The investigation of ethanol separation by the membrane distillation process

Separation of ethanol from solutions with different concentrations in a BIOTRON bioreactor integrated with the direct contact membrane distillation system has been investigated. The experiments were carried out using immersed, capillary polypropylene membranes. The permeability of the membrane at the feed inlet temperatures of 308, 318 and 333K was determined. The permeate and ethanol flux was strongly affected by the vapour pressure which increased with the feed temperature and it was also associated with ethanol concentration in the feed. It was found that the membrane distillation can be successfully applied for the separation of volatile components such as ethanol.