Separation of dimethyl carbonate and methanol mixture by pervaporation using HybSi ceramic membrane

Details

Supervisors

Luis Alconero, Patricia

Faculty

Ecole polytechnique de Louvain

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur civil en chimie et science des matériaux

Abstract

In the current context of high biodiesel production, some by-products are created particularly glycerol. Glycerol has a wide range of applications however its market is supersaturated as its production is very high. A solution found is the production of a value added component from glycerol. This value added component is the glycerol carbonate (GC) produced by transesterification reaction of glycerol with dimethyl carbonate (DMC). The reaction includes four components: glycerol, DMC, GC and methanol. As methanol and DMC make up an azeotropic mixture, it is not possible to separate them by distillation. Pervaporation is a solution for this separation as it can break the azeotrope mixture and have other advantages especially energy saving. The pervaporation using polymeric membrane presents disadvantages as the low thermally and chemically resistance. Therefore another kind of membrane is needed. As ceramic membrane resistance is higher, the commercial HybSi ceramic is selected for this thesis experiments. This study aim to analyse the separation of DMC and methanol by pervaporation. The separation performance of HybSi membrane is evaluated at 40-50-60°C with binary mixture of different concentrations. The permeation through the membrane is analysed by the solution-diffusion model. The results showed low permeate flux between 0 and 0.86 [kg/(hm²)]. The separation factor is approximately equal to 1 demonstrating low separation efficiency. Temperature and feed concentration influence the performance results. The major drawback of this membrane is the performance results instability. This work shows that HybSi membrane is not suitable for separation of DMC and methanol by pervaporation.