Integrated Distillation-Membrane Process for Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE) Recovery From Surrogate and Actual Fermentation Broth: Separation Energy Efficiency and Fate of Secondary Fermentation Products

摘要

A hybrid process integrating vapor stripping with vapor compression and vapor permeation membrane separation, termed Membrane Assisted Vapor Stripping (MAVS), was evaluated for recovery and dehydration of 1-butanol and mixtures of acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) from aqueous solution as an alternative to conventional energy-intensive distillation-based processes. The solvent removal and drying performance of the MAVS system with binary butanol-water mixtures and ABE-water mixtures was benchmarked and compared to performance with an actual bacterial ABE fermentation broth. The fate of secondary fermentation products in the system was assessed.