquid boundary layer resistance to membrane layer resistance decreased by an increase in the feed flow rate. The isobutanol with a purity of higher than 99 wt.% was produced by the hybrid hydrophobic/hydrophilic pervaporation technique from a 2 wt.% aqueous isobutanol solution.