Bioethanol Production by Pervaporation Membrane Bioreactor

Abstract

In recent years, biomass based fuels become an important source of energy. Environmental and economical politics of the governments enlarge the production capacity of bioethanol. Therefore, researchers have focused on the design of the cost effective and environmental friendly processes. Pervaporation is well known process to purify the ethanol from fermentation broth and it is commercially used. Pervaporation membrane bioreactor is a promising novel method which combines separation and fermentation step.

In this study bioethanol production from molasses has been studied in PVMBR. Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been used as microorganism. Poly(dimethyl siloxane)(PDMS)/Ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) blended membrane has been prepared and used as selective membrane. The ethanol productivity of Pervaporation membrane bioreactor (PVMBR) and batch fermenter has been compared and the effect of pervaporation system on productivity has been evaluated. PDMS is mostly used to separate organic compound from water. Both EPDM and PDMS have a flexible rubbery chain structure hence ethanol molecules can diffuse through the membrane easily.