(449be) Surface-Enhanced Membrane Separations for Biofuel Processing

In thermochemical or biochemical pathways for biomass/bio-oil conversion to biofuels or chemical products, separations play a significant role to improve efficiency or yield in various processing steps, each of which represent a unique challenge on its own separation requirements. Membrane separations are being explored to understand their technology and economic impacts in several processing applications: for example, improving carbon recovery and energy efficiency, preserving catalysts (higher reaction yields and longer lifetimes), enhancing the purification of desirable intermediates or products, and enabling reactive separations and biomass/bio-oil fractionation. This presentation will focus on a new class of surface-functionalized porous membranes that could fully take advantage of extreme surface material properties (e.g., superhydrophilicity or superhydrophobicity) to enhance selective separation mechanisms. Membranes with tailored pore structure and surface coating nanomaterials have demonstrated initial success in high-flux selective permeations for both liquid- and vapor-phase processing applications. Two case studies are on achieving molecular separations of oxygenates/water/hydrocarbon mixtures (vapor or liquid) and microemulsion separations relevant to thermochemical conversion pathways. The underlying separation mechanisms and material/process challenges corresponding to different cases will be discussed.