RAPID

Biofuels produced from fermentation processes have long been processed using decades-old distillation technology. Distilling a minor component of this broth to a high purity requires substantial amounts of energy that can lessen the net-energy and profitability of the fuel produced. This work will demonstrate a new technology concept developed by Mattershift, LLC that uses a carbon nanotube (CNT) membrane to selectively extract the biofuel, in this case ethanol, from a fermentation broth. Due to the unique chemical and structural features of the nanotubes, ethanol selectively permeates through the membrane, leaving water behind. Mattershift has developed the first-ever hollow fiber CNT membrane for this task, and this work will demonstrate its effectiveness at selectively removing ethanol directly from fermentation broths. These membranes are expected to take low concentration ethanol solutions (between 10 and 40%) and selectively extract it to above 80% ethanol in a single pass.