(487b) Separation of Organic Solvents Using Dual-Layer Hollow Fiber Mixed Matrix Membranes

Membrane-based organic solvent separations hold the potential to reduce the energy and carbon footprint of existing and emerging processing industries. High-performance membranes will accelerate this transition, especially if the membrane fabrication can be done in a scalable manner to match the processing requirements across the full range of industries. This work includes a techno-economic analysis of xylene selective carbon molecular sieve membranes fabricated previously in our group. This analysis demonstrates that these fabricated membranes are competitive with commercial adsorption processes for the purification of xylene isomers on a cost basis. This work expands beyond the techno-economic analysis’s focus on xylene isomers with the successful fabrication of mixed matrix hollow fiber membranes for organic solvent separations. The benefits of mixed matrix membranes have been well documented, and the hollow fiber morphology of these membranes presents a scalable and commercially attractive membrane morphology. The polyimide Matrimid® and the metal organic framework UiO-66 were paired together for this membrane. The final mixed matrix hollow fiber membranes were tested using an organic solvent mixture of toluene and mesitylene, a boost in permeance due to UiO-66 inclusion without a drop-off in rejection. This work demonstrates the successful dual-layer fabrication and post-treatment of mixed matrix hollow fiber membranes for organic solvent reverse osmosis applications.