High-Flux Thin Film Composite PIM-1 Membranes for Butanol Recovery: Experimental Study and Process Simulations

Thin film composite (TFC) membranes of the prototypical polymer intrinsic microporosity (PIM-1) have been prepared by dip-coating on a highly porous electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofibrous support. Prior to coating, support was impregnated in non-solvent avoid penetration PIM-1 inside PVDF network. Different non-solvents were considered and results compared with those dry When applied for separation n-butanol/water mixtures pervaporation (PV), developed exhibited very high permeate fluxes, range 16.1-35.4 kg m-2 h-1, an acceptable factor about 8. The PV index (PSI) is around 115, which among highest PSI values that reported so far. Hybrid PV-distillation systems designed modeled Aspen HYSYS using Custom Modeler setting up TFC commercial PDMS as benchmark. butanol recovery cost hybrid conventional stand-alone distillation process used separation, 10% reduction obtained.